So everything finally came together on Saturday and I hit the water in the “new” boat. It took a little while in the morning to get the new gantry all on. Changing to a tube gantry has cut 1.2KG from the boat, so that was a nice little gain right there.

Saturday was good conditions to get back into things with a nice gentle breeze. I had a few first day issues though, which included sailing the NE instead of the E course, loose hiking straps, and essentially bolt on and sail set-up, which is also known as no set-up at all.

My main foil, whilst it does get the boat up, is completely rooted. After being broken and repaired three times, it has high drag and poor lift, and puts me in a situation where I try and foil upwind, and can only do it reaching, at some 60 degrees off the breeze, with no VMG whatsoever. For the next race I will give it few degrees more AOA, to try and make things a bit better.

Despite the problems, at least I can still sail, and put all my off the water efforts into building a new main foil. This will be a very different construction to the last ones, it will be made in 4 pieces and then joined, the flaps will be cut into them later, and they will be foam cored with vacuum bagged skins, and a solid carbon spar, thanks to the magic of CST pultrusion..

Simon has finally revealed the bow of the Mach 2, over on his blog, and it looks … interesting. The wand gear will look nice and neat all hidden away in the bow, and it would also let you keep your settings to yourself, although it might make building a custom wand a bit more of a challenge.

The real interesting news, though is that they have already sold 20+ boats, on nothing more than Amacs reputation of being bloody quick, and a few computer renders.

Microsoft of old would be proud of that marketing effort.

There is an interesting post up in the new editorial section of the IMCA UK web site. The first in what I can only assume will be an ongoing series of posts introduces the concept of the moth “middle class”.

Who is the moth middle class?

Time for a definition, paraphrased from the UK article.

People who paid full price for their (slightly inferior gear), without whom all manufacturers would go bust and all championships would fail.

So it appears that we how have a system in the class where the majority of sailors will be paying to compete with an elite number of sailors whom they themselves are funding? Huh ? What the crap are you going on about Bruce?

Ok let me explain, with a completely hypothetical scenario and manufacturer.

Now let’s pretend for a moment that an Olympic gold medallist, lets call them Bob. Signed up with a manufacturer team, and he got a new boat at a hypothetical 50% discount.

Let’s also assume that Bob gets access to a set of special “team only” foils that are smaller so in heavier winds they are 10% faster, and gets three sails. Bob flies to the regatta two weeks before the World titles starts, trains with the team coaches and gets used to the sailing conditions. The cost of his flights, accommodation and boat transport are less than the 50% he saved on the price of the boat.

Meanwhile Tim buys a boat from the same manufacturer and pays full price. On top of the purchase price he has to pay for his flights and accommodation. Tim runs his own (non-sailing related) small business so he can’t afford to take any extra time off to get to the regatta early.

Bob wins the regatta, and puts up his boat for sale. As the reining champion, his boat is in high demand and he sells it for only $1K less a brand new boat. That $1K is the total cost of his entire regatta, and he can now get another brand new discounted boat from the manufacturer, and repeat the cycle again. Unknown to the boat’s buyer, Bob changed back to his old foils, an old sail, and altered the boats settings before the new owner took delivery.

I want to stress that this is fictional and any resemblance to an actual person or manufacturer is completely co-incidental. This is a hypothetical scenario that could happen in the future.

The moral of the story

Unless you have very deep pockets, as long as your manufacturer has a “team” that is subsidised, and has an equipment advantage, you should look elsewhere for your boat. If you want a serious chance at winning a championship with a level playing field, you should insist on equal equipment at the same price as the team members are getting, at the same time that they get it.

Otherwise you can buy the boat and be very happy in your Ferrari Enzo, knowing full well that you have helped fund Kimi Räikkönen to winning his world title. You still have a fast car, you still can have fun and even win club races, but you will never get a shot at the title.

The other option is simple, talk with you wallet, and buy your boat from a manufacturer where everyone gets the same gear, and there is no A team. Apparently they do exist. Who knew ?

At the end of the day, a Moth upper class will only exist as long as the middle and lower classes are prepared to fund it.

I have added a pole on the front page of the website, with the current topic being what is the boat to have in 2009? 

At the moment I have had a huge 3 votes and the Mach 2 is ahead by 50%.

Make your opinion known and get voting !

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A spot of grey paint and some sugar later and the paint job is complete.

Now I have moved on to the next item, a new gantry.

This will be the fourth gantry I have built in the last three years. The last one technically worked really well, and was very low drag but it needed to be replaced because it was heavy, ugly and wouldn’t fit the boat anymore now that I have removed the back beam.

I don’t think that I’ll make the race on Saturday, but I’ll give it my best shot. At least I will get the boat back in the shed and ready to go for the following week.