Threesome

The Mach 2 had run away to Spain, Carbon Footprint was feeling sad and lonely. She was sitting all by herself in the dinghy park in her pajamas... eating ice cream straight from the tub... playing Gloria Gaynor on repeat... It is into sad moments such as this that bizarre twists of fate have a habit of occurring, and so it was that an offer that she could not refuse miraculously appeared. An offer so exciting that it did not feature in her wildest dreams as surely there is no way it could happen... Her heart skipped a beat, could it be real? Could he really mean her? Did he know how she had been secretly admiring him from afar? What could have set her heart alight like this? Was it the offer of dinner with Brad Pitt? (He is coming to the South West to film some Cornish zombies after all). No, far more exciting, she was going out with not one but two handsome young men.

The Swiss foiling team who, (so narrowly), beat Carbon Footprint in speed week have kept apace with sailing design trends and have put a wing on their foiler, Mirabaud LX. They were bringing it to Cowes week and they had invited yours truly onboard! That is definitely an offer a girl could not refuse.

So it was that I made the trip over to Cowes and found myself sailing with not one but two handsome, if not slightly crazy, Swiss gentleman. For those of you not familiar with Mirabaud LX picture this; 10m of 3 man, spaceframe, wing sailing, foiling awesomeness. It is as though designer Thomas Jundt has taken all the best bits of sailing technology and put them together in one extreme machine and the result is this:

Check out www.mirabaudlx.com for all the technical details.

I climbed onboard in the clothes I had just stepped off the ferry in, there was no time to change and the boys said it was fine, I wouldn’t get wet - really?! JP handed me the mainsheet, it appeared my job was trimming the wing, just like the mainsheet on the Moth apparently. Should I just take this moment to point out that I have now sailed more wing sailed boats than most of the America’s cup sailors - if you want any pointers boys... It was as much fun as I had dreamt and more! You get two gentlemen to help you and Mirabaud LX is surprisingly stable, foiling along the Solent through chop that would have upset many a Moth, without even spilling the beers kindly provided by the sponsors. That said we did manage to capsize, oops. As the boys promised, even a little excursion to the dagger board did not involve getting wet, how very civilised. The press briefing was as much showboating as possible - that is my kind of sailing. Buzzing the Royal Yacht Squadron during Cowes week is definitely showboating that Carbon Footprint would approve of!

It was a great day with the perfect conditions for wing foiling, thanks so much to Thomas, Antoine and Eric for letting me play with their very cool toy and ensuring I kept my hair dry!

Now it’s just the offer of dinner from the lovely Brad that Carbon Footprint has to dream about!

Speed week

"On the podium with the hunky guys", not my words but those of my proud Mum! The Swiss boys kept their edge for the win but I was pretty happy to be standing on the podium next to JP, not sure there are many Moth events were I could manage that.

The press turned up for the last day to snap some pics of the awesome Swiss foiler. Check out the results at www.ianroman.com. If you look closely you might even spot our very own Moth Squadron Leader on the helm...

I feel the need, the need for speed!

Weymouth speed week 2010 and the stage was set for a speed show down between the awesome Swiss skiff style foiler and the Mach 2. Perfect foiling conditions awaited us, at the Sailing Academy, 14kts with a bit of chop to keep things lively.

As I foiled down the harbour at over 20kts, wing bar to wing bar with an unknown foreign foiler (although one couldn’t strictly say enemy, they are Swiss after all), I heard the immortal words of Kelly McGillis or was it Amac run through my head... “That’s not possible, the Mach 2 doesn’t have the trust to weight ratio, it has a problem with its inverted flight tanks, it won’t do a negative G push over. What were you doing there? Fortunately I didn’t picture Amac clad in a tight leather skirt slapping his bottom with his teacher’s cane. We communicated for a while, keeping up foreign relations, you know..... then I hit the brakes and he flew right by.

The breeze held in nicely all day and we sent it down the 500m course. I buzzed the tower (committee boat), the race officer spilt his tea down his freshly washed shirt. I entered the one at a time start area at the same time as a windsurfer and broke the rules of engagement, the course officials yelled “That’s a negative, the pattern is full”, I carried on and went for the kill. The Mach 2 blew away my previous personal best max speed with an eye watering 24.7kts, you don’t have time to think up there, if you think, you’re dead. Mirabaud struggled with the tight angle of the course and proceeded below the hard deck, strike one to the Mach 2. Finally the wind dropped off and the remaining competitors bugged out.

The wait for the results began, who was the best of the best? Who’s name was going on the Top Gun trophy? Was my ego writing cheques my body couldn’t cash? Viper uploaded the results and put us out of our misery...I had a 500m average of 20.09kts, Mirabaud 20.89!!! Back to foiler school for me.

On thing is for certain, Mirabaud can be my wingman anytime.

Sadly I didn’t have my camera to snap a quick polaroid, but I my head it went something like this...