REGATTA REPORT
The Pacific Northwest’s Moth Madness Regatta came and went this weekend, with Raptor Sails and Mach2 occupying the top three spots once again. It was good to see all those orange batten pockets out there on the river. This time it was Dalton Bergan in a convincing 1st, Charlie Mckee in 2nd, and Matt Pistay in 3rd.
pic: Bill Symes MORE
Friday was a blowout. The fleet didn’t leave the beach during the day, due to nuking winds frothing the waters of the Columbia River Gorge. Well after the committee abandoned, most of the 15 competitors hit the water around dinnertime for a shakedown sail, as the wind eased and the sun sunk low over Bridge of the Gods.
On Saturday the winds were still pumping, yet the super amped fleet was able to survive a seven race series that would define the overall result. After discard, Dalton was left with straight bullets, with Charlie earning 2nd, based on consistency, and Matt close at his heels. Honorable mention, in my opinion, goes to Adam Lowry for stepping up with a mere 7 points over the last four races. He is definitely one to watch going forward.
Sunday saw the return of the monster breeze. After milling around for a while, the fleet, which had come from all over the West, made the call to pack it up early and start heading home. Dalton commented in retrospect, that Sunday “might have been do-able,” but it sounds like it would have been a pretty scary scene, including lots of expensive broken carbon bits.
check the full results HERE
EXPLODING HOMEBUILDS
We had a couple of home-builds at the event, including mine, and one from Chris Maas, of Int. Canoe fame. Both of us thought it would be cool, if not educational, to send Dalton out to give us feedback on our setups. I was personally super curious to see what Dalton would have to say about all my homebrew madness.
During the sail-around on Friday night, Dalton went ahead and grabbed Chris’s rough proto boat first. The thing is pretty awesome. It consists of a plywood box for a hull, with continuous racks, and a bunch of innovative stuff, including a center mount wand, a super high aspect, low area rudder foil, and a dihedral mainfoil with two flaps. The rigging was also interesting with horizontally mounted levers taking the place of blocks and tackle. Altogether, it is an amazing brainstorm by a guy that builds Int. Canoes that look like pieces of candy. Dalton got it on the water, got it foiling, and nearly pulled off a jibe, despite the crazy rudder. Two seconds later, bang, the gantry ripped off the back of the boat. Bummer.
After a swim back to the beach, it was my turn. I had everything rigged up, and tossed Dalton in my boat. My last words uttered through a smirk were, “take it easy on my gantry… I’m not sure I trust that thing…” Apparently, that warning wasn’t enough. I ran to the car excited to hit the water myself, and struggled to strap on my soggy wetsuit, left since the day before. By the time I got back to the water’s edge, Dalton was swimming my boat in, whilst by rudder and gantry seemed to be floating off in another direction. Damn. Really??? I mean reallllllyyyyyy?????
Two gantries in under 30 minutes. Is that a new moth record? Sad thing… probably not.
Dan
I have done 4 main foils in 45 minutes… never two gantries. I cried a little!
4 mainfoils in 45 minutes… u win. I cried my brains out when my first mainfoil blew up on my third day sailing the new boat… homebuilds are ridiculous.
Dan,
Yes homebuilding is ridiculous, and painful, and heartbreaking. it is also very, very rewarding when it finally all works.
The gantry, esp the attachment points, is something that needs to be significantly over-engineered.
Regards,
Bruce
Hey c’mon guys, you need a bit of UK guidance! A little bit of extra carbon here, a little of extra carbon there and you end up with a bullet proof boat (touch carbon)
My little Ninjario has so far survived one ope meeting and the UK nationals in winds up to 22 knots.. next stop the europeans so get that epoxy out and don’t go light!
Cheers,
Phil
haha… yeah… i went with some spherical nut type deals on my gantry attachment… think I actually borrowed the idea from you… but I didn’t go beefy enough, and the metal actually sheared on the threaded stud! Definately surprised me, as I thought the carbon would have exploded first… live and learn.
Centre wand (how’s the ventilation on your main foil?), check, super high aspect rudders, check.. Nice to see that the US is validating experiments already done in the UK over the last few years.. ;-P
Sounds awesome non-the-less!
Dan,
That is a common failure, even the beefed up ones eventually fatigue and shear. To solve that I used carbon plates, and guess what sheared off at my last regatta … the carbon plates.
Regards,
Bruce
You suck. The only thing that didn’t break on my boat is the gantry. As for the poetry of homebuilding, screw that. It’s fine as a sailing bum but it starts being a pita when you’ve got a wife and kid that you’re suppose to spend time with. Unless your shed is away from your house, hum …
Intrigued as to why you think a super high aspect rudder is going to make gibing hard? Can’t see why it would in theory and it certainly doesn’t in practice…
When I build a real Moth I will definitely need to get one of those Raptor sails. Very nice indeed.
One thing that struck me was the high level of boat handling right through the fleet. Saturday was what? maybe gusts to 25?- but viciously shifty and gusty as well at the top mark.
Dan, you weren’t there on Sunday, after the races were canceled, to see Dalton (Breaker of Gantrys) sail my Moth with the repaired gantry. Amazing that he could sail such an odd boat in that much wind.
I didnt know Dalton could swim that far towing a Moth. And twice…. All quite imprssive really!