Ok here it is. This is what we have been working on. It’s a homebuilt CNC router for making the next generation of foil moulds to upgrade my foils to a new more modern design.
This should be up and running this week hardware wise, now on to the software …
This week Bladerider have launched another model into their lineup, the FX. According to their site, the main differences are a fiberglass gel-coated hull, straight wings, aluminum gantry and prodder, dacron sail, significantly reduced price and a one design class.
One design classes generally promise that there is an even playing field with all equipment being identical. Once you talk to a few people who compete at the top levels in classes like the 49er you realise that this is not the case at all. For example, 49er masts. The top 49er guys will arrive at the docks when the batch of masts arrives from the manufacturer and go through the entire shipment of masts looking for masts that are on the extremes of manufacturing tolerances for stiffness. This essentially allows them to get stiff and soft masts for a class where all masts are created equal. (The class is currently addressing this by switching to carbon masts).
Having spent the last six months developing my own boat, it is very apparent that tiny changes in certain areas on a moth can make huge performance differences around the course, and these types of changes would be almost impossible to police if someone wanted to bend the rules a little bit. So the whole one design thing doesn’t appeal to me at all, and I don’t think it will work as the motivation to tinker is too great with a foiler.
So do I think the FX is a bad idea? Quite the opposite actually. I think that the idea of the FX is a good one. For a lighter guy, say in the 65-75 kg mark, of average skill level, they could buy a FX, sail it well and still expect to be very competitive in a moth fleet. They probably won’t win, but there are a lot of us that would never sail at all if our goal was to win. Will they be the first to take off in light weather? Probably not. Could they expect to be right there in medium winds if they sailed well? Absolutely. Could they upgrade their boat in the future? Well it is still a moth …
Lowering the barrier to entry for the class is a very welcome addition, especially in countries where there is not a large number of second hand boats.
So would I buy one, probably not as is, however add in the option of an FX plus where I can upgrade to a carbon hull and a monofilm sail but keep the cheaper wings, gantry and prodder and I think it would be very tempting. The only problem then is that I would continue to live in envy of those uber-sexy moulded wings …