Lets get straight to the point here. I hate planes. I was in Doha yesterday for work, and isnt it always the way that when u go away or have an unavoidable non sailing related thing to do its windy? I’m sure ze boys had a lovely day on the water, my boat stayed in park firme for the day.
Why is it when you travel nothing ever goes to plan? Firstly my taxi was late. Then I got stuck in the immigration queue in Doha for a while and was almost very late for where I was going. On the way back I was sat in front of a bulkhead so my seat would not go back and I had a little child in front of me with some rocking disease that involved her banging her head backwards against her seat for an hour and a half. Thrill. Then the plane takes 35 minutes to taxi cause of pre mentioned wind and landing the oppsite direction to normal. Finally when you think you are being clever and standing right next to the door of the bus you are sure is going to open and get to the front of immigration line, other side opens and you are last. Hmmm. Travelling by boat is much better.
Boats and people are here, new gear being tested too. Thinking about having a bbq on tuesday for anyone that is around at the house. Warm pool, warm hot tub, free beer, just bring meat. Im taking it easy this week in preparation for the party in barasti on friday where we have to figure out how to make the puma moth’s float in the water on their own. Suggestions welcome, we have a fwe idea’s… Been thinking about the slalom event as well. Have been thinking to have two mirrored courses and have one on one shoot outs with 2 minute starting guns. Like a kockout and then have a best of three or mini MOTH Cup final on the lay day bbq event. Or should we just keep the same format. Anyone that has organised one alreayd is more than welcome to help…. more to the point… PLEASE help us haha.
Take it easy people.
I am not one for having blog counters etc to know how many people visit my blog or even read it. There is a big difference between visiting and reading my shite.
Anyway, I have a bit on right now, there are so many press things going on with the worlds coming up. Photo shoots, radio interviews, TV shows, Branded Moths, boats shipping in, trophies, dinners, jury, volunteers, paperwork, bank accounts, sponsors, branding, flags, ribs, marks, twitter and general panic going on. One good thing is someone beat us to the punch with a facebook page. At least we dont have to update that too. In between all of that I have to try and do some sailing. Safe to say my sailing is probably suffering a bit and I feel a little under prepared. saying that when I sailed a lot better in the US when I had hardly done any sailing and almost written off my boat on my first outing in the Gorge.
My North sail arrived the other day. Initially when I first went out I thought I had made a mistake getting a north in again. As i got used to the difference it became easier to use and I got it going well in the afternoon in the line ups we had. Jonny was out for a rare appearance which is a good thing, I hope he races in the nationals and gets some good moth fleet experince, shame he cannot make it to the worlds for the Dubai Boat show. I have changed up a few things on the north now so will see if it makes any difference to my light air take off. I found the MLS 13 got you going a bit earlier, but I need to get out in some marginal stuff with Glenny to really match it. Training with Glenn for so long makes him the best yardstick and I know if we get up at the same time while he is on the 13 and I am on the North then there is something wrong.
I think the Swiss guys turn up this weekend, which is a good thing, some more people out training and tuning up.
It is the Maktoum cup next weekend and the RC 44 event. I am in Doha on Sunday for an ISAF conference and then should be free to be sailing msot days for the worlds.
I watched the cup on TV on Sunday night. It was a weird mix, I was excited on the first beat and thought Andy Green’s commentary was pretty good and entertaining. When they went round the windward mark though it was dull as dishwater. I think they should have done two laps with more manouvers.
I must say even before the worlds start that Lisa the event manager is a complete star and I owe her so many bottles of wine.
I sailed on monday night with Glenny in borderline breeze. Was very good to practice getting up early, however the effort used to get up on the foils compared to distance ganed is very very small. I stayed high in some real marginal stuff while glenn went for it, he lost a good 100 yards when he came down again.
Last night we had 8 boats rigged up, two of them were the puma boats for some pics with the puma guy. The other 6 went out training. Its so much easier to be motivated to go sailing midweek when there are other people sailing. We had a few line ups and all made some changes. I had my new ride height thingy going….. feel like you could get carried away playing with it to be honest. Had a fantantic roast dinner at the club last night. Roast pork. mmmmmm
Off for an old school curry tonight at Ravi’s restaurant. A MUST visit for anyone who likes their curry while they are here at the worlds. I would put a link up to a website…. but its not that kind of place. No sailing tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Racing Sb3′s on friday and then mothing on saturday again. I am going through a phase of just enjoying my sailing, and wanting to sail everything and anything (apart from a Mcgregor 26)!
The water temperature in Dubai is cold. I spent a lot of time on the water this weekend and spent most of it pretty chilly. It has been overcast and friday I was at the yacht club at 8am. Grogs was with me and did some invaluable video work and sorted out a few little technique issues I have been having on the new boat.
He is going to come out with me on monday as well and try and make me do some pressure situation drills. So after three hours on the water by myself the rest of the gang turned up to come for a sail. I feel real happy with the work that I did on friday. Afternoon session was finding some modes with these new KA 13′s we have. Glenny has a very fast mode and was cruising on 16 knots upwind in 18 ture. We did some downwind modes late in the day about 4pm, I still not really figiured that bit out yet.
Saturday the breeze was not very good in the morning so did some boat work. It came in about 2 and we were back out. We had some low riding practice when the big cloud sucked all the breeze up. The breeze came back in for another three hours so spent saturday doing upwind to a mark and back over and over and over and over. I am completely fooked now so will give today a miss before i do monday tuesday and wednesday afternoons on the water.
Rob had his new Assassin out for the first time this weekend. He had a few teething issues. I had a sail on it on saturday afternoon for 10 minutes. It feels soo different. I do like the material the wing covers are made from. Being on the foils reminds me of being on a hover craft in Florida. It would take some time to figure out how all the systems work on it, there seems to be a lot less flap movement on thoes boats than I have seen before.
Anyway, not long to go now until people arrive. Happy days! See you all soon.
While I sit here feeling sorry for myself with the flu I thought i’d do a form guide, its only a month away afterall.
1) Scott Babbage: Scott has been the nearly man since Garda. He was on a troubled boat in Weymouth but was right on the money in the USA, barring gear failure would have been in the top three. He says he has not been doing a lot of sailing on his moth since the Worlds. There is no pressure on him and it should not be windy enough to break any gear in Dubai.
2) Simon Payne: Light airs flier, won the last worlds that were sailed in light stuff. I think his knee might hamper him a bit if there is borderline conditions. But then again it all might be a red herring and he might be lapping us all. Plus he is yet to enter. Keeping his powder dry.
3) Arnaud : Always there on the money. Very nearly snuck into second on the last couple of races in the USA. He could also easily win it, but then again so could anyone in the top five.
4) Bora Gulari: Bora has not won any big event overseas before. Maybe he does not travel well or just a bit unlucky. Rumour is that he can take off in a gnats fart now. If thats the case he could again just blow all before him away. I do think his downwind mastery will not be as pronounced in Dubai.
5) Dalton Bergen: Only behind Bora because he got beat by Bora in the PCC’s first day, and thats the latest I have got. He could easily win though. Really helping to push the American fleet along at a rapid pace.
6) Amac : Winning everything in Australia so far in 2010. Very dangerous and hard to place, I feel like i should put him higher up, especially with his new super sail that he is developing. I have only ever seen him go in big air, not sure what he is like in lighter stuff.
7) Rob Gough : Just got his Mach Two and learning quickly how to sail it. Another consistent performer and pretty lightweight.
Ricky Tagg : Word is he is going very well in the Mach Two and has been putting the time in. Can see him causing the big boys some problems.
9) Mark Robinson : Mark showed he has got it in the lighter races in the USA coming up with some top 5 results. I think he will come back into the fold in Dubai and show some good skills. No idea how much time he has put on the water though.
10) Adam May : Always a dangerous customer, I feel like he should also be higher up in the pecking order. We will see.
I wanted to put Bear in the top ten somewhere as well as Martin Gravare and Glenn MacDaddy Raphael. Glenn has got some serious pace going on when he is foiling, but he will loose at least a couple of races to not being able to get on the foils early.
I also think that by having a full Jury here and having a light air regatta we will actually see the Jury penalising people for breaking rule 42 when trying to get onto the foils.
Where do I wanna finish? Anywhere around the outskirsts of the top ten will do.
