All the preliminaries out of the way, the Pre-Worlds, the practice, the Qualifying; today was the start of the real Worlds (dum dum dum). The fleet had been split into two flights, Gold racing for the Championship, and Silver racing for glory. Piccoli and I are in Silver.
The mood in the boatyard was completely different. No laughing or joking, it’s go time. For some of these sailors they’ve been training months or years for this. 2/3 of this fleet are professionals. They are paid to finish well, and the pressure is on.
The Committee were shooting to get three races off today, but only managed two due to light-ish winds. When the Gold people are having trouble foiling, it’s too light. But they did get off two good ones. So, ask me how I did.
“Um, how did you do?”
Awesome! I had a 56 and a 60, finished both races in fine style and beat some boats. (There are 142 entries, 71 in each flight.) My highlight was the second race, right before the start I capsized in the middle of the line. By the time I was back up I was on port, lowriding, heading straight at the committee, with 70 boats on starboard foiling right at me. Disaster! But whew, it was a general recall 🙂 Thank you Murphy.
On the restart I headed to the pin end – a good 1/2 mile away – and found some nice pressure. I hit the left corner early and crossed a bunch of people. There is no feeling – none – like sailing a foiling moth on port and crossing a bunch of starboard tackers foiling right at you. The closing speed is tremendous – you can feel the wind as they duck you – and a collision would be catastrophic. Fortunately Piccola and I made it. Yay. Unfortunately I carried port a little too far to the right into light wind; I foiled in but had to lowride out. So it goes.
The Silver flight had two races and then came in for the Gold flight to have two, so we got to watch. Here’s the Gold flight in action:
It took the leaders two minutes to reach the weather gates, wow. It took me about five minutes to sail the same leg, including three not-great lowrider tacks. The downwind legs were pretty interesting too; all the pressure was on the left (East) shore, so the fastest boats jibed back and forth down the shore. I did not do so, settled for a more conservative path but made it every time with Piccola still up and flying.
I’ve already said there’s no feeling like port-tacking a bunch of starboard boats while foiling, and there isn’t…. But foiling across the finish line of the Moth Worlds at Lake Garda was special. I felt chills.
How did I get here?
(I have a treat for you … I mounted a GoPro today … am editing the video. Stay tuned for live action!)
Mothing Malcesine 