Blazing sunshine and a 10 knot South Easterly greeted the 59 boat Moth Nationals fleet at Stokes Bay Sailing Club. A number of new innovations were on display including Dylan Fletcher’s solid wings, Mike Lennon’s boom fairings and James Phare’s double-wand.

Straight from the off the action was tight at the top. Dylan Fletcher made his intentions known straight away with a port-tack flyer, going on to take the race win. Dylan said after the race, “It was good fun. I started on port and crossed the fleet and that’s always a good feeling and then just tried to position myself between the next mark and the fleet, especially Rashley as he’s pretty hot on Stokes Bay – it’s the first time he’s lost a race here in 6 months – so I was just trying to stay ahead of him.”

On his solid wings he said, “It makes a few manoeuvres harder, like the gybing in the light winds, but I seemed to be going quite fast in the first race, so happy days with that.”

Chris Rashley was hot on Fletcher’s tail, but couldn’t find the extra gear to get past his rival. “Dylan got a great start on port and went out to the right hand side in a little bit more tide and possibly had a little bit more pressure out there and so he came out 80 to 100 metres ahead when we came to our first cross. He then just extended up the beat, made some better decisions than me and was going a little bit quicker. I reeled him in a little bit on the run but nothing significant to get close enough to him.”

On whether Dylan’s solid wings the difference Chris said, “I don’t think it was anything to do with the solid wings, if I made my boat with solid wings I think I would probably go exactly the same speed as I am now. It’s a combination of a couple of things; his boat is aerodynamically very clean, there’s a lot less stuff on it than on mine, and that’s obviously quite nice when you’re going upwind in breezier conditions, and I think the other advantage is that you sit a lot higher so you’ve got a lot of extra righting moment when you’re in powered up conditions like we were in that first race.”

Behind the leading pair, defending champion Mike Lennon came in third for a solid start to his series. “It was alright, I’ve got good pace on the boats around me. It’s tough racing but it was a cracking sail, perfect conditions while it lasted.” said Mike.

On his new boom fairings Mike continued, “You’re into subtleties here, you’re not going to see a sudden jump in performance, but I think it’s all these little things that add up after a while. I’ve got 2mm shrouds and lots of tiny little details and you just hope it all adds up to a little bit more of a gain – on their own they’re barely noticeable.”

Jason Belben who finished 4th in the first race said, “It was a good race for me, I’m happy with that. I rounded the first mark about 6th or 7th and gained on the second beat so pretty pleased. I went out to sea and caught the right shift and took a few boats there. Unfortunately I went there again in the second race and it cut out on me. I’ve gone for a few mods on the boat; bowsprit, lower rig, new Lennon sail and that’s all working really well.”

Luckily for Jason, and a number of other sailors on the right, the 2nd race was abandoned after the wind switched off, leaving vast holes on the course and the Moths low-riding into the shore. The committee kept the fleet postponed until 4.15pm when they called it a day.

A few Moths went to buzz the Emirates Team New Zealand AC45 which was training in the Solent ahead of America’s Cup World Series Portsmouth.

Racing has been brought forward to 11am on Friday to try and get things back on schedule.

Results after Day 1: (one race)

Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 Pts
1 4208 Dylan Fletcher WPNSA 1 1
2 4 Chris Rashley Stokes Bay SC & Royal London YC 2 2
3 4147 Mike Lennon Hayling Island SC 3 3
4 3942 Jason Belben Stokes Bay SC 4 4
5 4099 Ricky Tagg Hayling Island SC 5 5
6 4040 Dan Henderson Stokes Bay SC 6 6
7 4097 Rory Fitzpatrick NYC / RIYC 7 7
8 4074 Eelco Boers WV Roerkoning 8 8
9 4062 Jonathan Heathcote Stokes Bay SC 9 9
10 4309 James McMillan Gurnard SC / Stokes Bay SC 10 10
11 4049 Giovanni Galeotti RYCB 11 11
12 4149 Ollie Holden Hayling Island SC 12 12
13 4251 Dan Ward Frensham Pond / Stokes Bay SC 13 13
14 4189 Phillip Kasermann SNG 14 14
15 3979 Dan Ellis Yealm YC 15 15
16 4301 John Clifton Homeless 16 16
17 4115 David Hivey Datchet Water SC 17 17
18 3940 Penny Clark Stokes Bay SC 18 18
19 3922 Kyle Stoneham Thorpe Bay YC 19 19
20 4144 Fabien Froesch SNG 20 20
21 4121 James Phare Queen Mary SC 21 21
22 4277 Jeremy Hartley Stokes Bay SC 22 22
23 4096 Tim Penfold Hayling Island SC 23 23
24 4037 Jason Russell Hayling Island SC 24 24
25 4100 Alex Koukourakis Eastbourne Sov SC 25 25
26 3943 Richard Edwards Parkstone YC 26 26
27 4248 Neil Baker Hayling Island SC 27 27
28 412 Leigh Albrecht Queen Mary SC 28 28
29 4067 Cameron Stewart Hayling Island SC 29 29
30 4072 Tom Lambert Wilsonian SC 30 30
31 4075 Doug Pybus Queen Mary SC 31 31
32 4299 Chris Clarke Thorpe Bay YC 32 32
33 4065 Anthony Rezzoug ASNQ 33 33
34 4281 Nic Streatfeild Rutland SC 34 34
35 3776 Philippe Schiller SNG 35 35
36 4043 Matthew Lea Grafham Water SC 36 36
37 4307 Hans Rasmussen Troense Badelaug 37 37
38 3959 Alex Adams Castle Cove SC 38 38
39 3980 Graham Simmonds Hayling Island SC 39 39
40 4280 Constantijn Weber WSV Muiderberg 40 40
41 4254 David Smithwhite Hayling Island SC 41 41
42 3720 Bruce Spratt Thorpe Bay YC 42 42
43 3715 Chris Jeeves Homeless 43 43
44 3945 Eddie Bridle Brightlingsea SC 44 44
45 3674 Simon Grundy Homeless 45 45
46 4344 Ross Harvey Hayling Island SC 46 46
47 3914 Ole Frey Sonderborg YC 47 47
48 3794 Menno Berens Marina Muiderzand 48 48
49 4162 Steve McLean Hayling Island SC / LSC 49 49
50 4233 Dominic Hutton Queen Mary SC 50 50
51 3190 Chris Tilbrook Starcross YC 51 51
52 3924 Robert Pike Eastbourne Sov SC 52 52
53 4126 Luka Dogan Marina Kastela 53 53
54 3870 Eddie Gatehouse Hayling Island SC 54 54
55= 398 Cameron Harris Parkstone YC DNC 60
55= 3982 Ben Paton Lymington Town SC DNC 60
55= 3756 Andrew Jarvis Oxford SC DNC 60
55= 3131 Guy Raynes Weston SC DNC 60
55= 4343 James Sainsbury Grafham Water SC DNC 60