2001 Worlds - Race Reports

Race 1
There was carnage during the first race, mostly among the Japanese sailors due to the 20-25 knots of wind. The first four boats in the first race traded places for most of the race, until there were a few capsizes, mostly on the gybe marks of the 'p' courses. Freddy and Patrick from Switzerland were most disappointed to finish just outside the 20 minute time limit after the first boat. This limit has been revised to 30 min now. Only 7 boats finished in the original time limit though.

Race 2
With only about half the total number of entrants to start in the 15-20 knot NE breeze, current World Champion Chris Dey and current Australian Champion Mark Thorpe had a great battle over the first lap. Thorpe got a good shift halfway up the second work to gain a 50m lead. By the end of reaches this was closed to 30 m but then Thorpe covered Dey to the finish to get the gun. Moth sailing vetran, Andrew McDougall was 3rd, followed by Oliver Laing. There were some big gaps in the fleet following this though! The courses and organisation have been superb. The races are on the long side, but all angles are true and fair. There are support boats everywhere and many spectators have been accommodated on the water.

Race 3 & 4
Two races were sailed Thursday in very sloppy conditions with 4-5m waves still left over from the previous days cold front. This along with only 5-6 knots of breeze made sailing very difficult as the apparent wind moved 90 degrees depending whether you were on a wave or not. Mark Thorpe from Australia won both races convincingly showing his long time in the class with better boat handling in the hard conditions.

Race 5
Friday's racing consisted of 2 races in 5-8 knot offshore breezes. There was still quite big waves running (up to 1.5 m), so it made it difficult again. Mark Thorpe from Australia won both races. The first race was a marathon length, with extremely long down wind legs. The Swiss sailors excelled in the light breeze downwind and got 2nd and 3rd in the first race. Mark took 90 minutes to finish.

Race 6
We then waited on the water for an hour before the second race started which was further out to sea. Chris Dey and Mark Thorpe had a good battle to the first mark, but then Thorpe's downwind accelerator kicked in and he was never headed. Dey again had a great battle with Freddy and Patrick from Switzerland, but survived the downwind legs to finish second, then Patrick, and then Andrew McDougall snuck in to beat Freddy near the line. However Andrew was over at the start and after a protest hearing which finished at 17:30, has been disqualified.

Race 7
Today was sailed in a sub 10 knot breeze, dying to less than 5 knots in the final stages. Swell was down to 1.5 m. Mark won again by a reasonable margin. There was a 2 knot current ripping down the center of the first beat that split the fleet up early.

Race 8
Andrew McDougall was first to the top mark in race 8, but Mark Thorpe took over on the reaches as usual. What was unusual was that Mark lead the fleet to the bottom mark rather than the wing/centre mark. Every one followed the leader and soon were all milling around the leeward of the bottom mark looking for another mark further down. Mark Robinson, Andrew McDougall and Yumiko Shige were the first to realise the mistake and started sailing back. Chris Dey, who was quite back at the time picked up on it too. We sailed back though all these boats milling and they did not wake up. When Mark Thope finally realised the problem, but he decided it was all to hard and went home.

Race 9
Todays racing was a great tussle between Thorpe, Dey and McDougall with the lead changing a dozen times. Dey fastest upwind, Thorpe fastest downhill and McDougall fastest reaching. Then the Thorpe computer, obviously still not recovered for the previous days mark finding debacle, decided, while in the lead, to charge off on a flyer into oblivion. The race was shortened at the end of the reach giving McDougall the race a few seconds over Dey, the only break to the Thorpe/Dey stranglehold.

Race 10
Thorpe's computer seemed to come back on line in Race 10, as this time he headed to the correct side of the course early never to be headed, leaving Dey and McDougall to a race similar the morning with McDougall grabbing second spot. Back in the middle of the pack there also was close racing. Boats were jostling for over all position in the regatta, covering one another for the entire last lap.

Other News
Thursday night was the International Moth Class Association annual general meeting (AGM), and Mark Robinson from Australia was elected as as the new World President and Rohan Veal, who is also from Australia, as World Secretary. Initially there was some debate by some people on the use of hydrofoils, but the focus was to determine if hydrofoils were actually illegal under the current rules before the class decides if they want them or not. There are Moths at the Japan Worlds with hydrofoils. The next worlds are in the ocean off France in 2003, and it is unlikely they will get any use there either.