Day 5 - Slim, Slim, and Slim

[MR.CLEAN]

Who will be known as Slim Moth for the next year? From the front page...

Mighty Mites

With just 6 races to go, theinternational battle lines have been drawn for the final third of thePuma Moth World Championships. Simon "Slim" Payne leadswith 17 points with Brad "Slim" Funk and Arnaud "Slim"Psarofaghis tied on 20, while Andrew "Slim" Mcdougall andDalton "Slim" Bergan round out the top 5. See a patternhere?

Another three races are scheduled todaywith more marginal foiling conditions and hot sun, and rather thanwrite a big story (we're recovering from the ridiculous 3000+ strongNasimi Beach party last night) we'll just leave you with the DOSCreport and the officialPuma press release, and remind you to check out another pile ofgreat interviews and streaming live action from today's racing righthere on the Special Report.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

A whole pile of great interviews to come in a few, just uploading.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

This is a good report from the DOSC site. Also interesting is the fact that all the sailors will be weighed today for performance analysis.

Light winds and lots of low riding

FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 AT 15:40 | LISA RICHARDSLow riding was the name of the game and the end of racing on Day 4 at the World Championships.

 

Race 8 saw a brief postponement while the wind gained strength. 44 boats took to the water to start the first race of the day at 13.30. With a light but steady 7 knots all boats started with 1 OCS. Simon Payne dominated at every mark rounding and across the finish line with superior tactics and speed.

 

Race 9 pushed many boats to the limits of light wind sailing with over half the fleet residing to low riding for the majority of the race. Arnaud P took the lead from the start, however AMac took the bullet after out sailing the fleet on his final gybe.

 

With only 6 knots of breeze at the start line and tide running at the windward mark the race committee postponed the final race of the day until Saturday.

 

Final thought for the day from the fleet statistics

 

"When you pool all boats, then there is no correlation between age and performance. But when you do the same correlation by boat design, you’ll find:

 

1. If you ride a MACH 2: The older you are, the better you are ranked (so far)
2. If you ride a Bladerider, Fastacraft, Prowler, Fastacraft, etc: The younger you are, the better you are ranked (so far)

Does that mean that MACH 2 makes older men faster or does it mean that MACH 2 is the faster boat and only older guys can afford it (b/c it’s the most expensive)? Or is MACH 2 the most challenging boat so that you need to be very experienced to be able to sail it properly?"

 

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Our friends at PUMA are giving away five event T-Shirts today - the best part is that they are going to send them out rather than me, so you know you'll get them sooner than the usual 3 months it takes for me to get that shit done.

 

You get them by watching our live report and the Moth Worlds OTWA forum - Day 5. Here are the categories:

 

1) Most helpful forum poster - add weather, Moth Worlds news from around the world, etc.

2) Pick the top scorer on the day and their race results from each race

3) Pick the top 3 positions at the end of the day

4) Pick the top girl at the end of the day

5) Pick the top junior at the end of the day

 

All the links are on the Special Report site. Good times.

 

 

[MR.CLEAN]

from Pumaoceanracing.com

Day 5 Report

MARCH 12, 2010

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Just six of a maximum scheduled fifteen races remain in the ultra-competitive PUMA Moth World Championship 2010, and 2006 Moth World Champion Simon Payne (GBR) retains a slim lead over Brad Funk (USA) and Arnaud Psarofaghis (SUI). Light and twitchy breeze only allowed starts for two of the scheduled three races today, the first of which started after a short onshore delay to allow the light sea breeze to stabilize - somewhat.

 

The first race started in 6-7 knots of wind, and Payne won going away over Australian Master Andrew McDougall. European champ Arnaud Psarofaghis continued his run at the top with a third place. Current Moth World Champ Bora Gulari grabbed fourth and Top US Laser sailor Brad Funk crossed in fifth place, his worst finish since day one. “I still feel fast, but I had a lot of trouble getting off the starting line today,” said Funk. “But my US team mates gave me some good tips this afternoon on how to power up more quickly and get off the line quicker, and I think tomorrow will be a better day.”

 

Psarofaghis led nearly the entire way around the course on the second race, with McDougall using his dominating light-air downwind style to take the bullet after rounding the final mark in third. “I’m in a much better mood today,” said McDougall after scoring a 2 and a 1, the best score line on the day. “Last night I did everything I possible could to add power to my sail, as in this wind it is all about grunt, as you saw when I took the lead during the second race by staying up on my foils while everyone else was low-riding.”

 

Psarofaghis crossed the line in second, and is now tied for second overall with Funk, who duplicated his race 1 performance with a fifth. Payne scored third, displaying his incredible mental toughness by coming back from an over-early call which called him back to the start line. The Championship leader overhauled most of the fleet by the first bottom mark, and held off Michael Lennon (GBR) for the rest of the race, who finished fourth, moving him into eighth overall. World Champion Gulari (USA) finished tenth after a trying downwind run to the finish, giving him control of sixth place and showing the struggle the champ is facing to match the pace of the lighter sailors ahead of him. “Had I realized how light the wind would be here in Dubai, I would have likely trained much differently than i did,” said Gulari, “I definitely wouldn’t have eaten for the past two months!”

 

 

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Dan Kaseler checks in with a bit of drama...from his blog...

Sail Analysis Rebuttal

commentary2 Responses »

Mar

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12

2010

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A friend passed me a link to Chris William’s blog, and when I read it, I was amazed. It’s fine to talk about your own kit, but to harsh on another brand is a bit lame.

 

Not only did Chris say are althlete’s were underperforming due to using our sails, he went on to imply that we bought our guys loyalty with free sails, and that a windsurfing background was in fact a bad platform from which to approach the moth. Tell that to AMAC, eh… Without his windsurf background, Moth sailing would not be where it is today.

 

Here’s a chunk of the offensive text:

 

“Unfortunately, my friends, Bora, Dalton and Bear are under-performing relative to the more competitive worlds of 2009. The reality is two boat sail testing can lead to different shapes than race testing- we learn this in the America’s Cup and in keel boats all the time! I guess building 18 free sails tends to build up loyalty. The Raptor sails are pushing the limit of flattness for racing in light winds. The Raptor sails are also close cousins to windsurf designs. Remember the only similarity between moth sails and windsurf sails is that both sails use cams. Windsurfers have about a third of the righting moment, very soft unsupported rigs, unlimited sail area, limited sail adjustments, rarely go upwind and are used in more wind than moths would likely rig up in- the net result is flat, large (Relative to the available righting moment) twisty sails, and lots of sails in ones quiver.”

 

We know how it’s hard and frustrating to build a fast sail, and there are many different ideas and approaches out there. Surely we have some advantage, since we literally setup thousands of downhaul-based sails in the 8 meter range. This is far away from the size of a cup sail. We know how to build clean luff socks (and no it doesn’t take special bias cloth, or tons of seams), perfectly balance cam pressures (no we don’t make the customers sort it out with tons of shims), and how to deal with shape changes that disproportionate downhaul loads bring (your wireframe must be much rounder in the front then you’d expect to reach your desired flying shape). It turns out that winsurfing sails, although un-stayed, share a huge similarity with Moth sails. We think it’s outrageous that Chris implies that a 90 footer (with a jib!!!!!!!) going 9 knots, is somehow more like a moth, then a windsurfer. Last time I checked, a formula windsurfer with the exact same size sail, bouncing along in the boundary layer near the water’s surface, going roughly the same speed, is very much like a moth.

 

As far as we know, Chris has never even seen one of our sails in person, much less sailed one. I almost regret helping out his customers in Coronado by supplying hand-fulls of shims and advice as they struggled with their Norths, even on the recommended spar. Was it not Brad that had a cam fall off during a race in Dubai?? Let’s get the basics sorted before we start talking too technical, eh?

 

That said. Brad is doing a good job on the course to make the Norths go fast. With North’s fuller, draft-back profiles, he’s crushing in the sub-foiling conditions. From the looks of things, North has a good shot at the title. Actually I wish them luck, and welcome the competition ongoing into the future.

 

Dan

 

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Analysis

 

[Jambalaya]

Can we get to see the crew weights at least if not the whole analysis ?

Perhaps some of the guys have done more training/got more experience/are just better in light/marginal conditions, Payne and AMAC have been in the class a long time in particular.

Finally - North Sails go fuck yourselves

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Medical updatehillip Kasserman got some kind of nasty-ass infection in his arm - maybe MRSA or similar resistant infection - from a small cut that was then exposed to the water, and he'll be on the OTWA boat with us today.Luke on the security boat went to get some fisherman off the course, and this is the result.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Jamba, the event site will have it up at some point probably today. Feel free to post it here and maybe win a shirt!

 

[Jambalaya]

I'll look out for it, on the t-shirt I am rather old school and say you've got to earn it by being there

I am assuming the sailors there know about the water quality ? it wasn't that long ago DOSC was virtually shut because the shit (literally) that was floating around there. Dubai's infrastruture couldn't cope with the sewage so companies were paid to truck it out of the citu, however as the drivers were paid on a per trip basis it was quicker for them to dump into a drain just out of the city instead of the proper dump far away. The shit flowed back to the city and out of a drain near DOSC.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Still under AP right now, wind trying to come up but it will definitely be another lite and shite day.

If you still are looking to get a carbon mast for your dinghy, you can get that 15% discount from CST Composites by using the keywords "Nano Extreme" when you place your order. Contact them at http://www.cstcomposites.com

 

[MR.CLEAN]

JC and Felipe on the way to Ras-Al-Kaimeh this morning to shoot camels. They actually went to the proposed AC spot and checked out Alinghi's tent. HA!

 

[MR.CLEAN]

AP is down folks, and we're going to start streaming in ten minutes. abour a half hour to a start if the wind holds. It is at 6 knots exactly right now.

 

[Melgesmania]

3) Simon Payne, Amac, Brad Funk

4) Emma Aspington

5) Alex Buerger

 

[MR.CLEAN]

We Are Live

 

[Jambalaya]

75kg isn't skinny ! :lol:

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Race 10 First Mark

payne,

funk

dalton,

babbage,

graham,

arnaud

bora,

jp,

Bear

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Race 10 2nd Gate Puma Moth Worlds AnarchyFunk,

Payne,

Babbage,

Amac,

Dalton,