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Been training in Weymouth for the last five days and with the number of Moths that are already here its like the event has already started!  Over 90 Moths have entered which is pretty cool! 

Sailing is going well, though hoping for some light breeze next week…  It also seems like I have a never ending amount of boat work, although I have changed my rigging and been replacing all the rope on my boat.  Cool to be down here early though to get some sailing in and sort as much boat work out as possible.  Its good to be able to try a few different rig settings even if it doesnt work…

Off sailing now!

Packed up my Moth for Weymouth onto my Dads Volvo last night (the car that didn’t quite make it back from Garda last year) and my Moth nearly blew off the car!!  So much for all the talk of light winds at the Worlds…

Just got all my other kit to load up now including my windsurfer, surfboard etc (just in case to windy to go sailing).  Though not quite sure when I’m going to pack, as off to see my brothers band at a Gig tonight (not the Bon Jovi one unfortunately) and need to be in Weymouth for lunch time on Saturday!

Really looking forward to getting to Weymouth now and getting some sailing in!  Though the weather is not looking that great…

My 11 year old brothers band ‘The Theory of 6 degrees’ has been picked by Bon Jovi as 1 of the top 20 bands (out of 350+) to support Bon Jovi at Twickenham Stadium in front of 60,000 fans!

Final voting for the top 2 is by online voting (voting ends this Wednesday at 12am)…so if you’d like to vote please go to http://www.thelondonpaper.com/bonjovi

At the moment the band’s lying 2nd!!

I can’t believe that I leave for the Moth worlds in 5 days!!

I’m really looking forward to the event and hopefully getting a good week of training in before the Worlds begin.  I still have lots to get sorted on my boat, should be plenty of time for that though.

Went to see The Foo Fighters in the new Wembley Stadium… what an amazing stadium and awesome band!!  They were on stage for nearly two and a half hours, played all there good tracks and were even joined by Led Zeppelin at the end!  What more could you ask for!? (apart from some Stongbow)

Then we went to see the Zutons in Kent on Saturday, which was a completely different atmosphere but they were still really good.  It’s made me very tempted to get tickets for V festival, as there is an amazing lineup again!  

No matter how prepared I try to be, I never seem to be prepared enough…

There always seems to be something that can be done to my boat and always something that can be improved upon on the water. Which does make Moth sailing really interesting! You always have to push yourself and equipment…

On top of that I have managed to damage the ligaments in my ankle again (don’t think surfing helped it)! I have had a bad ankle since I was cycling (on a bike with no seat..) to my last exam a number of years ago and managed to fall off!  It has never been the same since!

I have been having ‘these electrode things’ most nights this week which stimulates the ankle and moves it outwards my sending electrical impulses through the nerves.  It’s a weird felling, though it should hopefully improve the strength of my ankle by working the areas that are weak.  Thanks to Will for all his help getting this sorted!

Off to see the Foo Fighters at Wembeley tomorrow night, which will be awesome!!  Will be interesting to see what happens at the Moth Nationals in Weymouth this weekend to…

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks today since I last went out in my Moth!  I’m definitely missing Moth Sailing… although not being able to sail does give me chance to catch up on boat work and to try and improve my current setup.      It’s also interesting reading everyone’s blogs and all the talk of foiling tacks… I think I will have to rely on playing the shifts well in Weymouth, rather than be foiling tacking by Weymouth! 

Was cool to get surfing this weekend, as have not been for so long! We managed to be down in Croyde for a surf at 8.30 Saturday morning. Unfortunately the surf dies for the rest of the weekend and we could not find any decent surf anywhere. Surfing will have to wait until after the worlds now!

I have had some good sails over the last few weeks and even managed to fit in some no-sailing things, like a trip to the Isle of Wight which was cool!      The last week has been interesting though..  As there was such a good forecast I decided to take last Wednesday off work and I wish that I hadn’t…  There was a good breeze, although there was a strong ebbing tide and lots of weed.  I did initially have a few setup issues, though managed to resolve these.  On my last corner of the day I started to tack (if only I had gybed like I was going too..) I came to a very sudden stop as I hit a mud bank and I was only just out of the channel!!  As I looked at the foil it was not good and kept to low-riding back to the club.  Amazingly there is no damage to the hull though..     Since then I have been working in Aberdeen for a few days, now I’m back just need to try and get the foil fixed.. Only good news is that I picked up my new KA sail this weekend which looks cool and looking forward to using it!  Spent the weekend not sailing and chilling with friends which was really good and think a break from sailing for a a bit will probably do me some good (though I ‘m missing sailing already). At least it gives me chance to do some boat work and even put some sail number on my sails (Scott is anyway..) rather than just the number 4! 

I went out for a good sail before the Glyn Charles (as we didn’t start until 3.33) and then came in briefly for something to eat and to cool down before heading out to the start.  The breeze almost looked like it was going to fill in nicely for our start and then continue to build through the race..    The first part of the race was going well (apart from my first beat.. as I decided to tack early under the lay line which was a big mistake).  The other legs went well until the breeze decided to die completely and it was low riding against the tide..  consequently did not finish to well, although still really enjoyed it.  On Sunday I managed to make the start of the club race (I think I was even early..) and as the Race committee did stuff we all sailed around in a good breeze.  It made me realize how amazing Moth sailing is, as you fly around at an awesome speed and everyone else looks like there not moving.  When the race was finally started the wind decided to die and it was back to practicing that light weather sailing.  My speed at times was good and at other times not so good, so more practice needed. Looking forward to sailing next weekend at HISC, as it’s a Bank Holiday and there is a big RS event going on.        

Photo taken by Rich Barnes: