Foiling Moths – the DevelopMENTAL class - Part Two

by John Curnow on 25 Apr 2010 In Part One of Foiling Moths – the developmental class, we saw how the newly crowned World Champion, Simon Payne has, in fact, had a 30-year love affair with Moths. This sharp witted 45 year old does not see his age as a barrier to success, but rather an avenue of experience on which to draw, when undertaking great projects. Also, we saw how Simon works just as hard on his mental skills, as he does his physical prowess.

With the Puma Moth World Championships now completed, let's see what Simon has to say about the developmental class he now leads and a whole array of things sailing oriented.

Like any elite level activity, there is a lot of pressure at the top. 'Yes. It's a hard class to win', said Simon. 'It's a prestigious class and, you know, we've all got egos. It's great to sail a boat that goes 20 knots all over the place, but I do think we have a lot to offer, as a class. I think that the Belmont Worlds will be really big.'

The 2011 titles Simon refers to are going to be held at Belmont, which is on Lake Macquarie, North of Sydney, just South of Newcastle, in Australia.

'One of our challenges is that we've got so many events on the programme now. The Belmont Worlds will be the third World Championship in about 17 months, I think', Simon added to exemplify his point.

This is a classic issue of any world-staged event, where you have to operate in the different seasons of the two hemispheres. The benefit is that if you time it correctly, at the end of the sequence, you get to hold the title for something like 17 months.

'Exactly. That occurred for me in 2006', which was when Simon last held the World title. 'There's two ways to look at this point. One is that we have too many events and so the young guys really struggle to keep up; the other way, and the way I choose to look at it, is that when you're in your twilight Moth sailing careers, the more events you can cram into your time-frame, the better', Simon explains and gives us an insight into his positive nature along the way.

Simon is clear that it takes a little time to understand the Moth and its attributes and yet they have a huge amount to offer any sailor who takes them on. They can also deliver for the sport as a whole, which is something that certainly draws a response from Simon. 'There's been a lot of talk about whether the Moths should be an Olympic class and things like that. I am wholeheartedly against it.

'Why? Because I sail at Hayling Island Sailing Club, the UK's biggest sailing club for dinghies. There's one 49er, one 470, no Lasers, no Finns, no Stars, no RSX, and yet there's 17 foiling Moths.

'I think we need to understand that the reason that Nathan Outteridge, Tom Slingsby and those guys even sail our boat is because it's not Olympic. It's where they come to recharge their batteries and to have fun.'

Another leading sailor, James Spithill has talked about how Moths and multihulls are cool and that the cool classes need to be embraced to ensure the development of the sport. It is interesting to see how Simon feels about dinghies and just what will be appealing to the young sailors of tomorrow.

'I think that James does have a point there. Boats do need to be cool,' he said.

By way of explaining the point, Simon walked through his observations of the Mach2 market. 'There are almost three types of customers for Mach2 Moths.

'Firstly there are people like Nathan and Tom, who just want to go out and win a world title. They're serious customers intent on doing well, so they need the fastest kit around.

Next, there is a growing band of people, which I like to call ‘dinghy - free ride'. These are people who often have kids and jobs and may have been great Olympic or international sailors when they were younger. They don't always play golf. They want to have their bite of sailing every week and they want it to be in a great boat that's exciting and that they can have fun in, without having to drive several hundred miles to an event to race other people. You see these types of souls out at Hayling all the time (Simon lives just near Hayling Island, near Portsmouth). Every Summer's day at Hayling, there will be two or three Moths belting up and down.'

This latter point is interesting, because it is a little like windsurfers. 'Exactly', Simon says. 'It's part of the DNA of the class, this ‘dinghy free ride' I was talking about. I mean, you wouldn't necessarily just go for a blat around in an Etchells for the fun of it.

'You would enjoy racing an Etchells, but the great thing about a Moth is that you can just think ‘I've had enough work, it's four o'clock, how fast can I go?' You strap your GPS to it and off you go. The third sector just want the coolest looking boat in the dinghy park, which is one of the reasons why the Mach2s are in black carbon. The truth is that all of us are a bit like that. I probably span each category', Simon points out.

'In the end, I do think that the ‘cool' observation is correct. Sailing does need to be cool and it does need to be aspiring. What we have with the foiling Moth is a skill. It's frontier sailing. You see people pull off their first foil gybe, you know they have achieved something special and there's probably no other boats around. You won't see that in an Etchells for instance, because it is all nailed down and it's all too a standard.
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It's the next 0.1 percent that will win you the regatta, but in a Moth it's very different. Foil tacks are only a recent development. There are just so many things which people can achieve on their own, at their own sailing club, in their own Moth.'

'Also, by definition, a Moth is a hard boat to sail. There's hundreds of 40-something guys around the world, desperately getting fit to sail these boats, and that's got to be a good thing from a lifestyle perspective', Simon concluded.

Moth sailing could well be likened to another frontier sport, that of the halfpipe, which we saw a lot of in the recent Winter Olympics. It's a case of ‘Who can do this new trick backwards?'

'Absolutely', Simon says as he contemplates the corollary. 'Probably going forward, I think we'll see Moth sailing change away from the somewhat stoic, ISAF windward/leeward, five-four-one-go stuff, to maybe a speed challenge making a part of the event or the slalom. We have a slalom event before every World title and it's just fantastic.

Because of the media we attract, guys can sit at home on their computer and watch this. My kids were waving to me in real-time at the prize giving.'

The latter is a really interesting point and the very reason why the sport of sailing, needs to look at cool and aspiring classes, so that the next generation and the one after that, get into man's oldest challenge.

'Sailing has always had a problem with being interesting on TV and we're putting some pace into that. I think that's good. Our sport's funny, and I said this at one of the interviews at the Worlds and it may have been seen as disparaging, but in motor racing you don't see the Michael Schumacher's of this world getting in 1935 MG Midgets to go and race the most important event of their career.

It's more than a fair point, because Olympic sailing attracts the smallest audience of all the events. We have taken the cool out of it.

As an example, there will be no multihulls at London. Simon responds, 'I know there's a viewing issue, but we also have a big social problem, as well. We have a lot of young sailors in the UK and all over the place, who do their Optimist stuff and their 29ers, only to then they bail out and do something else outside the sport, because nothing is attractive. Moth sailing is surely a better alternative than Nandralone – I mean, it's just beyond belief. Every parent should buy a foiling Moth, because it's frankly a lot cheaper than drugs.'

He's certainly one sailor keen to keep pushing the boundaries, and is happy to look at projects that will help do just that to himself, the sport and class he enjoys so much. There is a serious programme for the next 12 months.

'I said to Bora Gulari that I believed that there is a duty to defend your World Champion title. I hope to be in Belmont. I have a lot to do between now and then and I've got a lot of work to do, but it's certainly my ambition to be there. We've got the Europeans in Switzerland in August, which is a lot closer. We've also got a Moth fest, which is an interesting and new idea in Spain, where 20 Moths are going to get three days of coaching from me and they're also going to do long distance races, fun races, beach sailing, and barbeques. It's one step down from championship racing, but with a view on enjoyment and improvement.'

All of which brought the subject back to Belmont and the possibility of doing the 28 nautical mile, Heaven Can Wait overnight regatta on Lake Macquarie.

'Absolutely. I can envisage sailing a Moth for 28 nautical miles. I've done that in training with the GPS. No worries.

To extend on that, what I want to do is to sail across oceans. I have a great ambition to sail across the English Channel, for instance. It would be fantastic to leave Hayling Island and wind up in France.

Uffa Fox, a great English dinghy designer, used to regularly stick his Dinner Jacket in his sailing canoe and belt over to France for parties and then sail home again. Moths are all about pushing, exploring and challenging', Simon commented.

Now, in terms of challenging, how about taking on the notorious Bass Strait in Australia. Jovially suggesting it may be one way to get rid of Nathan Outteridge, Simon simply replies, 'I’ve been talking to John Harris about this and I'd like to go with him. This type of thing is wonderful. You don't always have to race around Olympic courses to have fun.

Also I'd love to go to France in my Moth. the only issue is trying to find a boat big and fast enough to keep up and to pull me out if it goes bad. I mean I really do want to do it in the next 12 months. SiFi (Simon Fisher) and I have been talking about this and we'll talk again in May. I feel confident that we'll get it sorted out.

'We're looking for a sponsor and we're looking for support, so we can just go and do it. I don't see it as a particularly big thing. We just need the right wind, a couple of bottles of energy drink strapped to the wing and a long starboard tack. That's it. They're nautical motorcycles really, aren't they? That's what they should be treated as.'


Simon's equally passionate about the industry, especially in his native UK. So much so, that he's started his own business to capitalise on his business experiences and his sailing acumen. It is called Sales and Marketing Planning.

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It's something I'd always wanted to do. I have a number of customers who I do sales and marketing for, like the KA Sail Mach2, Lewmar and Tacktick. Naturally, I'm always looking for more. I have an ambition to make my business bigger. It is consulting, marketing and sales services, so I work as a sales agent. I do websites, brochures, point of sale and help with research in the market, those kinds of things. It's always really difficult to find somebody who can talk the sailing language and equally, somebody who can see the difference between a 470 and a 420 in a picture, so the rework and take up isn't massive.'

'I find a lot of young sailors in the UK, join mast and sail makers, then they progress up the business as they get older and they get more expertise. One of the reasons the sailing industry's salaries aren't great, typically in the UK, is because people regard that the only way to gain business is to cut price. They knock a bit off because it makes them cheaper. Sure, they sell something, but their margins are gone, so in effect, they're almost giving away their salaries. What I'm talking with people about, is other ways of gaining demand and still maintaining margin.'

No doubt, Simon will apply himself equally as well to the development these goals, as he does his sailing.

Colloquially, the only response to that can be, Mental!