Australian Moth Nationals - Day 0

Practice race today with a forecasted 5-10 knots being a passing fad (much like solid wing sails). Competitors were greeted with a beautiful sunny day, a few puffy clouds and a perfect 10-15 knots. By the time the race rolled around it had built to the high teens and the waves were getting the better of plenty of ppl. Lucky it was a practice race though because there were a few competitors with some wrinkles to iron out of their boats and themselves, Markla and I included.

My boat held together but after one lap, numerous capsizes downwind and a bit of carnage about the place I decided to head back in. I was quite happy with my upwind pace but after some Welcome Dinner discussions, have decided to try increasing the gearing a bit to try and make downwinds a bit easier.

Markla on the other hand has found some lights to repair his foils after todays shenanigans. The flap nut ripped its thread and the rudder lifter tried to rip itself off the bolts. They're both relatively minor repairs, however rigging lawn repairs come with their own set of difficulties. All the parts are ready to go, and he's setup in a lighted corner beside the clubhouse. Good luck Markla!

Markla is not alone, there was a number of resin pots being mixed, grinders getting grinding and sika flex mending going on. Robla busted his bladerider rudder gantry, but it looks like he's found someone with a spare already so should be good to go again tomorrow. Tomla enjoyed the fresh breeze and open waters of the lake (compared to Cooby Dam), until his pushrod gave up. We spent a while trying to remove it from the flap nut but it was broken just too short.

As usual, the tops guys were carving it up without too much drama. Hard to tell at this stage who will take the title, bar talk was that there were plenty of lead changes today.

Tomorrow are the first races. Wind predictions range from light to 25 knots, we'll see how that goes...

Australian Nationals 2013 - Day -2 / -1

Nick and I got down to the nationals venue (Wangi Wangi Amateur Sailing Club on Lake Macquarie) yesterday and a little update from our end of the fleet.

I am sailing same old SLINO with MSL10B, Fastacraft centreboard and , Goddard/Doinka rudder and some recent modifications - a single skin carbon plate gantry and the assassin wingset from Rob's deceased. Photos and designs for the latter to follow. I am also running a tension system for centreboard control (rather than a pushrod) - a concept which I am now told has never ever worked in waves and today the boat tried to tear me a new one. I am so sore and my wetsuit is now full of holes. I started getting it going through the chop before attempting a gybe now my right arm doesn't work. 

Nick is sailing 'Silver Shadow' an older Rocket Surgeon Composites carbon nomex machine with a foil set from the same and MSL10C. It may end up with a cam control system later in the regatta, but a test sail after crimbo was messy and it is currently running a typical pushrod system. 

The regatta will be an interesting one. Looks like their will be over 70 boats on the start list making this the second largest moth nationals in history (the only bigger one was just before the belmont worlds - bolstered with internationals who were there for the worlds). And even more interesting is the range of boats - much more than the wall to wall M2s we had last year.

Oddball List

   - SLINO

   - Silver Shaddow

   - Bob Pearson custom M2-a-like

   - Luka's scalpel

   - Nick Flutters ex Blue Meanie

   - 2x Dave Lister Monstros (one sailed by Nathan Outridge)

   - 4ish Fastacrafts including Alan's old one

   - 3ish BRs of various flavours

   - Ian Sim's scow

A couple of other interestings:

   - 4x aftermarket M2 lifters with folded down tips and flap pinned at the foil tips (so section doesn't distort)

   - A spreaderless rig for some of the western australians

   - The Advanced Wing Systems moth rig

So many sailors went out for a practise today, Nick and I inclusive. Nice 12kts in the morning. Nasty 20kts and chop in the afternoon. Luka is smoking in the light. AMac, Scott and Josh very fast in the blow. RobG incredible smooth sailing and height control (from what we saw yesterday - not sure if he sailed today). 

Lot's of boat work happening in the park on all kinds of boats. Wet'n'drying of foils and even some painting. A bit of fine tuning of the new MSL16 rigs.

Tomorrow is an official practice race and looks like it will be lightening off till wednesday. 

AC72 Heel Moment

As with a previous calculation for the moth, watching the AC72s blasting around I wondered about their heel moment characteristics. This time though I had a neat new tool to test out...Autodesk ForceEffect.


 AC72 Heel Moment Report

Blue loads from left are; crew, platform, rig. Pink are reactions.

Make of it what you will, the numbers are rough, the height of the sail restraint is dubious. The items that stand out though are the angle of the resultant hull+foil force and the total hull+foil force...
8.5 tonnes at 24.5 degrees from vertical (and that's just a static load)

Let me know if I've made any major mistakes. Shut your hole if you're an ETNZ fanboy, I couldn't find a photo of New Zealand from the right angle (I'll swap the photo if you supply a good one though.)


In other news, Markla decided that a few weeks before the nationals was a good time to do major structural modifications to his boat. Luckily it all went smoothly and the result is much better than the original

Equally crazy is my goal of coming to the nationals with a new control system...I only started on the weekend. It has been percolating in my brain for ages and now that I have a shed it can be put into practice. Wish me luck.

Photos of the above to come.

PB Speed Records

Not much in the grand scheme of things, but today Markla, Rob and myself went out at Lake Samsonvale just north of Brisbane for some big wind and flat water.

Markla and I set new pb speed records. (Below is for our archives as much as anything.)

10 seconds
Markla - 22.3 knots
Narkla - 23.6 knots
Rob - 22.1 knots

5 seconds
Markla - 23.2 knots
Narkla - 23.95 knots (because Markla won't let me round up to 24.0)

200 metre
Markla - 21.7 knots
Narkla -22.9 knots

Peak
Markla - 24.9 knots
Narkla - 25.6 knots
Rob - 22.8 knots (speedpcuk) (but he wasn't trying, pfft, boat retired hurt before the wind really kicked in)

MSL 10B Mast Bend

Does anyone have MSL 10B rigged mast bend loads and numbers? I have a feeling mine is too straight down low and am considering modifying the spreaders.