After all the by play and preparations it was time for the 120-strong Moth fleet to flex its muscle on the Swan River with yesterday's opening races of the Australian Moth Championship.
Who was quick and who had some tricks left up their sleeve? Well if the first four races are anything to go by then what we have learnt that this is an incredibly open championship and it is up for grabs for the sailor who wants it most.
The racing on day one was delayed as the sea breeze took a while to fill in, with Perth's summer living up to all expectations with hot weather and pumping sea breezes.
Race 1 started in about 12-15 knots and the breeze started to kick from there. On an absolutely ideal race track for foiling the boats were ripping along at speeds of up to 25-30 knots.
The Australian SailGP boys had a solid start to the event with Kyle Langford recording a 2, 1, 2, 2 score card and Tom Slingsby having a great start to his campaign with a 1, 2, DNF, 3 scoreline in the yellow fleet, while Scott Babbage charged into contention with a 3, 3, 1, 1 to round out a day that was dominated by Australians.
In the blue fleet Matt Chew and Rob Greenhalgh were duking it out trading wins all day, however they certainly didn’t have it all their own way with names like Tom Burton, Josh Mcknight, Joe Turner and Will Boulden all snapping at their heels.
The most amazing thing about the racing at the moment is that any sailor, on any platform, with any number of set-ups could win a race, with Bieker, Exocet and Mach2 manufactured boats all scattered through the top 10, and all running a variety of different set-ups.
It really has become a refined art to personalise your boat to your strengths and all platforms are providing similar attributes to each individual in order to make them work. This puts the Moth class in an exciting place as many older boats are becoming competitive again with some upgrades and good sailors at the helm.
Today's racing is an early start time with a race to beat the heat and it will be interesting to see what the breeze does with easterlies forecast.
Post racing it is into the Opening Ceremony with December 12 a rest day before the Chandler Maclod Moth Worlds cranks up on December 13.
For full results, head to http://bit.ly/MothWorldsResults
– Harry Fisher
