I am now in my third year of mothing and at last I see signs of improvement.
I have not stopped sailing this winter although I have drawn the line when the air temperature has dropped below freezing. I did sail one day when the air temp was 2deg C and the sea was 3deg C. The Mach2 foils handle cold water temperatures very well with very little venting but it still feels like it is "skidding" through the water and going to let go at any moment - a very weird feeling.
Boatwise - the Mach2 has had a refit with new tramps (from Hydes). These have four control line holes instead of three which tidies up the set up and have wing protection built in. I have put on new rigging, new control lines and mainsheet and strops, replacement blocks (I now use Ronstan Orbits instead of Harken and will see if they wear any better). I have a modified Phil Oligario adjustable wand where I have used unis to glue the May stick onto the assembly and have wrapped some unis around the barrel to strengthen it. I have also applied some thin UMHT tape on the wand itself to improve the sliding action and get rid of the play.
One problem I have had is that the 32:1 kicking strap has been chewing through mast strops like there is no tomorrow. In frustration, I borrowed Mike Lennon's idea of using 3mm dyneema wrapped 3 times round the mast and replaced the shackle I was using with a block to hold the three strops on. This seems to be holding up well so far but I do keep a close eye on it.
I managed to break my mast pin so I replaced that. This time I have wound it in so the bottom of the mast barely clears the king pin socket. This is so that it copes better with the higher kicker loads. The replacement brass mast socket I had commissioned has been a complete success and two years down the line has shown little wear.
The other mod I have done is to cure the problem where the mast bolt has been bending and has worn away the holes in the boom. To fix this I drilled out the holes in both the mast and boom and inserted Oilite bushes in the holes (Oilite is a form of brass which unlike stainless steel, does not react with carbon). I now use a titanium M6 bolt and this, coupled with the support given by the bushes, is holding up well.
I have decided this year that I am not going to change the boat in any significant way as it is behaving very well and seems to have good speed. I am now convinced that all performance gains will come from me - either through improving my boat handling or improving the boat set up in relation to the conditions (and getting slicker at changing settings).
Areas that I am going to concentrate on:-
1. Faster gybing - now that gybing is coming more naturally, I am going to concentrate on maintaining speed through the gybe and getting back up to full speed quicker once through.
2. Better downwind speed - this is an area if I think I have made great improvements in recently. Two things here to concentrate on - sail set + trim and hiking. I have found that I tend to oversheet (and undersheet) so sail trim is everything. When I feel a gust hit I sheet out, bear off and hike. You can really feel the benefit of a bit of extra body weight here because you can take advantage of the extra apparent wind generated and bear off even more.
3, Upwind speed - sail set is important. My extra weight means I do not need to flatten off immediately and can gain advantage when the lightweights are already battened down. Above all, its about hiking - the longer and harder you can hike the faster you will go - period. The hiking bench at home has done sterling service throughout the winter and I have kept up my 150 sit ups every night and it is paying off.
4. Tacking - ever since I began to treat tacking as an upwind gybe, I have begun to see an improvement. No foiling tacks yet but it is pleasing to be on the new rack all powered up once the tack is completed. Now it is about letting off the kicker and cunningham in the lighter stuff to get up as quickly as possible.
5. Race craft - club racing starts again in mid March (plus our first open meeting at Queen Mary). Nothing improves race craft more than racing so I am looking forward to that.
2012 is my 51st year and currently the body is holding together well. I need to lose some weight after the winter but Moth sailing is great for that and a bit of mid week training commencing now the days are getting longer should help.
Accommodation is booked for the Worlds in Pieve in the Tremosine area. For anyone looking, note that there is only one road down to Campione from the top of the cliff. Whilst a village in the Tremosine area can seem closer to Campione than Pieve, you still have to drive through that village to get down. So best off looking there first.
Is anyone aware of a 2012 Worlds web site yet? I found this http://www.mothworlds.org/campione/ but it is devoid of any information. About time this was sorted out?
