Ten Moths gathered in Miami again last weekend for our second event in the Layline Winter Moth Series. The group included weekend warriors such as birthday boy (55 yrs!) John Bartlett from Austin, Gerry Bell from Boston and Katherine Knight from England. Adding depth to the deep end was self-exiled laser sailor Brad Funk.
Florida has been flukey lately, and we struggled with wind this weekend with both the Slalom and Saturday’s fleet racing being canned due to no wind. Sunday, the Coconut Groove Sailing Club got us in four races with our reaching start a la ACWS. This allowed for some good fun with John B and Gerry leading the way a few times. Other regattas around the bay only got in 2 races so we felt lucky!
In the end, Anthony Kotoun took the win with Brad Funk beating out Bora on a tie break for 2nd and 3rd, and while we love him, it’s great to see the Michigan wonderboy losing one for a change.
We will be back March 17-18 for event number 3, so come on down and see the good stuff we’ve got going on. With a great winter series in Miami, good events on both the West and East coast and our next two worlds in Lake Garda and Hawaii, it’s a hell of a time to be flying.
After several regattas spent waiting for the breeze, the West Coast Moth fleet finally got what we’ve been praying for, breeze, in spades! Saturday dawned bright and clear with a good prospect of some great sailing. Anthony Kouton, and Matt Knowles had put in an awesome effort to get here from the East Coast, both chartering boats for the regatta, but the prize for travel had to go to Geoff Hurwitch who drove down from Park City to race his new home build. It’s based on the Nat / Bobby Cinchillazila hull and uses stock Bladerider foil set up. Still some tuning to do but Geoff made some big strides forward over the weekend toward foiling mega stardom.
For those who dont know ABYC Turkey Day is very well attended and attracts a couple of hundred boats from several classes. We managed to put 8 on the start line for some rewarding racing. PRO got us off to our first start in a gusty 12 knots, plenty of holes to fall into and I should know as I fell in most of them. Eric Aakhus took the first race, and went on to string together another 2 wins in the building before Zack Maxam managed to break his strangle hold on the regatta with his first win. The PRO clearly thought we needed a work out as race 3 and 4 were monsters, taking around 25 mins a lap, with 2 laps in each race. Hiking “jelly” legs were the order of the day with everyone praying for the bear away around the top mark to get some rest.
With Eric the overnight leader, we went into Sunday anticipating more wind, but as the fronts started to roll through, Pier J recorded well over 30 knots of breeze, the PRO call it a day. Eric is top turkey and won, well a turkey. Zack 2nd Anthony 3rd, with Matt Knowles then me and Jimmer Montgomery filling in the minor placings.
Great regatta if cut short, and looking forward to the next outing in Miami.
Scuttlebutt – State of the Class
Ever since foils were added to the International Moth in 2003, the class has been elevated both literally and figuratively. Growth in the U.S. was flying high for the 2009 CST Composites Moth World Championship in Cascade Locks, Oregon, where 33-year old Bora Gulari became the first American in 33 years to win the title.
Now two years later, Scuttlebutt checked in with class promoters Matt Knowles and Anthony Kotoun who file this report on the State of the Class:
Event: Miami Winter Series Clinic/Slalom March 2012
March 1, 2012
to
March 31, 2012
March 2012
Keep an eye on this page for details:
http://www.int-moth.us/miami-2011/
Event: Miami Winter Series Heat 2 – January 7/8th 2012
January 7, 2012
to
January 8, 2012
January 7/8th 2012
Keep an eye on this page for details:
http://www.int-moth.us/miami-2011/
Event: Miami Winter Series Heat 1 – December 17/18
December 17, 2011
to
December 18, 2011
December 17-18
Keep an eye on this page for details:
http://www.int-moth.us/miami-2011/
Event: SoCal training weekend – 14/15th October
October 14, 2011
to
October 15, 2011
Training Weekend – 14/15th Oct. This will be held at either Coronado or Long Beach depending on attendance, We already have a couple of boats committed so should be an interesting weekend of tuning and sharing info. We wil aim to be out by 12:00 pm each day and sail for most of the afternoon. PLease contact Richard Davies for further details and look for confirmation of location
Event: Coronado Regatta – 24th/25th September
September 24, 2011
to
September 25, 2011
Coronado Regatta – 24th/25th Sept. Check the CYC web site(http://race.coronadoyc.org/calendar) but first start will be 12;00 pm on Saturday. As many races as we can get them to run, all to count.
Event: Turkey Day Regatta, ABYC Long Beach – Nov 19th/20th
November 19, 2011
to
November 20, 2011
Turkey Day regatta 19/20 November – World renouned ABYC Turkey day regatta. Dont know what to do for dinner? Here’s your chance to win a turkey! NOR, SIs and on line entry at ABYC web site. For those going on to Miami we plan to ship from this event as it will be cheaper for us. Check teh Miami link for more detail of this:
