By the numbers

Sailing is on hold for a while as it's cold in Park City (-10 F this morning...fun). So the boat is stored for the Winter and I'm eyeing the small project list though I'll take some time to relax and focus on skiing for a while and put sailing on the back burner.

Thanks to Richard Davies, the US Moth class President, who while I was in Long Beach at the Turkey Day Regatta at ABYC, diagnosed a couple of issues on my setup and set me straight. He also measured the WB and it's officially a MOTH! I'm stoked for all of that and can't wait for the Spring.

A picture of the Moth sitting on the car prior to heading to San Diego to see the America's Cup World Series and then to Long Beach/ABYC for the Turkey Regatta.

Sailing but not foiling

I got out for an hour or two today and it went very well. In general the boat had no issues, setup went well, launch was relatively easy but the wind was light so I had very little time out on the outer wing bars. It was probably a good way to get the boat wet and to see how things went, too much wind may have been more than I wanted to deal with. Hopefully we'll get some great breeze next weekend.

Finished...for now

It's in primer gray and not completely faired but that was the plan for some time, to get it to a sailable point where if something went wrong as I got foiling, I wouldn't have to repair a fresh paint job. So there it is, battleship (545 primer) gray. Now it's time to get the rust off my minimal foiling skills from the loan of the West Coast Sailing demo Bladerider RX two years ago that George was so willing to leave with me for a bit.

Almost Ready...almost mothable

A little more fairing/finishing work, a bit of rigging and the wand system. The boat's almost mothable.

She ain't a looker but she'll do

Here's where the boat is at the moment. I'm dialing in the gantry, wand system and racks over the next few days. The boat will be primed in a week or so and ready for a test sail soon.

Getting closer...

I should probably suck it up and take a picture but there hasn't been much to see recently. I've been fairing the hull a little here and there and doing other work. This morning I finished clear coating the forward and aft racks. The other day I vacuum bagged the forward rack supports with a layer of carbon. Tonight after some Laser sailing I'll probably remove the tape from the racks and start mounting the Harken 291 cleats on the forward rack set. Tomorrow night I'm planning to work on the gantry fitting and some more fairing work.

All in all, it's coming along. I hope to be sailing it soon. The rigging is about complete. I have to drill the hole for the boom but otherwise the rigging is nearly complete. The wand system will go together starting this weekend as I've already been working on that as well.

We'll see...

Back to work

There's not much worth taking pictures of at the moment but I've back to work. Projects included fairing, clear coating the forward and aft racks, working on the port rack support, fairing and a couple of other odds and ends. Tonight is round two of clear coating along with...fairing. Part of my plan to ensure that the racks cure quickly enough is to load them into my car and bring them to work down in Salt Lake City. The extra heat down here during the day should speed the process up. It's an oven on wheels.

Special Delivery...

Well, they came via UPS ground today. The pair of sexy wing covers from Kinder Industries in Bristol, RI. Phil Kinder is great to work with and the covers look amazing. Check them out for yourself...the underside of the Port wing cover has the air bag inserted. Time to wrap up the boat and get sailing!

A quick aside. Park City Sailing Association held their 1st Annual SkiGatta, sailing one day and skiing the next. I eeked out a couple of fourth place finishes which earned me third overall after the scoring was averaged. Pretty stoked to finish there. I have never run gates before and had borrowed an older Laser to sail and it worked out just fine. Thanks PCSA! I can't wait until next year's!

More Mothress

Probably not worth a picture but this weekend has been a fruitful one for the Moth. My wife Brie and I vacuum bagged the two center joints of the fwd rack assembly and today I bonded on the five cleat bases for the controls to the mast stump. Tomorrow I'll wrap those bases in carbon and then clear coat the fwd rack assembly throughout the week. Yesterday I wrapped the aft edge of the foredeck in carbon, tabbed the fwd bulkhead to the deck, covered some core on the foredeck/hull joint and made a repair under the mast step area. Today I did a little more work on the foredeck and hull. Hopefully a solid week this coming week of work will allow me to get to hull fairing next weekend and priming the weekend after that.

On another note, I talked to Kinder Industries on Friday and Phil is working on my custom trampolines. I can't wait to see those and get into rigging day!

Getting closer

It's raining outside so the skiing isn't great and it's a great reason to chip away at some of the work needed to get sailing in a month. These are the two outer wing bar joints getting vacuum bagged with the project manager cat sleeping nearby. Mostly she keeps an eye on the heater to make sure it's still working.

Kicked to the curb

Had to move the Moth out of the house for a few weeks of visitors needing the guest room downstairs. Not a problem as the boat is in a good place to move out to the garage and I'll still bring pieces indoors for work. Nice to see the boat in the dolly with the racks situated in place.

Trampolines

Tonight we measured the racks to send to Kinder Industries for the trampolines. Tomorrow's a big day since the trampolines are the last of the custom parts. While they're being built, I'll be working on finishing work, starting tomorrow night with work for the gantry attachment and forward supports for the rack tubes.

Sweatin' the small stuff

Now that the racks have been assembled it's on to the small things. Filleting, wrapping in carbon, fairing and painting. Plenty of work left to be done but there won't be any more measuring eight times before cutting...etc. This boat should sail in April. Foiling is a whole other issue.

Front Racks

The front racks are well underway. The outer wing bar holes have been cut and the forward tubes have been cut to length and the ends shaped. Wednesday night I'll bond the forward tubes and hopefully thursday night follow up with the upper bars. It really has started to look like a Moth now that the forward bars are sitting there in place, pre-bonding.

Rack'n it

Not much progress worth showing with pictures but I spent a good part of yesterday fitting all four forward rack tubes to the king post. Those are basically done and I did a lot of measuring and re-measuring to make sure everything is square and aligned. Hopefully within the next couple of days I'll have the holes in the outer wing bars cut and the bars fitted.

Super Bowl Party

While the 7 layer dip was being made by my wife, I spent some time downstairs working on the moth. I was able to get the joint for the aft racks reinforced with some unidirectional so I won't be afraid to work on the front racks, bumping the outer wing bars around and possibly breaking the joint. Tomorrow night, while my wife is at book club, it's time to assemble the forward racks.

Small steps

On Sunday I was able to bond the aft racks together and I cut the king post/mast stump at the proper angle and temporarily fitted the mast step to allow for me to assemble the forward racks. Tomorrow the plan is to continue to work on the aft racks, getting the supports bogged in place and reinforcing the joint with vacuum bagged carbon. On Thursday through Sunday I will fit and bond the forward racks.

Moth + Progress = Mothress

Nothing worth taking a picture of at the moment but yesterday was spent re-finishing the boom. I swapped out two internal blocks in the boom for Harken T2 29mm blocks and the outhaul block with the shackle is now a Harken Micro. I also created a clew strap out of vectran. It took me two tries but the second one went well and it was the perfect length.

I may be skipping skiing alpine today in order to get back to work on the racks.

Racks - Step 2:

Step 2 is the aft rack set. I've spent two hours today cutting and fitting the aft bars to the outer bars and then the aft bars to each other in the center. I'm just about finished. I have another 20-30 minutes of fitting in the center of the boat left and I'll start to bond the aft wing bars. The holes in the outer wing bars are about perfect and the ends of the aft bars that recess into the outer bars have been rounded accordingly so that they meet up with the inside of the outer wall of the wing bars. The goal is to wrap these up tomorrow night and Tuesday, work on fitting the king post on Wednesday and then work on the forward rack set towards the end of the week and weekend.

Racks - Step 1:

Step 1 of the racks is to build a jig that holds the outer bars in place so that I can size and shape the aft and fwd rack tubes. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to focus on the aft rack tubes and get them fitted and bonded. Next week I'll work on the fwd tubes.