So the camera got pointed the other way today, this time back at the skipper, as the best way to improve is to look and see your mistakes. Things were going well until the pushrod decided that it no longer wanted to be attached to the flap, this time threading the brass out on the way. It was a real shame as I was ahead of three other boats a the time. Oh well there is always next week, once I get the foil back together.
Well people have asked for a moth wiki, so here it is rock on over to http://wiki.mothosphere.com. There is a catch though, you will require an account to view or edit any content.
Why is it not going to be visible to everyone on the net? … to keep the trolls out.
It’s currently empty though .. so if you want it, you need to help fill it.
I really liked Adam May’s the foiling guide, and like my how to make a Moth part 1 it alludes to a more parts that are “yet to come”, as a teaser the last line of the document is “[Wand and cable section still to come to complete this section]” but it never came …
with a recent post over on Sailing Anarchy complaining that people never put information out there I rolled up my sleeves and wrote Magic wands – Wand control systems on Hydrofoil moths.
This is my understanding of how this all works, if you don’t agree then let the debate start …
Saturday was another great day sailing out on the river. I headed out early to get another hour of pre-race practice in and to check some new bits that I put on Friday night were all ok. The breeze was full of holes hadn’t filled in yet, however despite this I still managed to hit 16 knots peak speed. Dad was down so he managed to take a couple of photos as well.
By the time the race rolled around the breeze had filled in to 12-15. I missed the start completely, but managed to haul in Bruce Gault in his 16″ foiler, by the top mark, just so he could walk away from me downwind.
My racing at the moment is consisting of stints of good pace, joined together by portions of no pace at all. The reason is that I am forcing myself to try and nail every gybe and tack as quickly as possible and as a result I am now hitting about 50% of each as clean and quick ( I pulled 5 foiling gybes this week, so It is very true that once you know how it just becomes easier and easier). The rest ended up in swims.
I am still struggling with angles downwind and up, but that is mainly due to hot having anyone to reference myself with.
Then the boat started to misbehave, and I started chasing setup (oh the joys of on the water adjustability), then it got worse and worse, then the boat started launching out if the water. I stopped and checked but everything seemed fine, even though it obviously wasn’t I soldiered on in a breeze that had now filled into a solid 18-20 with little to no foil control.
I finished the full length course for the first time and when I unclipped the foil control rod, there was something missing. the bell-crank pivot bolt was nowhere to be seen … so that explains that.
Oh and I made another video …
Finally, here is the long awaited part 2 of how to home build a moth. This one covers how to construct your own hydrofoils