Racing started around 1pm after the Westerly sea breeze came in. Blue fleet made up for their lost race from Saturday and then sailed two more races in the best of the breeze.

Yellow fleet were too far East to get the full effect of this and only managed a single race in what was a long day on the water for them. The race team moved Yellow fleet further west once Blue fleet were sent ashore, but the gradient and sea breeze were cancelling each other out and racing was abandoned for the day.

Robert Greenhalgh (GBR) was the man in Blue fleet who managed to stay up on the foils more than anyone else. Only top Australian helms Nathan Outteridge and Scott Babbage were able to keep in touch at all with Greenhalgh in the first race of the day.

Robert said after the racing, “Confidence is high – that’s three wins in a row and I was leading the race which was abandoned at the end of the day. In the light airs today it was very important to get off the line and after that I was very happy with my speed.”

David Cambell-James on the leeward mark boat took particular note of Robert’s start in Blue race 3 particularly, “He started on port at the pin end and crossed the fleet comfortably. He was off.”

 

Chris Draper ended his day on a better note with two 5th places after pushing it a bit too hard in the early Blue fleet race, “I was pushing it a bit hard downwind and speared it in just before the finish. To make things worse Simon Hiscocks just got past me on the line.”

Draper’s 12th in race 2 is currently his discard, with his other counting result being a 6th.

Stevie Morrison has been consistently getting results around 15th and was happy with his day on the water. After finishing 50th at the nationals, he had some setup advice from Nathan Outteridge which has helped his foiling stability immensely. Even so, Stevie said the top guys can pull a new piece of kit out of the bag to gain a bit more pace, or as Nathan jokingly said at the bar having a beer with Stevie, “You just need to spend to win in this fleet!”

With only 3 or 4 qualifying races completed so far, depending on which fleet each helm is in, qualifying has been extended into Monday with the reserve day on Tuesday now being used for Gold and Silver fleet racing. Sunday’s Yellow fleet will head out early to make up for their lost race.

The overall results to date are tricky to show with the fleets out of sync. Of the Brits, Robert Greenhalgh is looking good with 3 bullets and an 8th and Chris Rashley has 1,2,1 in his three races. The Antipodeans are also looking strong with Josh Mcknight scoring 3,1,3, Scott Babbage with 2,2,3,4 and Nathan Outteridge scoring 3,2,2 after his gear failure before race 1 of the series gave him a DNC.

There are a few more who’ve been knocking in results in the top ten such as Rob Gough (AUS), Ben Paton (GBR), Andrew McDougall (AUS), Tom Offer (GBR) & Christopher Rast (SUI). With the light winds set to continue into the week, this kind of consistency could well be key to getting a podium result.

The stunning weather does make the racing very watchable from the Hayling Island beach. Why not come down, bring a set of binoculars, some suntan lotion and ice cream money to enjoy the unique sight of 138 foiling Moths battle it out in UK waters.

Pos Nat Sail No Helm Club Q1 Q2 Q3 Pts
1st GBR 5 Robert Greenhalgh Royal Southern YC -8 1 1 2
2nd GBR 7 Chris Rashley Royal London YC 1 -2 1 2
3rd AUS 4142 Josh Mcknight RPAYC -3 1 3 4
4th AUS 3 Scott Babbage Woollahra SC 2 2 -3 4
5th AUS 2 Nathan Outteridge Wangi SC (DNC) 3 2 5
6th AUS 6 Rob Gough Royal YC Tasmania 1 5 -7 6
7th GBR 4147 Michael Lennon HISC -19 4 2 6
8th GBR 4 Ben Paton Lymington Town SC 5 3 -7 8
9th AUS 3900 Andrew McDougall Black Rock YC 4 -6 4 8
10th GBR 4038 Tom Offer Rock SC 3 -8 6 9
11th GBR 3942 Jason Belben Stokes Bay SC -12 7 4 11
12th GBR 3967 Chris Draper WPNSA 6 -12 5 11
13th SUI 4112 Christopher Rast TYC/RCO/MBYC -6 5 6 11
14th GBR 4123 Dylan Fletcher Portland Moth Squad -12 4 8 12
15th JPN 3989 Hiroki Goto ABeam 4 8 -15 12
16th BEL 4049 Giovanni Galeotti RYCB 2 -11 11 13
17th GBR 4146 Paul Goodison Ulley SC 10 -12 5 15
18th JPN 4095 Kohei Kajimoto Black Rock YC 7 -16 8 15
19th SUI 3796 Arnaud Psarofaghis SN Geneva 10 6 -11 16
20th ITA 4092 Carlo de Paoli Circolo Vela Torbole 8 9 -10 17
21st GBR 3985 Simon Hiscocks HISC 9 -11 9 18
22nd ITA 4138 Gian Maria Ferrighi YC Acquafrecsca 5 (DNC) 14 19
23rd GBR 4036 Dan Vincent Stokes Bay SC 7 -19 13 20
24th ITA 4093 Stefano Rizzi SV Oscar Cosulich 13 7 -21 20
25th GBR 4099 Ricky Tagg HISC 11 -14 9 20

Full results: Day 2 Results