The foiling Moth dinghy National Championship saw seven boats take to Dublin Bay on the 31st of August and 1st of September and a new Handicap System was trialled with promising results.
The last weekend of the Irish summer saw seven Moths take to Dublin Bay for the National Championships, hosted by the National Yacht Club. The forecast was for light Easterlies and the sailors had high hopes, especially since a similar forecast had produced perfect 10-12kn Easterlies on the Friday.
In the Moth, equipment can make big differences, even over the short 20 minute races that the class prefers. While this is one of the attractions of the class, there is always that strong desire in every sailboat racer to know how their own skills compare to the fleet’s, independent of equipment. For this event, a simple handicap system was devised to convert a boat’s elapsed time to a corrected time. With four different types of moths being sailed (Bieker, Exocet, Mach2, Voodoo), everyone was curious how this would rejig the line honours order, if at all.
On Saturday, the sailors arrived down to glassy conditions, with a strong sun and a light haze on the horizon. Race officer John Chambers sent the fleet afloat as the wind began to fill at 1100. A windward leeward course was set off Bullock Harbour. The fleet spent most of their time stemming the ebbing tide. Ewan McMahon demonstrated his skills with an exhibition of light air sailing. Sadly, the rest of the fleet remained firmly in displacement mode and racing could not be started. After 3 hours waiting, alternative race areas were considered and thanks to the scouting from Moselle Foley, another course was set due North of the Dun Laoghaire Harbour mouth. As if from nowhere, a 10-15kn Easterly materialised. The course was set quickly by John and Elysia O'Leary (who had come in her rib to observe, but somehow got roped into helping the race management) and racing got underway. After some nip and tuck in the first race, Ronan Wallace took the line honours win ahead of Ewan McMahon and Neil O’Toole.
The time trial was held in between the first and second race. The times recorded over the short course were between 25 and 31 seconds, with speeds well in excess of 20kn. This meant that for every 60 seconds the fastest boat took in normal racing, the slowest boat would have 74 seconds. Applying this correction completely flipped the order of the podium in the first race, Neil taking the win from Ewan, with Ronan in third. Two more races were completed before racing was ended for the day. Tim Walton decided to arrive on time for the start of the third race, Tadhg Ó Braonáin lost his tiller overboard in the second and Marcus O’Leary made an early exit for home.
After sailing, the fleet dissected the day’s racing over pizza and planned the necessary running repairs so that the boats could race again the next day.
On Sunday, cloud covered the sky, there was no wind and a bit of a lumpy sea state. Race officer Henry Start opted to keep the fleet ashore until consistent foiling conditions were obvious. With a time cutoff for racing set at 1500, the decision was made to send the fleet afloat at 1300 on the off chance that some wind would come through. The fleet drifted around in choppy seas, albeit in relative comfort alongside Phil Trickett's rib. Unfortunately, no wind came.
With Ronan and Ewan on equal points in the regular racing, they are the joint Irish Moth National Champions, with Neil in 3rd place. On corrected times, Ewan takes the win with Neil in second and Ronan in third. The fleet was very happy with the results of this experiment and will look to repeat the exercise at future events. The next event will be with the Waszp fleet on the last weekend of September, again in Dun Laoghaire, but this time, it will be from RStGYC.
