Tatsuya Wakinaga Sails His Mach2 To Victory In Japan!

JMCA Japan National Championship 2012 was consisted of 7 races at Beach's Marina, Lake Hamana, 20st-21nd Oct. Day 1 was light breeze, marginal foiling condition meaning light weight sailor had great advantage. New comer Masa Suzuki won this race and he showed his potential in following races as well. The race committe waited until 3pm for the 2nd race, not enough wind to start, and hoisted AP/A flag. As you can imagine there was better breeze after the flag came down and unsatisfied mothies went out and enjoyed ideal an 10-12 knot training for the following day.

Day 2 started with 10-12 knots from the west. Hiroki Goto won race 2 followed by Masa and Tatsuya Wakinaga. The breeze built up gradually with 2 more races in the morning, won by Tatsu, who is current national title holder. After the lunch break, the race committe did 3 more races, Tatsu dominated with his great speed and skill.

The Championship ended with Mach2 sailor Tatsu's was victororious for the second time in a row. Hiroki was 2nd and Masa was 3rd. All 13 participants were quite happy with solid 7 races and celebrated winner. Lake Hamana and Beach's Marina is definitely the best location for foiling moth in Japan. JMCA appreciated all the staff and volunteer's efforts with to great races and great partying!

Perfect condition is promised so next national 2013 will be in here again.

Thanks to Hiroki Goto for the report.

Mach2's Clean Up In Hawaii

As the venue for the 2013 Moth World Championships, Kaneohe Yacht Club was the perfect venue for the 2012 US Moth National Championships.

Conditions were quite nice with temps in the 80's and winds in the 15-20 knot range. Racing was held in Kaneohe Bay, providing us with lots of super flat water that was about 80 degrees. KYC does a great job with the races and its only about a one minute sail out to the course. At the end of the day, we did debriefs in the pool with pitchers of Mia Tia's.

Day 1

The wind was in the 17-20 knot range. We started off with a few one lap races to get everyone warmed up. Beats were about 1 mile so races only took about 8 mins. Dalton suffered a broken vang strop but showed back up only missing 3 races. A few double lap races were done at the end with Anthony Kotoun, Eric Aakhus and Dalton usually tussling at the top with Matt Knowles finding some blinding speed downwind to overtake a few on the run to the finish. Charlie McKee tried the usually risky but sometimes heroic right side to catch a few of the top guys by surprise.

The "Blessing in Disguise" moment of the day came while derigging with Zach Maxam's boat going skipping down the ramp by itself in a big gust. His front horizontal foil jammed itself in a crack on the ramp and the boat then twisted around it, taking off about 4cm of foil tip. So he no other choice to chop the other side and try it out! 4cm is about what Josh McKnight took off his foil so Zach wasn't that worried. Sure enough on day 2, Zach was going lots faster.

Day 2

Wind dropped ever so slightly to 14-17 knots and we did a few morning races and then set up a slalom course for some high speed downwind action. For the morning races Charlie again worked his tactical magic to put up a bunch of 2nd's. Beats were quite tactical with 4-6 tacks and quite a few gybes down the run. Anthony kept plugging away but got caught a few times on the wrong side of the beat on the one lap races which were hard to fight back in.

For the slalom, the nine skippers were divided into three groups and we sailed against each group twice to establish a top 4. We then held a repechage to get the finals group up to five. Ian Andrews from Seattle won the repechage. Anthony won each of the preliminary races but fell to Dalton who lead from start to finish in the final to take the $50 and a bottle of rum.

Day 3

We did 5 races with most being double lap races with a long weather mark to get used to what we might be up against for the worlds. Winds came back on strong with boatspeeds in the 16kt area upwind and 24-27 downwind. Those speeds in 3-6 waves made for some great fun. Anthony finished strong with a 2nd and 4 1st's to take the regatta.

Equipment wise Anthony sailed a Mach2 and had a medium Mach2 mast, MSL 16, curved rudder and a chopped front foil that was loaned by Matt Knowles. Anthony went bay cruising during practice and landed on a sand bar breaking his normal foil in half. Whoops!

On a side note, Bora, Bear and Eric's boats got stuck in USA customs on their arrival back from Italy. Adam Lowery kindly lent his boat to Eric but Bora and Bear were left sadly on the mainland.

Thanks to Anthony Kotoun for the report

Results:

1. Anthony Kotoun 19 Mach2/KA MSL 16

2. Eric Aakhus 38 Mach2/KA MSL 10/13 (His 16 was in the stuck container)

3. Dalton Bergan 48 Mach2/Raptor

4. Matt Knowles 50 Mach2/KA MSL 10D

5. Charlie Mckee 57 Mach2/Raptor

6. Zack Maxam 62 Mach2/North

7. Ian Andrews 93 Mach2/Raptor

8. Simon Propper 112 Mach2/KA MSL 10

9. Alain Huggler 136 BR'er/Raptor

Josh McKnight: 2012 Moth World Champion!

Coming into the 2012 Moth World Championship the form guide was wide open with anyone of ten boats from Australia, the US or the UK able to take the crown. Sailing on one of the world's most picturesque locations Scott Babbage went into the regatta as the favourite. Scott has placed well in the top ten for a number years, and after winning the Italian Nationals and leading after the qualifying series everything was tracking well until the second last day of the final series where Scott scored a 4th, 5th and an uncharacteristic 16th. Josh McKnight, who had been hot on Scott's heals pounced and went into the final day of racing in the lead. Josh held his nerve on the final day to score a 1,3,1 in fresh conditions and cementing his position as 2012 Moth World Champion. Josh is one of the youngest World Champions in many years and is set to have a very bright and successful future in the class. Rob Gough deserves a special mention coming from seventh overall on the last day, finishing with a 3,1,3 to finish third.

Joshua McKnight (AUS): "I'm pretty relieved because a lot of effort and money has been going into this program. I sailed a little bit more consistently when there was less breeze and Scott was a bit more unfortunate in one race where he got a 16th but that's sailing. It's really unfortunate for him. He probably put more time into this regatta than anybody else. I feel kind of bad taking it away from him but at the same time I'm happy and relieved I did it.

It wasn't all easy today. Scott was ahead in the first mark but I had a two-point lead coming into the day so I knew I had to take a lot less risk than he did in order to win. I tried to sail safely and even if he did beat me in the second race on the finish line, I figured it was just one point. Scott and I train a lot in this type of conditions and he's the one that usually gets away and waits for me. So, for me to win in these conditions is really surprising."

Scott Babbage (AUS): "I'm pretty disappointed although I'm happy for Josh because he sailed very well. As I said before, we have been training together all winter and it's good to see that training paid off. The start of the week was good, I had a very good qualifying series but I had a bad day in the final that cost me." Courtesy: www.mothworlds.org

Josh and Scott are training partners who spend a lot of time training together on Sydney Harbour. Both sailors sailed Mach2's and chose to use the KA MSL16. With Josh's win Mach2 has won it's fourth World Championship in a row, winning every world title since it first hit the water in 2009. The KA Sail brand has continued to develop their sails in one of the fastest developing classes in the world and has done well to win every World Title since 2005!

We must thanks the organisers of the Zhik Nautica Moth Worlds 2012 for running a very special event. With some of the Olympic top guns set to return for the World Championships in Hawaii we look forward to 2013!

Check out the final results: Click HERE

Check out some amazing photo's from the event, taken by the master Thierry Martinez: Click HERE

The weeks highlight package can be seen below, but if you would like to check out all the sailing highlights and interviews from across the week click on the links below:

Sailing Highlights

Interviews

Mach2 Latest & Quicklinks

The New Mach2.2!
Sailing rock stars and their Mach2's
Mach2.2 Ride Height Adjuster kit
Mach 2.2 Gearing Adjuster
We Now Stock Bladerider Spare Parts
Mach2's Dominate At Garda
Mach2 Sailors Shine At The Olympics
Glen Ashby - Why I bought a Mach2
KA Sail's Latest Design - MSL16
Nathan Outteridge Says

We’ve done some development! Yes the Mach2 (we call it the 2.2) has got even better.

But wait, hang on!

Before we tell you all about it let’s just talk about Moth development. It may come as a bit of a surprise for those new to Moth sailing, but Moths have been going for nearly 85 years! Yes that’s right, and in the old days, when you needed a new boat every year development was rife! Moth sailors used to emerge from their cellar or garage, blinking in the light, ashen grey and possibly newly single.
Still, they were quite possibly clutching the key to the next chapter in Moth evolution. Some of course weren’t but they were pioneering times. And with the shiny polished hydrofoiling boats you see now, an onlooker would be forgiven for thinking that the development is quite stable, and compared to those big leaps, has almost stopped.
But it hasn’t. Read more...

Most of our customers are Mach2 sailors like you and me - dinghy sailors from all over the world who sail as much as they can in the free time they have, and enjoy it immensely! A number of our customers however are well known professional sailing heroes who have won medals, broken records and achieved accolades the world over, and are now choosing the Mach2 as their weapon of choice. You can probably understand how pleased and honoured we are that the world’s best have chosen to sail a Mach2, and we thought you would be curious to know their names. Of course many of these sailors span sailing categories, often from the Olympic Games to the Cup, and part of the problem is - where to start with such a glittering line up? Read more...

After a year of prototyping we have worked out a much better way of controlling your height abovethe waves. This custom titanium / brass system provides lightweight, high strength and low friction- no slip system to prevent jamming and rope tangling to increase ease of use even in the hairiest top mark rounding.

The system is the same length as the current Ride Height Adjuster allowing you to just fit the new system to any existing Mach2. Like the current RHA, it has fine adjustment (0.8mm per turn) keeping the pulley system simple. More info here

From very early in the development of the Mach2, the intention was to have the gearing at the front of the boat adjustable from the wings. (This is why all Mach2’s have a utility tube.) We wanted to adjust at the front as this also adjusts the angle of the wand due to the offset of the adjuster nut.

This new system not only reduces slop, flex and the possibility of the adjuster screw bending, it also is easily adjustable on the fly from the wings! The low friction.............

Click HERE to read more

We scoured the world for stocks of Bladerider parts and bought them to one place. Not only do we have stocks of original BR parts, but we have some refurbished parts too. More importantly we have some items that are made to an improved design, or with better material than the original parts. Now you can keep your BR going for more years of enjoyment.

Mach2 is our main business, but we believe keeping old BR's in a race ready state will help grow the class.

Bladerider spares - Click HERE

Mach2 won it's fourth consecutive World Championship, whilst KA Sail secured it's eighth. We were very pleased to see 92 of the 117 competitors chose to sail Mach2's at the event, whilst 96 chose to use a sail from the KA range!

Congratulations to Josh McKnight on winning a hard fought battle at the top of the leaderboard

Check out all the results, reports and footage - Click HERE

The 2012 London Olympics has seen some incredible competition amongst all the sailing classes, with Mach2 sailors dominating. Australian's Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen won Gold at Weymouth in the 49er Class from second place and fellow Mach2 sailor, New Zealander, Peter Burling. Australian Laser sailor Tom Slingsby won Gold with an impressive regatta, where he had the event all but won coming into the medal race. To read more - Click HERE

'It has been something that I really wanted to have a go at. The lure of sailing a flying machine that looks like so much fun to sail upwind and downwind, that offers so many new challenges along with supreme efficiency and performance, has really interested me for quite a while now.

'The opportunity to purchase a Mach2 foiling moth and have a new personal sailing challenge has been an exciting thought and one that I am sure will make me re-think all that I have learnt in the past. To read the full story - Click HERE

Check out the brand new MSL16 which features include:

Complete redesign from the previous MSL10 and 13
Wider luff pocket
Combination of soft and light materials for the pocket
Shape moved forward and down to reduce drag /increase power
Gap between sail and boom closed.
Extra cam and batten in at the bottom of sail
Suits medium mast/soft with high forestay for improved response to the vang and Cunningham.
Brand new cams for better entry profile

For the full story, click here

Probably the very best skiff sailor on the planet, current Moth and 49er World Champion Nathan Outteridge has this to say about his Mach2 "The Mach 2 is an amazing piece of engineering, I have sailed many boats over the last few years and my Mach2 is by far my favorite boat to sail or should I say fly! With out a doubt this is the future of sailing."