Rohan Veal reports on his progress - Aust Moths

by Rohan Veal on 3 Jan 2007 Rohan Veal relates his experiences over the first few days of the Australian International Moth Championships.

Tuesday 2 January, 2007 - Australian Championships: Heats 6 and 7

Two afternoon races today in a moderating 7-12 knots. I started well and had a good lead by the first mark. Robo had some issues upwind and capsized three times to windward and was back in about sixth behind James McKenzie who is sailing really well on 'Flying Lime' with new tapered foils. Luka, Steve and Chris were in the chasing pack and closed in on me by the bottom mark with better downwind speed. However I had much better height upwind and pulled away to extend my lead by a few minutes after the last rounding of the top mark.

Now in a relaxed mode, I lost concentration downwind, launched the boat in the air, got flipped over the front of the boat and ended up with mud all over my foils. After taking my time to clean the mud off as to not lose any speed downwind, I got back on and cruised home for the win from Luka who was a few minutes back, followed by Robo about two minutes behind.

At the start of heat seven, Robo and I started near the boat and foolishly sailed to the left side of the course and missed all the wind, leaving Chris and Luka to pull away with a big lead. I managed to claw Luka back and rounded not far behind Chris at the top mark. The boys managed to pull away downwind again to open up a 200m lead by the bottom mark. I picked this back up pretty quick upwind and rounded first around the top mark in front of Luka. Luka and I held apart until the final gybe towards the finish line, where he had better speed and rolled right over the top of me about 10 metres from the line to get the win by a boat length.

So far I have had 6 x firsts and 1 x second, leaving me with a good margin from Robo, then Luka. Just one more good race needed tomorrow afternoon to claim my fourth National Title. The intention then is to hand the boat over to Amac to race against the fleet in the final two races, as so he can see what it is like racing the Bladerider against other designs for the first time, rather than just designing, building and testing it in front of a computer.

Sunday 31 December, 2006 - Australian Championships: Heats 4 and 5

Heat four was similar to heats two and three, as I once again lead out from start to finish in the lighter 5-10 knot winds to win by a few minutes from Robo who was starting to collect a number of second place finishes. Steve, Chris and Luka seem to be swapping third, fourth and fifth placing every leg and is obvious that they are having very close racing. Robo then pulled out the big guns for heat five and picked all the shifts to round very comfortable in first around the top mark (all on show for Channel 7 who were filming the race as well).

By the start of the second and last lap, I had rounded in a comfortable second place but in much stronger and favourable pressure to Robo, who was sailing 5-10 degrees lower by a long way in front. By the time he tacked in dying pressure, I had crossed just in front with blistering upwind speed and then managed to pick some even more favourable shifts to turn my 200 metre loss into a 500 metre gain, leaving me with five wins from five races. Time to rest and relax now and not only welcome in the new year, but to celebrate what was left of Gin's birthday.

Saturday 30 December, 2006 - Australian Championships: Heats 1, 2 and 3

The wind had filled into around 15 knots for the day and meant for some good, fast racing on the flat lake water. Robo lept out of the blocks to lead around the top mark in the first race while had managed a mediocre upwind performance by not picking the shifts, sailing into no wind and not covering Robo. By the second mark rounding, Robo had a amassed a huge 800 metre or more lead on me in second place with Luka Damic, Chris Dey and Steve Donovan chasing from the main pack. The second and last windward work was my last chance to catch and pass Robo. I managed to pick all the shifts this time and rounded just in front at the top mark. Then it was just a matter of holding him off for the three downwind legs and heat one was mine.

Heat two and three were rather non-eventful for me as I pulled out from the start with fantastic upwind speed in the new Bladerider (averaging 13-14 knots and peaking at 16 knots in about 15-18 knots of wind) and only extended this on each subsequent upwind beat. By the end of heats two and three, I had established a comfortable lead of around 2-4 minutes, leaving me with three bullets for the first day. Not bad for my first 'real' racing in the boat.

Friday 29 December, 2006 - Australian Moth Championships: Invitation Race

Most had taken their time getting to the start line or took longer than expected to wade out through the shallow waters so they missed the start of the invitation race. A new handicap format to this special race that was introduced last year, means that the foilers do 4 laps, skiffs do 3 laps and scows do 2 laps. The object for everyone is to be first over the line regardless of what boat you sail. After two 10 minute laps, I was just behind the first two scows who had completed their first lap, so I knew I had to sail hard on the final two laps to have any chance of winning on handicap, however it was not hard enough and ended up 3rd over the line behind Mike and Ian on their scows. However as the first boat to complete all four laps, I still managed to claim line honours for the race, something which I had never done before.

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