As we approach Christmas and the start of the second running of the Moth Winter series, I thought it timely to send out some thoughts on the season gone and the one to come.
On the season gone we had some pretty good events which kicked off with the spring training at Castle Cove Weymouth. We have established a formula for the coached events which caters mainly for the less experienced, coached by the very experienced. These experienced sailors have all given their time for free and over the past 3 training events have included, Helen Rollinson who has organised 2 of the 3 weekends and Ricky Tagg who has coached in all the weekends so far. Other coaches have been Jason Russell who also organised the last event and Olivier Vidal, Mike Cooke, Phil Oligario, Alex Adams and Chris Graham. Apologies to anyone I have missed.
The next coaching weekend is in the early spring and we will announce details as we get them. If you haven’t been on one of these before but are keen to get more out of Moth sailing please do come along. Its a very friendly and relaxed environment aimed at the less experienced Moth sailor. If you feel your club has the facilities and wherewithal to host a training weekend let us know. The committees focus is on building the class in as many places as possible throughout the UK.
The Zhik 2011 Nationals were a great success – as well as great sailing we had free beer and post race seminars along with a hog roast. The AGM also provides an open floor to discuss how to get the best from our class. The aim of the 2011 Nationals was to encourage those who may not usually attend big Moth events to dip a toe in the water. We also encouraged day entries for those who didn’t want to commit to all 4 days. Just short of 60 entires made it the biggest entry for many many years. I don’t see reason why we can’t reach 70 in 2012 or 2013.
The aims will be similar in 2012 and as well as building on those activities above we will also be having a formal prize giving on the penultimate night to award the GP circuit prices both winter and summer along with the high speed trophy. As you may have read elsewhere, the Nationals slated for Restronguet have had to be reorganised. The costs to run this event were much higher than anticipated so we regrettably have had to start looking for another venue. We are hopefully going to get something announced before Christmas.
And on the subject of Christmas we are about to start the second running of the Moth class winter series. The idea behind this is to give focus to a number of popular multi class races through the winter. The advantage is three fold, we all know where other Moths will be racing, we get to show off to water pushers and wow the crowds. We decided to mix it up a bit this year, to get higher attendance we have chosen to use the Hayling Christmas cracker pursuit as the series opener. unfortunately this falls on Christmas eve, however its a great excuse to avoid last minute shopping. The second event is New years day at Stokes bay – a great chance to relive the Nationals and imagine its 20 degrees warmer. After that we switch back to the more familiar winter jamborees – Bloodymary, Steve Nicholson at Northampton and the 2 day event at Rutland for the Tiger trophy. We decided to include HISC and Stokes as these are well attended by Moths anyway so we are sure of a good turnout. If your club hosts a big winter event and you are not on this years list please put your club forward for inclusion next year. Prize giving will be at the 2011 Nationals.
The Summer series is 99% complete and will posted on the website very soon. For me the highlight will be the Inlands at Ullswater SC. I learned to sail in the lake district and will be great to go and show off our class there. We also have our first northern fledgling fleet building there.
We will have all the usual venues and a welcome return to Weymouth in the shape of Castle Cove, it is looking like our best circuit yet – big thanks to Ricky Tagg for pulling this together.
To enable the a prize giving for the GP events at the Nationals we have switched the summer GP to run between national championships, so the events between March and June will count to the 2012 series. A new series will start post Nationals and run through to the 2013 Nationals but will remain separate from the winter series.
You may well have heard already that the 2014 worlds are coming to the UK. Hayling will host the event so tell your friends currently sailing floaters its time to learn to fly. They have two years to practice….
Stay in touch with whats going on via the UK website.
Happy Christmas and good winter sailing,
Mike Lennon.