Somehow on Friday I managed to catch a cold. This meant that Saturday was a struggle. With no real race on the. Lub volunteers were nice enough to put a windward leward course on just for us.

The racing in close quaters has confirmed that my pace continues to improve and is mainly being hampered by turning corners. Racing Phil showed this with huge gains being made by whoever made their gybe.

Today was spent perparing my next foil which I can hopefully use next weekend. Unfortunatley though I think that I will need more than Saturday morning to set it up.

To go to a good home … my 1st get square rudder and CB, including carbon tiller, aluminium extension but no adjuster. They will need some work to get going and make them look pretty again. They won’t win anything, but they will get you up and foiling.

Local pickup only $500 ONO for the lot.

Back in March 2009 was where I first noticed that I couldn’t point with speed compared to Luka, at the time I wrote:

My straight line speed of the boat upwind is now pretty good, compared with the top guys, (if I don’t make any mistakes), but I still can’t point anywhere as high as they do. My old MSL11 and softer c-tech mast might be playing a role here, but I also think that it is probably my technique.

Well yesterday I think that I finally have sorted that problem, and as it turns out it wasn’t me, it was my boom and mainsheet setup, which was confirmed in a pre-race upwind leg with Luka, and by passing three other Prowlers on the upwind leg around the bay.

Unfortunately that was the highlight of the day as the breeze was full of holes and which I enjoyed for most of the afternoon. This meant the majority of the race was spent in low riding mode, and being re-passed. Oh well, there is always this Saturday, and it’s only 3 days away.

There’s a little thread going on in Sailing Anarchy where it was suggested that only pro’s can home build competitive moth foils. And I’m calling bullshit.

I am not suggesting for a moment that I have built world championship winning foils, and I am also not suggesting that building foils is for everyone, however the process of designing and building, tuning, breaking and sailing on my own foils has produced some of the most rewarding and most heart breaking moments of my life and I wouldn’t change them for anything.

I’m not saying don’t buy, what I am saying is don’t be afraid to stick your neck out, persevere and build. You’ll be sad, frustrated, angry and delighted that you did.

The christmas break is over … for me and the family it consisted mostly of a trip to New Zealand around the North Island.

I did manage to pop out for a sail with Dave Lister though on my return, to test the new wand and engage is some boat swapping.

Dave and I were both amazed how different the boats felt, and you would never guess that they were from the same mould, not better (although Dave’s boat is obviously better than mine), but just different. Wing angles and the boat’s controls seem to make all the difference here.

A couple of things were immediately obvious though. A CST mast and boom are a must-have piece of kit. My c-tech rig, although it looks good, simply isn’t anywhere near as stiff, My mainsheet angles were wrong as well, something I have rectified since.

My new wand is working a treat, and the boat has never felt higher or more comfortable, and the adjustable length is a nice complement to “the dial” as they do different things.

So more tweaks are going on already for the next time out, to be followed by a big one … the BR main foil, then it is time to get back to making foils again, and turn my 2010 design into something real.