The minutes for the recent IMCA Aus. Annual general meeting has the following on “Race car finishes”

RO at SoPYC has interpreted that all moths have balance of 15 minute time limit after the winner to complete course, and if they do not complete they are scored on the number of laps completed. This results in boats being lapped but continuing to complete a lap after the winner has finished. This is because practice is new in WA.

But it does have some benefits.

Discussion recommended that we rewrite component of Sis to reflect previous practice where all boats stop at next crossing of finish line/gate after winner completes course.

After sailing at SIRS this year, I have a very strong opinion on the idea of time limits like this one, they suck. The race car way is by far the best when you are racing at the back and it actually adds the need to know where the leader is and if they are going to pass you or not on the last leg.

The 10 or 15 minute time limit idea is just bad, as it means that you might be halfway up the work when your time limit has expired and you have no idea. It is much easier to know, OK I have been lapped, and then must follow the leaders to the finish and record your score.

I also expect that it will make back to back starts quicker as you don’t need to wait for people like me to finish a lap, after the time limit has expired because I don’t know when the leader has finished if he hasn’t lapped me yet.

Race car finishes, without silly time limits are the way to go.

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.

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.