International Moth Scottish Championship at Loch Lomond Sailing Club
by Andrew Friend 4 Sep 2018 20:22 NZST
1-2 September 2018
Twelve Foiling Moths joined the nine strong Lowrider fleet at Loch Lomond Sailing Club to compete for the Scottish Championships and celebrate the 90th anniversary of this spectacular class. A fleet including multiple reigning national and world champions from various classes ensured star quality was not in short supply.
Saturday morning greeted competitors with conditions best described in the local dialect as 'driech' and plenty of time for the fleet to take in the breathtaking beauty of their surroundings. After discussing the 'latest' developments and 'inspecting' each others boats for a while the wind had filled in enough for the Waszps with whom the foiling boats were sharing a course with to venture out and try to get some racing in a light 5-9 knots of breeze.
The foilers, not wanting to be left out, swiftly followed suit letting the Waszps get a few races in first and giving the wind a bit of a chance to stabilise. After honing their marginal foiling skills for an hour the breeze had settled down enough to allow the race committee to set a short windward leeward course in an area of the loch known locally as 'hell's gate' (more on this later).
The first race got underway and was a closely fought battle between the Exocets of Paul Brotherton and David Smithwhite, managing to cleanly stay on the foils in very marginal conditions, Paul ultimately flying faster and for longer taking the win. The second race saw Ewan Wilson in his Mach 2 storm the start line closely followed by the Ninja of Katie Hughes and homebuild of Andrew Friend, unfortunately for these three foiling off to the left of the course did not pay and the wily Exocets managed to hook onto a shift carrying them into the lead. Paul not wanting to come off his foils flew off to take the win, leaving the chasing pack of Ewan, David, Andrew and Brad Gibson in the Mutant Bladerider playing a dangerous game of snakes and ladders. Ewan decided this was not for him and foiled off into the distance only to unluckily come undone at the last gybe allowing David and Andrew to sneak through on the line.
Sunday morning started slightly drier than the day before, with a gusty 10 knots of breeze. After launching it was revealed that in the previous days excitement somebody had forgotten to shut hells gate and the fleet were treated to a building breeze with some punchy 20 knot gusts at the top of the course.
The fresher breeze allowed the moth sailors to stretch their legs and finally show what these fantastic flying boats are capable of, Paul Brotherton lead the fleet over the start for the first race of the day though was quickly overhauled by Andrew Friend in his Stripy home-build proving that the hours of sanding over the last 12 months have not been in vain and making the production boatbuilders ashore stand up and take note.
Extending to a sizeable lead everything was going well until meters from the finish line disaster struck and his distinctive fluorescent gantry exploded leading to a slightly unorthodox finish drifting across the line to take the race win stood on the side of the boat with his rudder foil under his arm... With the dangerous striped boat out of the picture, David Smithwhite saw off the challenge from Paul to take the fourth race, after which somebody kindly closed hell's gate and the fleet headed ashore.
Special thanks go to everyone from Loch Lomond Sailing Club and all of the local Scottish Mothies for organising a brilliant weekend of racing, event sponsors Atomik Composites and the competitors for travelling up for the event.
Overall Results:
1 - Paul Brotherton 1,1,(3),2
2 - David Smithwhite 2,2,(2),1
3 - Andrew Friend 3,3,1,(DNC)
4 - Ian Renilson 6,(7),4,3
5 - Ewan Wilson 4,4,(RTD),5
6 - Brad Gibson 5,5,(5),4
7 - Katie Hughes (7),6,6,6
8 - Sandy Day (10),8,9,8
9 - Steven Couch (11),9,8,8
10 - Donald Smith (DNC),DNC,7,7
11 - Steven Forteith 8,10,(DNC),DNC
12 - John Annan 9,12,(RTD),DNC