right now (Sunday 12 am) the build race is still on. Doug still hasn’t posted a picture on his blog, neither have I. You can see the reason on the left ;-(

Lately my business has taken up most of my time, but it looks like we are close to a very nice deal – but first the papers have to be signed.

I am planning to sail at Ammersee on June 6th, so I can at least have one regatta before Kiel.

Everytime I read about all the progress other moth sailors make, I am kind of jealous. North Rhine-Westphalia is not the right area for moth sailing. It is nearly impossible to try to do 50 foiling jibes in a row to get some practice. Thus I have decided to order a 10m² sail. I think I will not get it before the worlds. Thus this sail is for next years practice.

Last weekend I didn’t only foil, I also sold my old boat, heavencanwait.

She has been my first own boat ever – all the boats before have been club-boats from the YCL. Last September I picked her up in Berlin from the Bittners. After sailing every second I could I participated at the German Open in Zwischenahn and got a very good ninth place after only 5 weekends of moth sailing.

By then I was infected and thought about getting a foiler. I mulled over many different possibilities, getting a used foiler, converting heavencanwait, buying a bladerider (there was no velociraptor in sight at this moment) or building my own boat. Due to financial limitations I decided to build my own moth and got great support from the Mothies around the world.

Anyway, I couldn’t afford two boats and thus I put up heavencanwait for sale. A young student from Hannover picked her up on Sunday and he reminded me very much of my situation when I got her half a year earlier.

Before I sold her I got out for a whole day of sailing on Friday. Even though the winds were great I didn’t take my foiling moth, as I wanted to say good bye to heavencanwait with a last spin around the lake.

When the boat was up on the car roof and left the sailing club it was tough to see her go – I just hope to see her again on some Regattas

Farewell heavencanwait!

On Monday my father wanted to take out the prototype. He has been building the boats with me and Helmut and he was very enthusiastic about trying our work out, especially since he has seen me foiling.

Unfortunately when he got out he fell on the tiller with his butt and broke it after only five minutes of sailing. Worse still, the tillers of the other three boats were not done, so I couldn’t just change tillers. So still no picture today.

Doug has launched his boat yesterday and foiled right away. Apparently the boat behaved great and was trimmed good – just like mine. Nikolas has written a short post about Flashheart’s first time.

(Un)fortunately Doug’s camera crew failed – just like mine did. Thus the build race is still on.
As I am on a Business trip to Berlin till Saturday I will try to get the picture on Sunday.

Today the wind was even better, there was enough wind to foil once every ten minutes. One thing is for sure: I definetely need to loose weight for our lake. I should get to 85kg till the worlds…

Today I had my parents on their Sprinta Sport to take pictures. However, they were always to far away or just they weren’t quick enough. So there is still no picture available. I will give it another go tomorrow.

The picture on the left shows my being towed by the DLRG. I got foiling and had some bad luck: the bottom splint of my gantry broke. I took the gantry home (all gantrys on our boats can be taken off easily for transport) and repaired it already. I also worked a little bit on the push rod mechanism: the old push rod was made using a glasfibre rod. Unfortunately this road grindet in the tube so that a the swarf wedged the rod. Now I have made a new rod with some wire.

I hope to load up a picture tomorrow

The weather gods have discontinued my punishment. Today there was wind. And I foiled.

i have been on the water for 6 hours today and foild 20 min. There was an Optimist regatta at our Yacht Club. All parents were sitting on the porch and all were suprised when I foiled right thru their children.
When I went by I heard stuff like: “That is not possible”, or “I want one”. On land I heard some child say ” Dad, could you by a moth for our family?”

But back to the boat: it behaved great. It was comparable to Fred’s Bladerider which I could test-sail in France. A very smooth ride and she behaved great. After my first foiling meters I screamed out for joy so that everyone on the porch heard it.

Best of it however was, that I have beaten an A-Cat in speed.

Unfortunately I still do not have a picture, as the DLRG guy on the speed boat forgot to recharge his camera.

The wind forecast for tomorrow is promising and I hope to get a pic then.

However the most important thing is that I know that my boat works!

It has been 4 weeks since my boat has been repaired. Since then I haven’t had any breakages. Unfortunately the wind is not on my side. The picture on the left was taken last sunday – great isn’t it. The weather forecast for the Biggesee doesn’t look to good for this weekend either. I think I have to go on a trip to the Netherlands to foil my boat. Especially for the first time you foil you need good and steady conditions, as you still need to trim your boat and try every setting.
Unfortunately the next two weekends are densely packed.
This weekend I will sell my old moth – she is picked up on Saturday. Next weekend I got an important business meeting in Berlin, so there is no chance to got to the Netherlands either.

Doug’s boat is looking quite cool. He still has got a long list of work to be done, but he could be able to launch his boat this weekend. This would make me the loser in the build race – actually I do not really care if I win, all I want is to foil. I am sick of lowriding!!!