Well it’s Day Three of my trip, and Day One of the Moth Worlds. Woo hoo…
Yachts and Yachting: 2021 International Moth Worlds starts today.
Today dawned a bit overcast, with hardly any morning breeze. Remember the formula? That means more breeze from the other direction later in the day. And so it was…
But there was cloud cover which had to burn off first, so there was a period of waiting, during which I toured the yard. Moths are far from cookie cutter; every boat is different, and there are a lot of interesting things going on. With the people as well as the boats 🙂
I met up with Dan Flanigan, a friend and member of the US team. Hi, Dan. Neither of us can quite believe we’re actually here, and yet, here we are.
The Yacht Club cafeteria is a popular place …
One of the most important innovations of the Moth class which is vital to being able to have stable flight over the water is “the wand”. This is a little rod which extends down into the water from the front of the boat which rides the surface and which is linked to a flap on the trailing edge of the main foil. As the bow goes down, the wand gets closer to the boat and the flap is extended down causing more lift. This causes the bow to rise, which increases the distance to the wand causing the flap to be brought up reducing the lift. The instant feedback between the wand and the foil enables the boat to fly smoothly.
Late model boats have the wand attached to a bowsprit so it’s further from the main foil, improving the feedback loop. There is tremendous variety between boats in the way the wand is attached, pivoted, linked, and controlled. Key adjustments are “ride height” and “wand sensitivity” which you can adjust while sailing.
Here’s one of the more interesting wands on display:
plus, love the spiffy checkerboard paint job!
Here’s is a closeup of the link mechanism in a Mach 2, the kind of Moth I’m sailing. The front of the boat is to the right (where the wand is located) and the top of the main foil is in the center of the picture. There’s a little drum which controls the ride height, and there’s a mechanism to shift the link up and down on the end of the foil flap which controls the wand sensitivity.
Another interesting feature of late-model Moths is boom geometry. Booms have evolved to enable lower and lower sails, culminating in the current “decksweepers”. A lower sail enables more power with less heeling moment, and the deck of the boat enables an endplate effect increasing lift.
Many other interesting things going on, including a variety of “decks”; the soft cloth “trampolines” are slowly evolving into hard “wings”:
(I may have to do this to mine when I get back …)
question: will they be better on sand (I typically sail off the beach in Santa Barbara)
but what if you have to fix something on the water?
five strings, I’m guessing Vang, Cunningham, Ride Height, Wand Sensitivity, and … Bell Desk?
aerodynamics of the wings is increasingly important
it is NOT easy to work on a Moth on the water, basically you capsize and swim around doing stuff
also note the helmet – very common in the fleet
love the David Bowie reference
I sought out and found my until-now-virtual friend Clelia Sessa! She’s a member of the Italian team and pretty much responsible for me being here.
About two years ago I had a bad crash in surf and broke my rudder. She was selling an old one on Facebook, and we connected. She’s since linked me to many of the Italian Moth-ers including Luca Rizzotti, President of the Class and the person who chartered his boat to me. So thanks, Clelia!
Well the wind is coming up, right on schedule, so time to rig up!
(Sorry for the delay in posting … just as I was ready to click Publish I had a power failure. It happens (I guess :). So this is being posted from the club WiFi … )
Mothing Malcesine 