Round 1- Victorian Moth Grand Prix Series - Spectacular Racing

by Leigh Dunstan on 21 Oct 2012 Round one of the KA Sail Victorian Moth Grand Prix Series has kicked off in spectacular fashion as part of the Sail Sandy Regatta at Sandringham Yacht Club. After a long Winter the Victorian Moth fleet was keen to get back on the water and battle it out.

Day one of the regatta was fairly uneventful with the breeze disappearing prior to the start and no races sailed. Day two of the regatta was a completely different story with four races sailed back to back in a 15-20 knot south westerly, in typical Port Phillip Bay fashion the waves were up.

The Moth class has come a long way in the past twelve months with waves becoming much less of an issue to previous years. In the past when you rounded the top mark you said your prayers, sent it down the waves and hoped for the best.

Now the boats are much better able to track down the waves, allowing the sailor to push a bit harder without the fear of being catapulted in a capsize. Design guru, Andrew McDougall, has made some huge advancements with the control systems and adjustable wands on the Mach2’s, as well as developing new techniques to tackle the large waves. These new advancements helped keep the fleet upright (for the most part) throughout the four races.

McDougall sailed faultlessly from start to finish and took the win overall with four solid wins from four races. The battle for the minor places was hotly fought out between Sam England, James Owen-Smith, Richard Jackson and Leigh Dunstan. James Owen-Smith ended up taking second overall from Sam England in third place.

We are very fortunate to have some fantastic supporters for the KA Sail Grand Prix Series with KA Sail, Selden Deck Hardware and Magic Marine all supporting the events. The top three places all received a prize for their efforts with gear from Magic Marine and vouchers from Selden Deck Hardware.

KA Sail, who is also providing an overall prize for the series, paid the entry fee for one lucky entrant. James Owen-Smith was the lucky winner putting it on the bar for the Moth fleet to enjoy (much to the delight of his fellow Mothies).

We also have Selden vouchers for someone who does something special like an impressive top speed, huge breakage or something of that nature. Today’s winner was Paul Fleming who bent the pushrod in his main foil and still managed to finish in the rough conditions. This damage would have made life very difficult for Paul, with very little control from the flap on the main foil, but he stuck it out and finished anyway!

Round two of the KA Sail Grand Prix Series will be sailed next weekend at McRae YC’s Open Day, so stay tuned……