2016 Moth Midwinters - Day two in the keys

by US Moth Class on 7 Feb 2016 2016 Moth Midwinters - It’s easy to tech out in the Moth fleet. Head down with dyneema around your wrists while two sailors are waxing about the 1,200 pounds they can load onto their vangs. But the second day of the Moth Midwinters in Key Largo was all about sharing. The “quintessential Moth moment,” said Mike Johnson, was the thoughtful lesson Ainsley Thomson received on the way in from the seven races that were sailed.

Two boats, capsized, and just Anthony Kotoun’s head and Thomson’s were visible above the water behind the vertical white trampoline. Just an analysis, a tweak here and a smile, and Thomson was onto fine tuning her little boat on the shore.

With so many races on the board and a daunting forecast for the last day of this, the second of the three Moth Winter Series events saw the next generation testing the waters with six of the boats using the day as much for exploring technique as for racing. “We were not quite racing level but we were working on systems and technique,” said Johnson, a Scottish sailor who has been teaching second graders in Chicago. Johnson had a breakthrough moment when David Loring explained a jibe in just the perfect fashion, and it clicked.

Three from this newbie group were rigged and ready to go at 9:15 a.m., anxious to make up for staying on the beach in the fresh conditions of yesterday’s slalom races. The group went out and had a “gentleman’s agreement” to run some low-riding (non-foiling) races before they were forced ashore.

An eight to twelve knot Northeasterly sprang up against the dying forecast. The reaching starts were spectacular, with boats sliding in and out of lanes with only the trailing mist of their vertical foils in evidence of their tracks. Matt Knowles shook off an evening of “singing” and even some midnight sailing at the club, and banged out the first win. David Loring’s arm (sliced open on a shroud the day before) healed enough to make most of the race, but Anthony Kotoun has a nine-point lead on Knowles. For now.

Swedish husband/wife pair Magnus and Emma Gravar had their four-toothed toddler girl and grandma in tow while they had impressive jousts, ending the day in fourth and sixth respectively.

On shore the group chatted up the all-volunteer race committee at the Upper Keys Sailing Club. The inquisitive hosts have impressed this 11th Hour Racing group that is well aware of what it takes to keep this uber-clear bay pristine.

At the sailing club, trashcans were at every corner, recycling was right up front and the members seemed to manage the property as serenely as the mammoth Manatee that visits the concrete pier each afternoon to hang beneath the shade of two diminutive Green Buttonwood trees.

A stormy forecast for Sunday has the fleet anxious but: “Hope springs eternal.”

Top Five
1-Anthony Kotoun (6)
2-Matt Knowles (13)
3-Ben Moon (25)
4-Magnus Gravar (27)
5-David Loring (30)