It's all about trust

A number of you may have been worried about how Carbon Footprint was feeling about my exploits with the Mach 2. She was particularly touched by those of you who in fact contacted me to express this concern. Fear not, she has never been far from my mind and will be justly rewarded for her support and trust in my foray into Mach 2 world with a new round of upgrades. A bunch of flowers may not go far enough to make up for working late with the secretary but a new ride height control, better wand system and the promise of a trip to Australia more than make up for a brief fling with a Mach 2!

Trust is a two way thing and just as Adam trusted me to take his boat to Silvaplana he was also to have to trust me once more. Ok, so not strictly a two way thing, more an everything my way thing, but what is a girl to do? Many of you may be asking yourselves what could require more trust than your girlfriend spending a week in foreign lands with your Mach 2? Had I secured a job oiling up the six packs of Calvin Klein models mid photoshoot? Had the call come in from George Cloony that he needed a partner for the upcoming Oscars ceremony? No, this was going to require trust on a far deeper level...

It had been meticulously designed, slaved over in the workshop, ok so the Boat Yard at Beer did a lot of the work, (saving me from endless sanding, I owe you boys big time!), it is a world first, a milestone in Moth sailing history, sailed only twice before in the capable hands of Adam May. Yes, I was about to become only the second person to go Mothing with a wing sail!!! I was pretty nervous to say the least, breaking it was clearly going to mean more than washing up duty for a month and lets face it a wipeout is never far away when I’m Moth sailing. I least I knew I could trust the Mach 2.

I got on, righted the wing, so far so good. Carbon Footprint had taken Adam out of instruction giving range, I was on my own and I was scared. OK, this can’t be that hard, what do I know about wings? The have them on airplanes, you ‘put the flaps down to take off’. What do I know about foiling? ‘Bear away, shut your eyes and think of England’. I did both these things, and trusted in the Mach 2.... We started slowly at first, would we lift off before the end of the runway? Trust in the laws of physics... The apparent wind generated, we accelerated, the apparent wind generated, we accelerated, the apparent wind generated, you get the picture..... oh my word!!! Before I knew what was happening, or could open my eyes and attend to important matters like steering, we were approaching the psychological 20 kt barrier, and the far more physical barrier of the harbour wall.

Since I am writing this I clearly survived the experience as did Adam’s wing, phase one of destruction testing ‘Let girlfriend loose with it’, well and truly passed. Adam may have a few design upgrades in mind, all I have to say is that it’s going to look so good in pink.