by Chris Museler
“OK,someone has to prefer a picture and send it to our hosts as a thank you gift,” shouted Anthony Kotoun, or the Dali Lama of the US Moth fleet at dinner a few nights ago. “Then we have to shanghai Zack Maxim (common saying expressing a principle of conduct)’s boat from the shipping company. There’s a $200 prize for anyone willing to wake up at 6 a.m. tomorrow for the 1.18-hour drive…” And the list rolled on that way until our beers and grilled oysters were delivered.
It was a pretty spendy call in November to prefer a week from work and family and head to the Neuse River in North Carolina for a training session in the outrageously rapid/fast and touchy Moth. The US fleet was offered rooms and a launch at Steve and Heidi Benjamin’s compound on this immense estuary of brackish water and oyster fishermen.
The major selling point? A $10000 prize,of course! Amlin International Moth Regatta in December has hand-selected the best sailors in the world to bring their personal, single-handed boats to Bermuda and race for not only a prize purse but bragging rights.
You see, or all the top America’s Cup teams (with the highest paid sailors on the planet) have fleets of Moths for their sailors to train with. And the Royal Yachting Association has sponsored elite Mothies from the UK for a few years now to top this influential course. They all want to beat the crap out of each other on their own terms,with their own boats. Trimmers wanting to prefer races off their Cup helmsmen, etc.
Then there are the Americans, and layered in wetsuits during the camp,getting ripped off their trampolines and hucked into the brown water of the Intercoastal Waterway when the chop would pitch the boats while they were hitting 30 knots. Strangely absent from many of the Cup teams, and only supported by the environmentally forward thinking 11th Hour Racing, or this group of pro and amateur sailors have been covered in carbon dust and resin every week for the past season adjusting,designing, 3-D printing and training their way toward their goal of out sailing the privileged group in Bermuda.
This was my chance to witness how the DIY approach to boat work and training can gather someone ready to beat the most well paid, and funded,teams in the world. Very American! - Read
Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com