The views expressed on this page are solely those of the web editor. They do not reflect the views of IMCA world, IMCA UK or any other mca as far as I know. You have a right to reply - we're all need a laugh. So here we cast off the shackles of committee publishing and bring you the unfettered news and opinion from planet Moth...

19-5 Assassination plot thickens
You may have noticed our fascination with the secretive NZ Moth development project: Assassin. Initially I admit it was the strikingly low price that caught the eye. But increasingly it's the strikingly high pedigree of the team that's getting my attention.

Fresh on the heels of announcing the involvement of Emirates Team NZ Technical Director, Nick Holroyd, to develop their foils, we now have leaked news of top level US involvement. A certain, shall we say larger than life US Mothie and his Harken engineer buddie, have been two boat testing an Assassin with a Bladerider.Their comments make er interesting reading...

"...we both agree with the Bladerider foils it is faster and more forgiving than the Bladerider. It is much more balanced and can be pushed hard. It is so well balanced when you lose lift on the rudder you can shake the air off and keep going strait"

"The new foils will be the real deal, and the guys at ETNZ have been putting in some hours tank testing foils and designed the new foils. I can say with confidence the foils will not be a step backwards"

"It is light too. I weighed everything out and it is a touch under 31 kilos including Southern mast, MLS10b and foils, line and so on. The control system is also great very direct with adjustable gearing."

"This boat is a real deal in both our opinions, the new foils will just make it that much more of a weapon."

If half of that's true the Assassin is set to unsettle the current Moth principality. The incumbents could be left looking for technical upgrades and a serious price review all in one go - ouch. Before we all run away and spend the spare cash we just saved, history tells us there's many a slip between press realease and boat release. Ed


25-1 Australian Nationals: the shape of things to come
It's been fascinating trying to follow the Oz Nats from afar. The usual media mix of text, blogs, webnews and race reports have given us a sense of what's happening in the class - and intriguing it is.

First the results: Congratulations to Nathan Outteridge. Straight into the class on a Bladerider and already a champion. He of course has a proven race record at the top level and is 49er world champion so you can see the calibre of sailor the Moth can now attract. Amazing though his achievement is, we think Si Payne's 2nd place is equally impressive. To have launched the new design just a couple of days before the championship after working flat out to get it finished and nearly win is phenomenal. Third and fourth went to David Lister and Scott Babbage respectively.


pic Andrea Francolini / Skandia

There were four different designs in the top four: Bladerider, Mach 2, Gilmour and Prowler. That's not something we've been close to since before Garda when the Bladeriders raised the bar. It suggests the Mach 2 will immediately be competitive and with development may indeed do as it's name suggests and be a step forward. We don't know much about the Gilmour, but Dave is apparently 85 kilos so he must have got the design working very well to be competitive in a mixed winds regatta series. And what does Scott's form tell us? Is he a winner held back by marginally out of date foil design or have he and John made a step forward with the foils and control? There have been rumours of new Prowler foils but we don't know what Scott was using. You'd have to be there to know that but maybe Scott will tell us on his blog. It's great to see so many designs in the running and it will be interesting to see how it impacts the builders'order volumes.

pic Teri Dodds

We can quite easily see some of the front runners having two different boats to evaluate before deciding what to ride at The Gorge. Should be an interesting discussion for any sponsored sailors... ermmm, that's not my other boat, I bought it for my girlfriend...

But what about price? Will competition deliver better value? The Moth is the only product I can think of where globalisation works in reverse. The Chinese products cost more than those made in England by Englishmen - the Axiom for example. Either they'd better start paying UK minimum wage in China (around $6 per hour) or it really is time to show the customers some of the benefits. Simply making the volume available is wearing a little thin. I'd love to see Philip Green's face when we told him his Top Shop dress knocked up in China could have been made cheaper by Milanese seamstresses.

Just off to Saville Row for my cheap suit...ed

17-1 A Moth is born
So here it is, the much anticipated, hyped? not really, new Moth. Expectations will no doubt be high, given the pedigree of the team, but we suggest patience and perseverence will be the key. It cannot be expected to win, or even complete a series in Geelong this week. It will break, and things will need reworking. If it were to win and have no teething troubles, right off the drawing board, it would be totally crushing for all other designs. I remember Amac turning up at the Worlds in Horsens with the first Bladerider. It foiled so badly he didn't even enter. My how we laughed, scoffed etc. Just one year later Bladeriders cleaned up at Garda and have never looked back. Be nice to the flawed beauty - she may be the next super model.

We wish them well. In the teeth of a huge economic storm it is a brave place to put your savings. Is the Moth market oversupplied now? It's hard to tell since the market has been growing so rapidly, assumptions about how many new boats are required per year are difficult to make. Then there's the development factor. Moth's haven't really been that competitive until recently and old boats remained competitive for many years. That shouldn't happen if development is working. There's enough energy and cash at the sharp end, that if anyone can build something with a definite advantage, everyone will have to get hold of it.

This is a pretty healthy situation. Those with sponsorship or so committed to their sailing that they are happy to live at home with mom in their thirties to fund a new boat, keep the builders alive and the rest have a steady supply of nearly new gear. The test of the Mach 2 is Portland, not Geelong. If it has an advantage over the competition there, expect a busy order book and a whole bunch of nearly new boats on the second hand market.

31-12 The accidental birth of a Flyers' Cup? In a chilly corner of middle England last weekend the opening skirmish, of what may become an epic challenge, took place. We're referring to the Grafham Grand Prix battle between Sam Pascoe and Alex Knight's 600FFs and Alex Adam's Moth. Could this be round one of a long running Flyers' Cup?

Round two is staged for next weekend at the Bloody Mary. Inadvertently Queen Mary may have created a sideshow that ultimately overtakes the main event. After the controversy and ill feeling last year, the club has sensibly acted to clarify the status of foilers in advance. Rather than embrace us in the main event, they have elected to create a separate category for foilers. This upholds the longstanding policy for the Bloody Mary that only classes with a formal PY rating can win. The Moth will probably never now have a PY and I don't think we should be worried about it. Our range of performance between sailors and in different conditions is simply massive. An average rating would almost never be representative.

What they may not have envisaged is where this is leading. By creating the first major venue for a 600FF vs Moth showdown on level rating they've struck on something exciting to watch and compete in. Colin Newman predicted it will be like a Moth open with 300 other boats in the way. I'm not so sure. This support act could make the big time. The 600FF is not the only other foiler out there. A number of pototypes and one off's have been built for evaluataion by mainstream builders. What's stopping them joining the fun? Let's hope the weather plays foil.

14-11 Silly Season: Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. A similar breed of the thermally challenged choose to go sailing in the traditional UK Christmas and new year multi-class festivals - Grafham Grand Prix - Bloody Mary - and Tiger Trophy. Amazingly these can attract hundreds of entries, finding an overall winner either by pursuit or handicap systems. In the late 70's and early 80's Moths were regular giant killers in these events with each successive Magnum outperforming the PY which later caught up.

Now the foiler fleet is causing all kinds of headaches for the organisers. Lacking an official PY rating and with vast differences in performance between sailors and in different conditions, it's impossible to set a fair number. The response has been to rate the fastest known sailor (commodores exchange emails on Si Payne) and set that as the yardstick. This year Grafham is using 690 and Queen Mary has given us our own foiler race (although they'll still have to decide where in the sequence to start us - at the back presumably).

A 49er races to PY747. For fun last weekend I squared up to one leading a race at Grafham. He certainly didn't look like an olympic champion but was sailing well enough. Upwind I just hung on and downwind in the gusts made up some ground. But as soon as the breeze died, my angles were hopeless and his big kite pulled him well away.

It's hard to know what the sentiment is in the UK sailing world. Are foilers seen as magic carpets giving average sailors a huge speed boost? Or are they seen as difficult to sail in which only the very best sailors can be fast? In short if a Moth wins the Grafham Grand Prix, will it be 'well done' or 'doesn't count'?

Those of us who know, realise that very few Mothies can live with a 49er round a crowded race track. Our small sail and restricted tactical options mean we spend too much time below full speed or going in the wrong direction. Scott's recent blog says he matched a competitive 18foot skiff in Sydney harbour round a course. He should know, he sails one. For the rest of us, par with a 49er would be a very real challenge - 690 is for champions only.


19-11 Deja Vu? So we've been here before: professional website promises the Moth to end all argument, only to find that life in the carbonisphere is a tad more complicated than life in the bloggosphere. Still, credit where it's due. The Mach 2 team have set their 'websights' high with a content rich site and even a discussion forum. It's a brave move given that customers may wish to give feedback on the forum.

The images of the boat certainly point to a high level of innovation and fresh thought. Not radical but a constant chipping away at the potential of the now established foiler configuration. The product of a wrestless mind never satisfied with the status-quo. A little less weight here, a whiff less drag there and a touch more control. What will it all add up to? Ten seconds a lap? Who knows.

Clearly Arnaud Psarofaghis thinks he does, becoming the first top customer to declare for the Mach 2. The race to 'sign-up' the best sailors is becoming quite competitive. But this is an area where the manufacturers risk over-playing their hands by basing their thinking on F1. You obviously can't compete in F1 or any brand of major motorsport on a private budget. But you certainly can afford a new Moth and the hot gear every year on a modest salary if you are sufficiently determined. One thing our survey results will reveal is that sponsorship and discounts do not add up to a major budget factor for more than a tiny handfull of Mothies. High resale values mean discounts are a 'nice to have' rather than an essential ingredient.

One thing all the top sailors share is determination and dedication, so we can't see anyone wanting to get tied to a less competitive design for any period for the sake of a modest discount. Whichever design establishes a clear advantage will clean up all the top sailors. And that's as it should be - ask Jenson Button.

26-10 Soho Moth drinks made a comeback this week with Ian, Jason, Andrew, Dougie and your web editor. We may make this monthly and of course all are welcome. Starting at the Alphabet Bar, then on for a Chinese and ending the evening at Soho landmark, Bar Italia for the most authentic espresso this side of Torbole. I'd like to tell you the conversation was sparkling and cultured, traversing the economic and geo-political issues of the day. However, three hours of intense discussion of wands, cables, turnbuckles and flaps marked us out as super geeks - Moth anorak anyone?

One surprise was the new Prowler showroom. We knew Moth marketing had entered a new era but this was something else. The new boat was still under wraps but John's team riders look like a strappng bunch of lads. The Bladeride 'A Team' had better get some new pants if they want to match these hunks...



14-10 I want one

Credit crunch - what credit crunch. I can't help wanting the new Mach 2 Moth. The drawings are just so sexy, that neat little foredeck hatch hiding the wand works and the cut away stern, 'because it's surplus'. Of course, we've been down this road a few times before. It's a hell of a lot easier to develop a website than a new boat and there's many a slip between the PR launch and the boat launch.

There's no denying the credentials of the team behind the Mach 2 and both being top sailors means they have the potential to thoroughly test the production boats before they hand one to a paying customer. But it also takes patience, stubbornness (it's amazing how many people will beg a builder to let then have one early) and of course working capital to feed the kids while all the testing and refining takes place. Time will tell.

I must be a slow learner, but it's finally dawned on me what a talented designer Amac actually is. His KA sails may be a cut above competitors, but its hard to be sure about that because nobody's really using anything else. But his design and development work on the Bladerider was exceptional and took the foilers forward a noticeable step. He seems to live and breathe the boats and to be constantly sketching, fiddling and going over and over in his head how to improve the equipment. What will his second attempt produce?

24-9 "The Times They Are A-Changin'"

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Listening to Dylan the other night got me thinking. What does all this change in our nearly century old class mean? And where's it headed? Believe me I've heard some stories recently that would have been beyond comprehension a couple of years ago. How about contracts for top sailors? Not sure which design will be quickest? Why not a two boat campaign a la Americas Cup? Be sure not to accidentally describe anyone as a pro-sailor. Or his agent will be right on your back demanding you remove the libellous allegation (yep it happened). Everything's focused on no more than twenty people who may have a chance of pulling a world title and thus earning money for the boat builder, sail and spar maker that gifted him the preferential gear. But what about the others - the source of that money?

I'm talking about the bedrock of the class. The eighty other people who paid full price for their (slightly inferior gear), compromising the family holiday and budget to buy his or her kit and turn up to the worlds? Let's call them the 'middle class', the people without whom all manufacturers would go bust and all championships would fail. What kind of deal are they getting from the class right now?

At Weymouth in the interminable wait, someone had the idea of a manufacturers' presentation. It was an enlightening session in many ways. But the killer moment came when Alan Watson tried to raise the question of build quality and 'fit for purpose'. He was summarily dismissed as a lunatic and almost bood off.

But I suspect he spoke for many who lacked the balls to back him up in public. So we're going to put this straight. We're conducting a major survey of the 'middle class'. What do they think of their boats and gear? Was it value for money? Have they been well treated by the builder? Is the class meeting their needs? etc. And the survey participants will have their anonymity guaranteed when we publish the results here.

It's the function of the class website to represent its members. And I intend to find out what they like and don't like and what they want. Standby for your questionnaire - unless you finished in the top twenty at the worlds or are sponsored by anyone at all.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.