After winning – but not winning – the Bloody Mary pursuit race a few weeks ago, Graham Vials this time really did bag the win at the John Merricks Tiger Trophy aboard his flying Bladerider.
Whereas Queen Mary Sailing Club (that’s near London, for overseas readers) only admits boats with RYA-recognised PY handicap numbers, Rutland Sailing Club gave the Bladerider a nominal handicap of 800. This puts it faster than an International 14, but slower than a 49er.
Now, Graham (pictured above, courtesy of www.ianroman.com) did win the event quite easily on points. So how did other competitors look upon his competing in the Bladerider?
“I think when I turned up on Saturday morning, some people thought I was a bit of a handicap bandit sailing off 800, but I think by the end of the weekend people gave me credit for the win.” The reason being, that it was blowing old boots at Rutland – as it nearly always seems to for this popular event, which attracted well over 200 entries.
Keeping a 30kg flying machine attached to the water is the challenge in these conditions.
“It was very gusty, particularly on the Sunday,” Graham told SailJuice. “I was blown over twice to leeward, and I did one pitchpole, which I really should have avoided.
On the Saturday, in slighter more moderate breezes, Graham lapped nearly the whole fleet in a five-lap one-hour race. This implies that the Bladerider – in those breezes – is almost 20% faster than a Musto Skiff. Bearing in mind that the leading Musto Skiff was being sailed immaculately by reigning World Champion Richard Stenhouse, that speaks volumes for the Bladerider’s speed – and Graham’s skill.
In the pursuit race Graham gave Sten’s Musto Skiff a 7 minute head start, and he’d overtaken him just 20 minutes into the race. That said, the Bladerider didn’t stretch away from the Musto Skiff, because as the breeze picked up, Graham struggled to keep his ultralight hull in the water. When it’s really blowing hard, the rig drag is so high that he struggles even to stay foiling, at which point the Bladerider loses nearly all of its efficiency.
It was in the pursuit race where Graham suffered his pitchpole, so to finish third in that race, just a tantalising 50 metres between the leading duo of 420 and 29er, implies he was sailing faster than his 800 handicap, even in the windy stuff. Then again, the 420 which won the pursuit race, sailed by Ben and Tim Saxton, bust one of its rudder pins. The lads spent three minutes capsized while the made a hasty repair to the rudder and got up and running again. This is a testament to great seamanship, but also implies that the 420 still enjoys a good handicap for the high-wind days.
Also, where in medium airs the foiling Moth is utterly ballistic down a beam reach, once the wind picks up, anything close to beam reach angle becomes a death zone, similar to the sort of no-go zone experienced by high-performance skiffs like 49ers and International 14s. “On some of the windy reaches, I could either sail at 45 degrees to the wind or 145 degrees, but not much in between,” says Graham. In other words, he was ‘tacking’ his way down the reach while the 420s and 29ers were charging at high speed straight down the rhumb line.
Ian Walker, who was there to watch the weekend and support the event in memory of his friend John Merricks, with whom he won the 470 Olympic silver medal in 1996, helped Graham launch the Bladerider on Sunday morning. Graham says Ian told him that if he could get the Bladerider round the course in those conditions, then he deserved to win the trophy.
Pretty much everyone else felt the same way. Graham reckons that for those conditions 800 is about right for the International Moth, although if it was moderate breezes he believes 750 to 775 would be the right ballpark. Bear in mind that 2006 Moth World Champion Simon Payne is now forced to race off about 690 at Hayling Island, though.
So as the competence level increases, the Moth numbers could keep on coming down.
Handicapping a foiling boat is a tough business, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to compete for the big winter multi-class events.
In retrospect 800 might seem like an easy handicap for the Moth, but Graham Vials was until recently one of the best 470 sailors in the UK, before he retired from Olympic campaigning to pursue a career in the law. He is a class act, and winning the Tiger Trophy was a fair result.
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