McDougall McConaghy Moth World Championships Preview - Part 2
by Neil Baker on 23 Jul 2017
Dylan Fletcher - Day 4 - 2017 UK Moth National Championships Mark Jardine / IMCAUK
We left this conversation yesterday at the critical point. It's the usual conversation that the armchair pundits like to start talking about in the run up to a big sailing event.
The Moth World Championship is arguably THE event in sailing this year because it has more gold medallists competing than any other sailing event... Well, it's definitely enough to rival the America's Cup I think. The quality of racing will be a lot better to watch anyway... OK, maybe that's just me. On that, if anyone can explain to me how ORACLE TEAM USA went from the best boat in the fleet to about as competitive as the beginner teams between the round robin and the Cup Match I'd really like to know.
Back on topic, if anyone can name an event with the quality of fleet to match this then I'd like to see it. There really is a depth of talent here that is eye watering. In fact it's enough to make you cry if you spend the majority of your week trying to do an honest day's work flogging lubricant to the over 50s. The majority of dinghy sailors never get to race against the best in the world, a few occasionally get to race against an Olympian, the odd one of us gets to race against a medallist. At the Moth Worlds 2017 you'll be banging on the toilet door just before launch o'clock, complaining at the wait, with a good chance that it's someone you'd normally go a bit weak at the knees about if they sailed within 200 metres of you in the Round the Island Race.
So who is going to win?
First to go is the current holder of the World Championship title, the UK. In fact that very World Champion is Paul Goodison who is turning up fresh from the America's Cup and, knowing nothing about how much time he's had to sail, he's definitely got a good chance as he is pure quality.
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