Mothing Malcesine

My first day racing at the Moth Worlds began with some embarrassing flailing and ended with a breakdown, but in between I had a great time foiling and racing and am feeling wonderful about the whole thing.

So about the flailing, here’s an overhead view of Fraglia Velo Malcesine, the club where the Worlds is hosted:

The arrow labelled “me” is where my boat lives, a nice little isolated spot. And yeah my neighbor there is Nathan Outteridge. Most of the boats are on the North side of the club, and use the North launch area, most of the rest are on the South side of the club and use the South launch area. But Nathan and I use the “ramp”.

So you see the arrow labelled “wind” at the bottom? Note the direction? Yeah. After launching on the ramp we have to “lowride” and tack back and forth between the jetty and the dock to get out. Not easy. I watched Nathan do it and he did it in fine style. But I struggled to get out and tacked back and forth about 20 times before one of the sailing instructors took pity on me and towed me out with a RIB. Yeah, it was an ignominious way to start.

The fleet of 142 boats is broken into two flights each day, yellow and blue. After the first two days of racing they’ll divide the fleet differently into a gold flight racing for the championship and a silver flight racing for fun. I was in the blue flight which meant starting later, and despite the flailing to get out *almost* made the first start.

I did make the second, and had a great / interesting time starting with 71 other Moths. Wow. I’ve been on some crowded / busy start lines before – including recently the J/70 Worlds (!) – but this was something else. Don’t even think about hanging out on the line and sheeting in at the gun, you have to time your start from a long way out. I optimized for 1) not being over and 2) not fouling anyone.

Once off the line everyone flies out to the left corner. In a Moth even a great tack is slow, so you make relatively few of them. The first boats coming out of the left cross the fleet and are gone. Everyone else sort of slots into a lane.

There are a couple of interesting things about Moth racing. First, some Moths are faster than others, but all Moths have fast and slow moments. The best sailors have the fewest slow moments, but even they are not going fast all the time. And the worst sailors have the fewest fast moments, but they do have some. Which means there is more churn than you would typically have in a big fleet, you have moments of brilliance where it seems you’re doing great even when others are having more of them.

Next, the big difference between fast and slow isn’t between straightline speed, it’s between sailing angles The fastest boats are able to foil while sailing higher upwind and while sailing lower downwind. So they win by sailing essentially a shorter course. If you’re not a great Mother – like me – then you spend a lot more time “reaching” for speed to keep foiling, and sail a longer course.

The day featured a nice breeze (enough to foil easily) but not a strong breeze (too much to control), perfect for me to get used to the boat. This was my third time in the water but my first day on which I could foil, and there were a bunch of little things to adjust. The whole wand control mechanism needed a bit of tuning, but i did get there in the end. (After a bit of swimming :))

Between the 2nd and 3rd race, feeling good about things and getting the boat dialed in, suddenly nothing worked. Yikes. I could not figure it out, but the boat would not foil cleanly and I could not control it. I ended up half-lowriding in to figure it out. And here’s what I found:

This is a closeup of the wand connection at the bowsprit, and as you can see there’s a teeny screw missing. Small but necessary, without the linkage the wand didn’t do its magic and I could not sail. I looked around for a teeny screw to replace it, and eventually settled for a piece of line:

Fingers crossed for today that this works…

Another challenge on the day was that the hiking straps “flapped” when I was at speed. They are tied pretty tight, and it will be hard to retie them, so I settled for adding a twist, held in place with a piece of bungee cord. This was more annoying than a necessary fix, but I’m hoping it works; stay tuned.

(When you’re foiling at around 20 in wind of around 10, you have an apparent wind of about 30 … so aero is important and stuff flapping around is not good.)

And in a nice piece of good fortune, Charlie, the head of the sailing school (and my wind sage) found me a new Moth cover. So the poor thing no longer has to live under a Wasp cover. I believe she is quite happy and ready for tomorrow.

As am I! Onward.

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:

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 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 … )

Something to know about me – I’m a rock music fan. The Talking Heads song Once In A Lifetime has this lyric: “and you may ask yourself, how did I get here?” and I ask myself this all the time.

At the appointed hour we all gathered in the public gardens, each country designated their flag bearer (US was Helena Scutt), and these cute little kids carried signs introducing the athletes from each country. After the customary disorganized queueing everyone got set and we marched through ancient twisty little streets of the old town.

Of course everyone stopped to watch, it was quite the show. 150 Moth sailors from 30 countries parading behind a band of drummers through Malcesine, Italy, before sailing in the Worlds on Lake Garda, and I was one of them. How did I get here?

This video gives you the flavor of the parade:

After the parade it was time for some speechifying…

And then of course, eating and drinking and hanging out…

All in all a pretty amazing evening. How did I get here?

Today was practice day at the Moth Worlds, the last day before the regatta starts in earnest. Last chance to fix your boat. Last chance to sail around and make sure everything is working, including in your head.

Well that was the theory anyway.

The day dawned bright and beautiful and windy.

Remember my relayed explanation about how the wind on the lake starts out coming from the North, and then switches around midday and blows from the South? Well it started out from the North early; the windsurfer people were out in force. But it kept on blowing from the North for a long time, and when it did switch, it kind of switched halfway and stopped.

I have now been here for two days of sailing, and both days didn’t have enough wind to foil. Fortunately today was only a practice day, but unfortunately I need a lot of practice!

So what did I do instead? Well…

I had some caffe and checked my email. Hey thanks everyone for your nice notes, please keep ’em coming. I tooled around the town a bit. I had some more caffe. And I worked a bit. Well more than a bit. But it was good work, I promise.

Oh and I did a couple of superdumb things.

First, when I parked my car at the club, I left it running. Unlocked. With my laptop in the car, too. I came back to it two hours later and found it running, unlocked, and undisturbed. All praise Murphy! (If you’re wondering how this could happen, well … the little BMW is super quiet and often stops its engine by itself when it’s not moving, so I’ve gotten in the habit of not explicitly stopping the engine. The unlock part, well, that was brain fade.)

Next, after I got back to my apartment I locked myself out without my keys. This is not easy to do because you need your keys to unlock the doors, but I tailgated someone else out of the building and there I was. To make matters more interesting this put me in a courtyard from which you need a key to exit. A nice little jail cell, do not tell the fire marshall. So I did what anyone would do, I climbed up the external air conditioners to my second floor balcony and reentered the apartment.

Since you’re reading this you know that I made it. And just in time to participate … in the Opening Ceremony!

After I got back to the city center I was max hungry, and I decided to go shopping. I’m here for two weeks, I need some food in the house, right?

So it’s off to the “supermercato” …

What this place lacks in size it more than makes up for in a great selection of the things I am looking for, like cheese…

… charcuterie (the Italian word for this is salumi) …

… and of course, del vino …

… all of which led me to this:

Yes I know, you hate me, and I should stop with the food posting. But I’m not going to do that, am I?

So time passed – I worked for a while (!) yes I have a cool not-so-new project on which I am spending time. And thank you for all the encouraging email, so nice to hear from you all and please keep ’em coming. Who knew I had to visit Italy to hear from you 🙂

And so now it is time for dinner. What shall I do?

Back into the old town!

The search through the labyrinth continues, it’s here somewhere …

… must be at the end and then left …

… just a little further, and yay there it is …

And so to a most pleasant dinner, Valpolicella accompanying a penne alla Carbonara del Lago, prosciutto and cheese (bookend to breakfast). Yay.

That was all great, but this is Italy, so yes, there was one more course:

Buona notte!

When last we left our fearless hero (me) he was going sailing. But not so fast, eh, there is no wind. Hmmm… and so we wait.

I wandered around the yard taking pictures …

So great to hear everyone speaking different languages, yet talking about the same stuff. And so intimidating to see the average age and fitness level of the competitors…

Hey, it’s a friend – Helena Scutt, member of the US Olympic Team in Rio (FX), now a Moth sailor and the unofficial US Team captain. Last time I saw her was at Huntington Lake, what a small world.

I did get the boat wet in the end, but there wasn’t enough wind for foiling so I just paddled around a bit and came out. I’m lucky to be at the South end of the complex, the North end has way more boats and the line to walk boats out of the water looked like a freeway at rush hour.

I managed to climb up on the lawn / roof of the club to capture the scene:

(don’t tell anyone, I’m sure this is *not* allowed)

I had an interesting discussion with an instructor at the sailing school; he explained that Lake Garda has a super unusual wind system. In the morning the water is cool and the Lombardi Valley to the South heats up, causing a strong wind from the North. Too windy for Moth sailing and maximally choppy water. Then early afternoon the water heats up and the North thermal subsides. But the Dolomite mountains to the North heat up, and a bit later there is a milder wind from the South. This is the wind everyone wants for Mothing. Today there was too much cloud cover over the mountains, no thermal, and no wind.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

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:

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:

1. Slide the sail over the mast making sure the mast lies *under* all the cams
2. Tie a line between mast pin and the cunningham and pull it super tight
3. 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.
4. Work your way to the bottom of the mast snapping on each cam, then work your way to the top of the mast
5. Celebrate!

I was up late last night – blogging 🙂 – and I slept in a bit and stumbled off in search of coffee and breakfast, in that order.

My spiffy AirBnB apartment is right next to the “old town”, and so in I went.

I took a few random turns, examined a few ristorante menus, and then there it was, breakfast nervana!

Une caffe Americana, per favore, e un crepe Malcesine di Lago (prosciutto, cheese, and various greens). They made both while I watched, mmmm… I think my breakfast path has been set. Along with ubiquitous WiFi of course.

Plenty of people out and about; predominant tourist nationality is German, with a smattering of US, Dutch, French and whatnot. Everyone friendly. Good caffe will do that 🙂

And so now I had to find my way back … fortunately my place is near the fort, and the fort is on the highest point, so all I had to do was walk uphill. Ciao e avanti!

Next up I drove around a bit, just getting the feel of the neighborhood so to speak. Lago de Garda is so very pretty in every direction. An incredible lake surround by high mountains, with picturesque villages dotting the shoreline.

As I drove around dust settled in, the lights came on all over, and it was like a fairy tale.

(oh yeah, I have a new iPhone 12 Pro and wow what a great camera.)

Malcesine has a nice ancient fort, all lit up of course:

And so on to dinner – walked around and found Ristorante Al Bacio in the Castello Hotel. Nice menu and a beautiful view of the lake…

And then I did something else important: I setup a blog to share all these pictures with my friends. Ciao e avanti!

And so I arrive in Malcesine in fine style, and the first order of business is finding my AirBnB. I call my hostess – Annie – and there she is on a yellow bike with a pink bag, waiting at a roundabout in the center of town. I squeeze into a sort-of-a-parking spot and she leads me to the apartment.

OMG it’s perfect

Right in the center of town with a beautiful view of the lake.

AirBnB is like a miracle, right?

Okay, next task … find Fraglia Vela Malcesine, the world famous sailing club which is hosting the 2021 International Moth Worlds (dum dum dum). Should be right up the road a bit …

Well looks like I found the right place … 🙂

I walked around a bit to explore – lots and lots and lots of Moths … but also there was one particular Moth I needed to find … mine!

Super intimidating to see all those boats and hear all those sailors working on them, speaking all different languages. Yikes this is serious.

Also pretty intimidating to look out at the water. It’s cloudy and dark and rainy and windy. They call this place the wind tunnel and looking to the North, you can see why. Well okay then.

Hmmm, what’s this … looks like a sort of super-Moth!

Oh look – there it is … my mighty steed for the week …

She’s beautiful. We had a nice conversation and I think we have reached an understanding. We are not going to win, but we are going to have a lot of fun together trying. And neither one of us is going to get hurt.

BTW this boat belongs to Luca Rizzotti, the President of the Italian Moth Association, who has graciously chartered her to me for the regatta. A perfect host 🙂 Thank you Luca!

One more note: if you look closely you can see, the Moth is covered by a Wasp cover (!) Luca joked this is like in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis put a swastika on the Ark’s crate, and God struck them down … let’s hope the Moth gods are sufficiently appeased!