Been trying to work out this picture stuff for my blog. I have resigned myself to asking my brother for help. God Dam it. Since i blogged off there have been a few new boats that have appeared.
The Assassination : Looks cool, good boys behind it by the looks of it. Sounds like they are going to target the Dubai worlds and the light air take off rather than the windy Gorge. Interested to see one in the hands of a really really quick sailor, there is one coming for permanent residence in Dubai after the summer. Lets see if he can get up to speed in time.
Macheous twoage: For some reason it reminds me of that James bond baddy boat that swallows sub marines and ships. Already proved itself, they will be desperate to win the worlds, then the proof will really be in the pudding. Would like to see one here and see how they go in our marginal choppy conditions, think the really high ride height might cause a few worries if it gets steep for our event.
The Ninja : Cookie continues to impress and looks like he has got a complete weapon in the lighter stuff. Worrying!
So what else? NOT a LOT!
To the horror of you all, I might write a book. It is going to be called the EXPAT. I know a lot about fuck all but if there is one thing i do know a lot about its being an expat with no real home. I was at a training seminar for the worlds on thursday night and all the attendees were drinking vodka red bull, just so they were on the ball, and got talking about being expats as a few of them had only been in town for two weeks or a month. They were all going on how they like Dubai so far but glad they were never expat brats. Being the quiet kind i just listened to these guys talking about how expat brats (me) are spoilt and really lucky.
Why am i spoilt? Because i grew up in a desert? Because my dad decided that he actually did not like living in Middlesbrough in near poverty and that he thought taking a chance on a country which had nothing would be good for his family? So be it, i’ll take expat brat any day over being in jail, or a football holligan, or a brick layer, or a longshoreman. I think the term expat brat means i went to school out here and am given everything by my parents, that could not be further from the truth. Anyway a little rant. Back to the book.
I did not go sailing over the weekend, Glenn went out and spewed going uphill. I watched Le Tour, i am thinking of buying a bike and following the tour next summer. The plan of attack being doing the bike stuff and going up some monster hills and then trying to get an invite to the Archipelago raid. Anyone in Europe want to lend me an F18 for a week? I would also dearly love to do the Tour de France a Voile. They have just changed the fleet to the Archambault 34, which would make it easier to get hold of a boat with local connections in Dubai. If not i will just get mumsie and dadsi to buy me a 34 four footer. ppffff, i hate the wanna be expats, they are just so common.
So many things i want to do at the moment, a mini campaign would also be on my list of must do’s, firstly i need to move back to the UK and get some real weather. My brain is a jumble today after spending a lot of the last 48 hours drunk, not having a boat and Dubai summer heat is a bad combination. I fly out on friday morning for the US of A, going to be another awesomely long boring flight, as i do not like economy, i think i might get mum to splash out and upgrade me to business, but if thats full……… i might have to pull the expat and call some of me mates who work at emirates and pretend like i know people that can upgrade me.
Organising the Dubai Moth Worlds has given me some good insight into the inner workings of the global moth fleet. I think as the high end high tech fast moving fast talking fleet of world sailing, we need to have a stronger corporate indentity. Signing sponsors is a difficult part of moth worlds and organisers workload, which i think the fleet as a whole should take a responsibility. I do not think it should be down to the indiviual’s to find sponsors. I think it should be centralised so you have to join the world fleet and pay your dues to the class so the exec has money to spend on websites, professional corporate indentity sponsorship packages, and help out the world organisers by giving extra money for free beer or whatever. NOT a RANT, just some thoughts that I put down on virtual paper.
BRAT BRAT!
To go sailing or not to go sailing this weekend. Normally a very easily answered question for any sailor of moth’s, excluding Glenn. However, when its 48 degrees in the shade and 90% humidity even before the keenest of keen early morning runners awakes, it makes me have a scond thought.
Last time i went sailing before my boat left for ze worlds i went out on Friday with Glenny in about 16 17 knots. I had been for a run on the thursday night so was a bit dehydrated. Anyway, i felt like i was going to die on the water, after a big 4 miler upwind and back down again i had nothing left, i literally could not even sit on the wing and concentrate downwind over the last 500 meters or so. Adding to the fact that Glenn was faster than me downhill, which is something to commit suicide about in the first place, i went in. I had nothing in the gas tank to de rig and even left my boat on the grass and did not take it back to its parking spot….. i got in trouble….. again……!
I had a very easy sail on saturday just to make sure nothing broke and is going to break. I borrowed Jonny’s main foil as i am keeping my new one untouched till i get to a country where i do not rip off 14 maybe 15 flaps. It got to a stage where i could not do anything without my flap ripping off, so i just accepted it. Last time though, it bit the dust and i lost my flap, never to be seen in the arabian gulf again, most probably eaten by a killer carbon consuming fatty jellyfish, which are abundant right now.
I might go a for a quick little jolly on the weekend, but i really do not think its worthwhile, all i will do is struggle and sweat and not learn or achieve anything. I am also getting to grips with the wordpress hoo haa, i think i have figured out how to have changing pictures on my blog, unfortunately i need a flickr account, which is banned by the dubai government. Ahhh nothing is ever here.
I feel like i should blog about the Dubai recession, its on like donkey kong over here. Gazillions of people leaving, more people worried about jobs and rents and sale value of properties falling through the floor. don’t mention to the men in charge that Dubai is struggling, they will just tell you that they did not like the look of the burj Dubai and are compemplating knocking it down and starting again…. Just to prove they have money to burn.
Think we have a few new mothies coming over this summer, one from NZ and a mystery Australian. Whom are you? Gis a buzz when you get here and i’ll put you onto Glenn so you can understand each other!
Right, i am blogging again, not sure why but hey ho. So lots has been happenning since I blogged off. I suppose I should give a bit of an update. Firstly, I am blogging off my brothers domain which is basically a bit of a Dubai sailing site that he had running a while ago but lost motivation and got a bit dispondant with the human handbrakes that float around Dubai talking total shite (myself included). I also changed job after I got back from sunny Weymouth so I actually had lots of things to do for the last 9 months without having to fill my day with a blog.
After i deleted my last blog, i had a second thought that i should probably have just left it dormant rather than deleting all the stuff i had done. I did not realise how many things i had on there and adding to the fact that i am a stupid bastard, i cannot figure out how to work this new wordpress domain thingy instead of the ‘I am a total computer tard and use blogspot domain’.The worlds site is blogspot, just to make my life easy.
Now its summer, its boring again, my boat has gone to the USA, i checked on the map and it is 100% the other side of the world from here, so Barack, if you wanna press the green button, do it while i am in the states and give me a passport, at least it will save on the airfreight home aiiii?
I am loving all the information heavy moth blogs that have come out since this time last year, my mission is to give absolutley nothing in the way of technology on this thing, basically just a few (maybe a lot) of rants about things that annoy me and possibly people that annoy me. I will try my very best not to rant about things that will affect the moth worlds here and get my into any trouble with the high and mighty of Dubai sailing society, although i seem to do that just by being the owner of a moth. And someone in the west said Dubai was liberal, PAH!
One thing that got me a bit IRATE the other day at 4am (was up early for a run and went to see if my bro and a few others were still in the night club) are cockblockers. Some sleezy tool that just gets in the way on purpose. This chick was talking to me, she asked me my name but did not believe i was called Figjam???!!!??? anyway, we were chatting and she looked hot…ish. So this self proclaimed protector of hers bowls over and gives me the old heave ho, now I am not one to take these things lightly so got a little annoyed. I have all of a sudden run out of things to say….. basically i dislike cock blockers!
I am sure most don’t care, the Dubai clan form. Well my worlds form guide is as follows. Great white hope will suprise a whole lot of you Olympic and AC kids. I broke my boat about a zillion times this year, did not do a great amount of sailing and to top it all off i dislocated my top rib last week! I shall be going slowly but enjoying some cool weather and chilling out.
In the mean time, I will try and figure out how to add pictures behind the title, add linky things, i want to add music too but i think that might be a step too far.
Lastly an update from Sultan and the dhows. Sultan is the 22 foot champ this season, did terribly in the 40 footers. He had an up and down season in the 60 footers, having 4th as his best result when it was blowing and straight line speed was in need, no gybes in the race meant no team work needed. The big race that mattered he would have been 2nd or 3rd if he did not blow his mainsheet track in half. Bit of a mare but his new boat is a complete weapon, next season is a goer.
