Maybe it's the fun factor, maybe its the fear factor - but you'll sail a long way to find a class with a more helpful and friendly bunch of sailors.

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Moth News

Keep up to date by email on the uk yahoo group
The UK Class Association enters the 21st century with online membership payment!!! Whatever next: Ladies in the bar???

4-5 We have our first African member of the 20 knot club - Congratulations to Stephen du Toit (below) who comes straight in equalling Si Payne's 24.6 knots in his Bladerider.


26-4 Axebridge open write-up posted here

21-4 Si Payne has one of the first high modulus small section masts from CST Composites. At 4mm diameter its 20% smaller than a conventional mast (see pic). We'll keep an eye on his progress and report back. You gotta hope he doesn't push the handicap any lower or we'll be presenting him with a wooden mast.


6-4 New worlds info page posted including boat shipping arrangements - here (and left navigation bar). Let us know what else you want on there...

6-4 The Grafham open was the second of the season to be disrupted by winter weather. Despite the forecast fourteen Mothies raced on Saturday in breeze building from around fifteen knots in the morning to twenty five in the afternoon. Full report to come soon but here's a few notes on day one..

Si Payne dominated the first race but sailed into a hole on the final run, giving Tim Boon the chance to claim a memorable win. Ian Forsdike was showing speed in third and Alex Adams fourth. Positions were the same in race two except this time Payne made no mistakes and stayed well in front of TB.

Si Payne, appears to have misread the 'size zero' label on his Prowler, believing it relates to himself, so packed up and went for a warm shower after two races. He's as lean as a Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall organic chicken, and risks hypothermia outdoors at less than five degrees.

Race three was something of an epic with a building northerly and hail showers. Mike Cooke showed how well he has the Axiom sorted by cruising to a win ahead of Alex. Booner was Third and Forsdike Fourth. Behind were struggling heros. Last on the wild course was Ant Chapman in Sam's M3. His determined effort to get that thing downwind with way too much lift on was reminiscent of 'Brit's day' at Garda. Some great pics here by grafham photographer Tim Smith.Incredibly James Roche survived this wipeout (right) without a swim...

27-3 The UK class association is delighted to announce the title sponsor for the 2008 Worlds - now to be known as the
'CST International Moth World Championships'. CST design and manufacture a full range of filament wound carbon fibre tubing and some of their ultra small mast sections are currently being trialled at the leading edge of the class. The technology company has made a significant financial commitment to the success of the event from which all attending will benefit. We hope everyone will do their very best to ensure the company gets excellent value from their support.

21-3 The Weston Easter regatta starts today with a larger than ever Moth contingent keen to get the season underway - but the weather has other ideas...Sunday and Monday look possible but very chilly
www.xcweather.co.uk


3-3 Keen competitors have been asking about accommodation in Weymouth and Portland for the worlds. Here then is the official list and if you need any more help this is the national Sailing Academy's website

25-2 The earliest open meeting in the year anyone can remember, at Parkstone YC, produced tight competition and some shuffling of the pack...report

21-2 Frigging with your rigging? New Mothie, but otherwise quite experienced sailor, Mike Lennon shared his experience with us on the Yahoo board. It's re-posted here...

18-2 According to Moth World Champion Rohan Veal,the sailing authority in his home state, Victoria, has allocated separate handicaps to the Bladerider and the Moth.Si Payne aired his views in his blog today. Unless you're planning on entering handicap races in Victoria, we suggest you forget about it and get on with Mothing, whatever design you sail.

13-2 The most hotly contested season in memory kicks off on 23rd and 24th February at Parkstone Yacht Club, Poole Harbour. Whether you're a big beast or a first time foiler, come along and see how it's all shaping up. Notice of race - Club website.

12-2 Who can identify these mystery Mothies being given a new lease of life (if not hip joint) by the Mistress 3? Answers on the yahoo group please...



11-2 Look out pier owners - He's back...video

4-2 Weird, it's like there's a news blackout on the Tiger Trophy. Nothing on Y&Y, nothing on The Daily Sail and just a couple of sentences on the club site. From what I can see, Graham Vials pulled off his second impressive handicap win of the winter. This time on a PY of 800 he beat 198 other boats with a score of 1,2,3 dropping a 19th. The weather on Sunday particularly looked breezy to challenging, a fact born out by the next best Moth being Mike Lennon at 162nd. Booner and Cookie were behind him so you can tell it was no cake walk. Well done Graham - where now with the Moth handicap? Results here...

2-2Staines Massive break the ice for some winter training...video


28-1 Congratulations to Jason Belben for his win in the single handed class of the Steve Nicholson trophy over the weekend. This is the first victory for a foil Moth in a major handicap event and it's been a long time coming. Credit too to Northampton Sailing Club for having the conviction to set a handicap and let the Moth race alongside everybody else. Obviously next year they may wish to reset the number but there will be no complaints from Mothies - in fact this website will be urging you to turn out and support the event in large numbers.

27-1 Somebody's playing with us...they look like they're having trouble keeping straight faces. Bluff ot flush???


26-1 Just a little too much information on some personal subjects and rather less than we'd like on others...the boat for example - Si Payne's blog

25-1 Join the international jet set and sail in the Dubai Grand Prix. All Mothies invited - NOR here

19-1 Our profile of the most radical new Moth you can buy, the Axiom v4 is here...

12-1 Solve this riddle: A man enters a sailing race with 258 other sailors. After two hours of brilliantly talented sailing he wins by a small margin. But in fact he lost. The race of course was the Bloody Mary and the sailor Graham Vials, who despite starting a minute behind the International 14s overtook everyone on the water. The 'reasoning' (although that word rather dignifies their thought process) offered by the club is that the Moth has not been given a formal PY number by the RYA. As a reason for excluding the Moth this provides a superficial excuse, but in reality their case is vacuous:

- First: the RYA is incompetent at administering the PY system and puts little resource into it. To fail to provide a handicap for the fastest growing class, creating unprecedented interest and helping to take dinghy racing into a sustainable future is risible. Further, if there was a handicap based on the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of club races completed by Moths in 2007, what do you suppose it would be? Damn slow, because there are so many people learning to get to grips with foiling, not to mention the percentage of races that are too light or too windy for average foil skills, that there's no way an average PY would be lower than 900. Do you think for one minute the burgmeisters of Queen Mary would use such a handicap - would they hell. They'd be the first to use their 'discretion' and assign a handicap they felt reflected the very fastest Moth sailors in attendance at their precious race. Just like they did today by rating us behind the 14s. So their argument runs - spend ages dealing with tedious bureaucrats at the RYA and your local club to eventually get a number that we won't take a blind bit of notice of. And that's not all...

- Second: they look silly and out of touch. It is actually in Queen Mary's interests to lead the way on handicapping contemporary classes rather than hiding under the mouldy skirts of the moribund RYA. Had they the vision they would welcome Moths and other newcomers by setting their own rating and adjusting it from experience year to year. Initially a new class would be assessed harshly, then as more is known about it gradual refinement of the handicap would take place. With an approach like this QM would be a leader - instead they have reduced themselves to historians musing on whether the Enterprise might have gained a few points on the Albacore with the advent of dacron sails. Get real Queen Mary. Mothing is the future and it could be worth good money to you in members. Today you offended the twelve boats that entered your event and sent a signal that maybe they should build their Moth fleet elsewhere. How many Moths do you expect to enter next year?

For the record, 1st Graham Vials, 4th Jason Belben others Arthur Philips,Tim Boon, Adrian Murphy, Andrew Friend, Simon Propper, Alex Knight, James Rodie, Ed Sibson, Tom Whicher, Mike Cooke.

11-1 It's the eve of the Bloody Mary pursuit race and for once it might be foilable. The forecast is 11mph westerly at the start, dropping to 7mph. So marginal and the Moths of course will start an hour or so after the first start at noon. The Daily Sail is predicting a Moth victory - but that's premature. We don't even know the handicap QM are using and a Moth last won in the '70s when Peter Conway and Mike Iszatt sailed Wombles designs. It would be great to get a Moth back on the list 30 years on...

5-1 Hanging out with some Mothies in a bar in Soho the other evening we were discussing how to summarise 2007 - then someone said, why bother, the Moth scene's changing so fast let's do a preview of 2008 instead. So here it is, some known facts and some predictions...2008 Preview.

5-1 The oz nationals kicked off today with two heats in very different conditions. Luka and Amac are tied for first. but the real story is the speed of the Americans Bora Gulari and his mate George Peet - when was the last time you saw an American at the top of the fleet? Limited info is trickling out on the Oz site and Rohan's site.

30-12 In the end the wind came to the aid of the Grafham handicap committee with very marginal foiling at the Grand Prix. Alex Adams did his best, foiling most of the first race but his brilliant technique only netted him a finish in the twenties,ten minutes behind the leading 505 also sailed with brilliant technique by Ian Pinnell.Race two was worse with foiling impossible. Sam struggled in the 600 which seems to need a bit more wind to lift,although the three of us had fun between races, when weirdly there was plenty of breeze. Scotch all round in the committee room then.Almost too awful to contemplate, the Bloody Mary looms. At least we can enjoy a couple of weeks in the office before the torture starts again.

28-12 You have to sympathise with the organisers of seasonal handicap races. No sooner has the fuss died down of our rating when along comes Sam Pascoe in the completely unranked RS600 foiler. The word from foiltown is that the RS flyer is quicker than the Moth in most conditions so Sam's PY of 800 for the Grand Prix makes him my favourite for the title this year. Enjoy it while it lasts Sam, next year you'll be with the 18ft skiffs!

23-12 Grafham SC has set the Grand Prix Moth handicap at 750. We have been busy encouraging Mothies to turn out for the Christmas handicap races, but it seems we'll have to suffer arbritrary and punitive handicaps for our troubles. Apparently Grafham rang round a few other sailing clubs and asked them what numbers they use. Hayling island who basically set a handicap for Si Payne, said 690. Last time I looked the RYA specified that handicaps should be set based on mid fleet performance not just the champion. Queen Mary has always had a tendency to do the same so expect to start at the back in the Bloody Mary too.

2-12 Google UK Mothies map launched. Add yourself here

2-12 Cookie launches the new Axiom 4? into a gale. Pics here...

27-11 New Moth registrations this year have easily set a 10 year high. Standing at 22 with several unregistered boats out there the class hasn't looked so healthy for decades. In fact just this year's new boats could have a respectable regatta. So if you are one of the unregistered, do it now here. You'll need to anyway in the spring to join in the racing and enter the Worlds.

Looking at it financially. That's a conservative £180,000 spent on new boats or about 45 new Lasers worth.



20-11 Scott Babbage and Alexandra Harris launch Sailingbits.com a virtual chandlery for all the really special gear you won't find in your local chandlery...

15-11 Bladerider's UK distributor launches its website...

9-11 Rohan's blog on ISAF is hilarious. No really it is, very sharp indeed. Go there and be entertained...

9-11 Rumours are reaching us of a new Moth development project. What we heard was a new UK Moth consortium may actually be feedback from a rather more modest collaboration between designer Adam May and carbon technology engineer Dave Chisholm. Technically it is going to be very interesting since Dave, builder of the GT60 skiff, also has experience and connections in aerospace and top flight motorsport and Adam has Americas Cup and Moth design cred. Whether you and I will ever able to buy one is less certain, but who knows!! McLaren Moth anyone?


8-11 It just occurred to me - do UK Bladerider sailors know they are welcome in the UK Moth class? Well you are, absolutely. So join the association, come to the opens and enjoy your Mothing.

8-11 The yanks have launched their own Moth site.Ok they got a brit to do it for them but never mind it's good news...

6-11 There's a thought provoking article on patenting innovation in the Moth class on The Daily Sail...
31-10 She's back.Lia gets a ride and gets hooked...

29-10 Thinking of getting your first Moth? Our FAQs are essential reading...

21-10 Bora Gulari foiling on the Detroit River, leaps into the number 3 slot: vavavoom

18-10 Details of the Bladerider patent applications have emerged...

16-10 Eagle eyed World Class web editor, Doug Culnane draws attention in his personal blog to a statement in a press release by Bladerider International on 31st September: Referring to a $500k share issue the company explains, "the capital ... will also be used to complete registration of patents...". We respectfully invite the company to let the class have details of the features of its boat they propose to patent. The company has benefited freely from 75 years of open source development by the Moth class and surely would not be attempting to constrain further free development by other commercial Moth builders. If there are any patent lawyers in the class, please do give us a professional view.

11-10 Fat bottomed girl gets her own comic strip page...

9-10 Ok I'm fed up with web 1.0 - the sound of my own voice banging on. I know there are loads of people who would like to contribute to this site (so called user generated content), but only enjoy doing it if they can post material themselves. Well we can't do that here, so next best is MothSpace, a myspace page for all and any of us. It's yours, post what you like, write what you like and when the spammers get in we'll kill it and start again.
Username: intmoth@hotmail.co.uk Password: email me the design you sail and the boat number and I'l send the password

4-10 This weekend is the traditional end of season bash at Draycote. Starts at 1pm Sat and 10:30 Sunday. club info and NOR here

3-10 We now have a massive amount of material (over 200 photos)in our archive, recovering much of the class' amazing history. We never could have done that without the internet. A big thank you to everyone who has sent pictures and documents, especially Ian Ridge, Chris Eyre,Sebastien Kuhlmann and Paul Mackness.


22-8 Congratulations to Bora Gulari who is the first member of the 20knot club in the US. Vavavoom

27-7 Jason Belben is the new UK national champ after a very consistent performance in a medium to light airs series. Unfortunately racing was cancelled on the last two days of the event due to strong wind. Shame it wasn't sailable. Full story here...