2012 Moth Nationals in Hawaii

9 Moths gathered in Oahu, Hawaii for the 2012 Nationals. Seeing this will be the place for the 2013 Worlds, we decided to get a jump start on preparation. Doesn't take much convincing to sail moths in Hawaii either though!
Conditions were quite nice with temps in the 80's and winds in the 15-20 range. Hosted by Kaneohe Yacht Club, racing was held in Kaneohe Bay which provided us with lots of super flat water that was about 80 degrees. KYC does a great job with the races and its only about a one minute sail out to the course. At the end of the day, we did debriefs in the pool with pitchers of Mia Tia's.

Day 1.

Wind was in the 17-20 range. We started off with a few one lap races to get everyone warmed up. Beats were about 1 mile so races only took about 8 mins. Dalton suffered a broken vang strop but showed back up only missing 3 races. A few double lap races were done at the end with Anthony Kotoun, Eric Aakhus and Dalton usually tussling at the top with Matt Knowles finding some blinding speed downwind to overtake a few on the run to the finish. Charlie McKee tried the usually risky but sometimes heroic right side to catch a few of the top guys by surprise.
The "Blessing in Disguise" moment of the day came while derigging with Zach Maxam's boat going skipping down the ramp by itself in a big gust. His front horizontal foil jammed itself in a crack on the ramp and the boat then twisted around it, taking off about 4cm of foil tip. So he no other choice to chop the other side and try it out! 4cm is about what Josh McKnight took off his foil so Zach wasn't that worried. Sure enough on day 2, Zach was going lots faster.

Day 2

Wind dropped ever so slightly to 14-17 and we did a few morning races and then set up a slalom course for some high speed downwind action. For the morning races Charlie again worked his tactical magic to put up a bunch of 2nd's. Beats were quite tactical with 4-6 tacks and quite a few gybes down the run. Anthony kept plugging away but got caught a few times on the wrong side of the beat on the one lap races which were hard to fight back in.
For the slalom, the nine skippers were divided into three groups and we sailed against each group twice to establish a top 4. We then held a repechage to get the finals group up to five. Ian Andrews from Seattle won the repechage. Anthony won each of the preliminary races but fell to Dalton who lead from start to finish in the final to take the $50 and a bottle of rum.

Day 3

We did 5 races with most being double lap races with a long weather mark to get used to what we might be up against for the worlds. Winds came back on strong with boatspeeds in the 16kt area upwind and 24-27 downwind. Those speeds in 3-6 waves made for some great fun. Anthony finished strong with a 2nd and 4 1st's to take the regatta.
Equipment wise Anthony had a medium Mach2 mast, MSL 16, curved rudder and a chopped front foil that was loaned by Matt Knowles after Anthony went bay cruising during practice and landed on a sand bar breaking his normal foil in half. Whoops!

On a side note, Bora, Bear and Eric's boats got stuck in USA customs on their arrival back from Italy. Adam Lowery kindly lent his boat to Eric but Bora and Bear were left sadly on the mainland.

Results:
Name
Anthony Kotoun 19 Mach2/KA MSL 16
Eric Aakhus 38 Mach2/KA MSL 10/13 (His 16 was in the stuck container)
Dalton Bergan 48 Mach2/Raptor
Matt Knowles 50 Mach2/KA MSL 10D
Charlie Mckee 57 Mach2/Raptor
Zack Maxam 62 Mach2/North
Ian Andrews 93 Mach2/Raptor
Simon Propper 112 Mach2/KA MSL 10
Alain Huggler 136 BR'er/Raptor

Moth Multitasking

New Mach 2 owner, Michael Dominguez, has been climbing up the foiling curve and enjoying the benefits of being able to do 15-20kts on a whim.
Michael sails out of his home in Barrington, RI and got caught out sailing late when he was supposed to be prepping the grill. In order to avoid the doghouse, he decided to bring home a fresh catch.
Michael explains, "The photo shows part of the aftermath of striking a school of fish while going downwind on a Moth. Not a very conventional fishing method but effective!"

Foiler Movie

Photos from Detroit Exhibition Racing

30 Kt Club

Rising star and recent winner of the regatta in San Fran, Eric Aakhus was in Detroit last weekend and took on the big breeze. He went out in 15kts and the wind just kept building. On a downwind run right in front of the club, a blackie gust got him and he joined the 30 kt club. This was done going against 1.5-2kts of current so he actual speed through the water was a bit more.
He was also using a MSL 16...

Reason Abu Dhabi is finally going well

The leading reason for Abu Dhabi's finally being competitive...Well, during the Miami stop over, their watch captain, Rob Greenhalgh took delivery of a new Mach 2. Rob finished the leg from Brazil to Miami at about 6am, chowed a steak and showed up to go moth sailing at 11am the next morning. Yup folks, that is how fun they are to sail.
Not only does moth sailing make you feel good, it makes you a much better sailor as well. What other boat consistently does 20+ knots like the Volvo boats do?

Photos from San Fran Moths on the City Front.

Elvstrom Zellerbach Regatta

Elvstrom Zellerbach Regatta – May 4-6 2012 The West Coast Moth Fleet competed in the first ever Moth regatta on San Francisco Bay this past weekend. The Elvstrom Zellerbach Regatta, held every spring by St. Francis Yacht Club, saw 99 entries with a strong showing from the 505s, Finns, Lasers, Formula Sailboards and this year welcomed Kiteboards and Moths for the first time. Many were skeptical as to whether the conditions would be too extreme for Moth sailing, however a favorable tidal pattern and average of 15-20 knots made for perfect conditions. The event commenced Friday evening at 6:30 pm with 5 slalom races fired off right in front of the St. Francis bar where crowds of spectators pressed nose-to-glass watched the thrills and spills. After several months of keel boat sailing Charlie McKee jumped straight into his Moth Friday night without any practice and put on a clinic for all the young guys as he took Slalom victory. Fleet racing began Saturday morning as instructions from Race Committee gave starting priority to the Moth Fleet to fire off 4 races before the ebb tide became too strong. Morning conditions were fairly calm with 12-14 knots and smooth water as wind speed and surface chop increased throughout the day. By the fourth race it was blowing 20 knots with a building ebb which was enough to make the final race of the day very exciting. Sunday racing was postponed onshore for several hours to allow the breeze to build. At 1 o’clock sharp the breeze clicked on to a perfect 15knots and a smooth flood tide all afternoon. The final four races were completed with enough time for the fleet to hit the dock and pack their boats into boxes before the other fleets made it ashore. Eric Aakhus won the regatta while taking 7 of the 8 races, although several races came down to a photo finish with heavy air specialist Adam Lowry who took second place in the regatta. A big thanks to Robbie Dean and the rest of the StFYC crew who put together an amazing regatta. See you in the fall!

Spring is in the air...

Things have been very busy on the East Coast for Mach 2 lately. Word must have gotten around how much fun the boats are after our three regatta winter series and a little training/demo session in Charleston, SC. So much so, that we have sold three new boats in the last month to new owners and Eric Aakhus and Brad Funk have also bought new boats. The new owners are Mark Volkmann and Ned Goss from Charleston and Michael Dominguez from Barrington, RI. Mark Volkmann was walking around Charleston's waterfront and saw Bora and Eric out sailing. He then went online, found his way to me and came over to College of Charleston to check out the boats. Ned, who is the dock master at CoC went out on my boat for a demo and got up the first time he sheeted in! And for all of you who think you are too big, Ned weighs 210lbs. Michael is a Melges 32 owner and has been stalking the class for a while now. Eric Aakhus sails with him on the 32 and I guess put the hard sell on him. Also we would like to welcome Jon Ewing and his son Scott from Coconut Groove to the Mach 2 group. This father son combo bought Brad Funk's Spiderman "Super Funk" boat. Eric sold his old boat to Mike Johnson from Chicago who will be glad to make the jump from Bladerider to Mach 2. Also switching from Bladerider to Mach 2 is Harcourt Shutz from CT. As we all know, once you get a chance to see a boat up close or go for a ride on a Mach 2, you will be sold. So if you have a friend that wants to go for a ride, take em out. We also have a demo boats in Newport, RI and Long Beach, Ca. So if you want to have a go, contact us at USAsales at mach2boats dot com.

Short Video From Charleston.