I drive over to the FVM (local abbreviation for “the club”) and the parking lot is full. No worries says the nice official, just park on the lawn next to the lake. Okayyy.
Next up I walk in to make sure my registration is all in order. It is not. First off, my liability insurance has expired. What!? Oh, a simple misunderstanding; the expiration date is shown as 12/02/21 which to an Italian means February 12. That passed away in smiles.
Digression in case you’re wondering why the regatta organizers want proof of liability insurance:
He is driving *over* another Moth. Yeah it can happen and at high closing speeds too.
Having checked in successfully, I received a metric ton of swag. Oh yeah …
Some of this stuff is pretty standard – Zhik tee-shirt (!) – some is pretty cool (personalized regatta sportswear), some is fun (sponsor decals), and some was quite unique (never received a bottle of olive oil before :())
Next up, measuring all the boat parts and entering them into an online database. This took a while: hull, sail, main foil (vert + horiz), rudder foil (vert + horiz), mast, boom. All measured using the cool little Measure app on my iPhone. (Have you ever tried it; pretty cool, you point the camera at one end of something, click +, point at the other end of the thing, click + again, and poof you have the length. Magic.)
As I was doing this I rigged the boat – hey, I want to go sailing! Not to mention, I need to figure out how all the pieces fit. Oh, and I had to apply the sponsor decals, which must be done and must be done carefully to avoid ugliness and asymmetry.
At the end of about two hours, yay:
During all this I met my boatyard neighbor Nathan Outteridge. Yes, *that* Nathan, winner of an Olympic Gold in the 49er class, former Moth World Champion, and recent skipper of Artemis, one of the challengers in the recent America’s Cup.
Of course I was all cool like “hi Nathan nice to meet you”. WOW.
Anyway it was great fun and he was the perfect person to watch rig. In particular his spiffy technique for snapping the batten cams onto the mast was worth the price of admission*.
Mid-afternoon, measured in, boat rigged … time to go sailing!
* How to snap on your cams:
- Slide the sail over the mast making sure the mast lies *under* all the cams
- Tie a line between mast pin and the cunningham and pull it super tight
- Start in the middle (longest batten), with your right hand push down on the batten next to the mast to curve it down, and with your left hand push the cam in to snap it onto the mast. Push on the cam through the sail, this avoids getting your fingers pinched.
- Work your way to the bottom of the mast snapping on each cam, then work your way to the top of the mast
- Celebrate!
Mothing Malcesine 