The Foiled Moth Arrives in NZ

This could well be the most exciting development in dinghy sailing in a generation.

Andrew Brown of Force Racing had invited me to test sail the new Bladerider Moth over Labour Weekend. After a rush trip back from Russell we failed to launch on Sunday, or Monday, with 35 kn gusts coming off the beach at Takapuna.

However I did get introduced to a couple of interesting people. The first was Rohan Veal, the man behind all of this. For a guy who has won the World championship with straight bullets, I was prepared to forgive a slightly swollen head, but he turned out to be a nice guy, more than happy to talk and share, and obviously delighted with this new toy.

I also met Hal Wagstaff.  A septuagenerian who insists he will be ordering a Bladerider. In addition he claims to have introduced the original moth to NZ back in the time of The Beatles.

With no sailing happening I had a look at the boat. The fun part seems to be the foil attached to the bottom of the centreboard. It has a flap (much as you would see on an airplane wing) on the trailing edge. This is connected via a bunch of fancy doodads to the wand on the bow. If the bow is low on the water the flap goes down and generates more lift, if the bow is high the flap levels out, giving less lift.
The other unusual item is the twist grip on the tiller that adjusts the fore and aft rake on the rudder, and thus the foil on that.

Otherwise it is a very skinny carbon moth with wings and a high-tech rig. All up, the boat weighs only 30kg. (I weighed three and a half times what the boat did!)

After the weekend's disappointment I finally got another call from Andrew to say they were launching again Wednesday afternoon. At the ramp I met Gareth Cooke from Subzero images (the photos are his).

Andrew and I picked the boat up and carried it to the water on its side. You need to walk out past waist deep so the foils are clear and the water was cold.


Even the good guys can crash this thing.

I jumped into the rubber ducky with the photographers, turned around and Andrew was flying out of sight. This boat is fast.

After a bit of photography I got offered the ride I was waiting for.

I spent around 20 minutes in the boat; you might describe me as actually sailing for less than five of them (it is easy to right), but as the breeze steadied up towards the end, I got lucky with my balance, a puff hit and suddenly it went very quiet and I was flying three feet above the water. The acceleration would put a V8 to shame. I was told of newbies literally falling out the back of the boat the first time up. In 10-12 kn we were hitting speeds in the mid teens. Rohan tells me his personal best is 28kn.

Another interesting quirk is that as your speed suddenly doubles , so does the sensitivity of the rudder. It is really easy to oversteer and end up weaving all over the ocean before the next spectacular crash and burn.


The photographer wanted a good shot of the foils

Gareth then had a turn (he did better than I did) and we returned to the ramp wet, shivering and thoroughly exhilirated.

This is an amazing machine. It fits into a box for shipping and can travel with you on the plane, I'm told it can be taken anywhere on the planet for $1,000. It can be roof-racked, one person can rig and launch it, and it can do 28 kn (if the pilot is very skilled).

It already looks as if there will be a decent fleet sailing in NZ by the end of this season and discussions are being held on a National/South Pacific series very soon.

I predict great success for the new breed of flying moths.