The Foiling Week - The first 'Invitational' of the Moth Class

by Domenico Boffi on 3 Jul 2014 At the Foiling Week, in addition to the Open National Championships, the first Moth Invitational will take place. Some of the best mothies in the world will fight in an innovative short course, very fast and tactical: the TFW Moth Invitational.

Successful Moth foiling is considered the reason behind all modern foiling attempts: it is the first that, thanks to its rules with an 'evolutionary' model, develops the 'foiling' since the early 2000s.

In 2007, the World Championship was held with the last three 'low rider' (non-flying moth), the remaining 71 members were 'flyer' (flying boats).

The Moth is one of the oldest classes in the history of yachting, founded in 1928, with fleets spread over Australia, USA and Europe - united and separated and then again joined in the early 70s.

The Moth class was responsible for the birth of Moth Europe, past Olympic class: single women from 1992 to 2004.

In 1972, Frank Raisin Moth was the first in history to fly, we had to wait until 2001 for the birth of the modern 'two legged' flying Moth thanks to the work of Brett Burvill. Subsequently, John Ilett with Glen Oldfield developed the concept and then moved the scepter of the best designer to Andrew McDougall, author of the most reliable and high performance boats for the last seven years.

The format of the TFW Moth Invitational is a short upwind stick with downwind gate and arrival abeam of upwind mark. Four races in a row over a 'final' of the top three in the standings.

The athletes invited to participate in the contest are: Ben Paton (GBR), Rob Gough (AUS), Josh Mcknight (AUS), Stefano Rizzi (ITA), Andrew McDougall (AUS), Chris Rast (SUI), Anthony Kotoun (ISV), Tom Offer (GBR), Carlo De Paoli (ITA), Sebastien Col (FRA).

There are eight of the 20 best mothies in the world and two wild cards: Carlo De Paoli is going through a very good level of the 2014 season on the European circuit and the Italian one and Sebastien Col, ISAF Match racing word champion 2009 and 2010 plus current GC32 helmsman.

Andrew McDougall, fifth in the world rankings until 2013, is also one of the best Moth designer’s of the last seven years, his boats are supplied to all the America's Cup teams for crew training. Andrew is also one of the speakers at the TFW Forum in the morning of July 10, where he will open the conference with a Key Note and will close it by participating in a round table.

From today you can sign up to attend the forum for even a single day of the three planned, at the link the registration form.

The Moth is the father of all modern hydrofoils and its athletes and designers are at the forefront of the foiling sailing. Do not miss the show on Tuesday, July 8 in Malcesine.

TFW Moth Invitational race course
TFW Forum Agenda: TFW Forum Agenda