A-Mac interview at the McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds
by Jonny Fullerton 13 Jan 2015 19:13 GMT
9-16 January 2015
A-Mac at the 2015 McDougall McConaghy International Moth Worlds © Th. Martinez / Sea&Co / 2015 Moth Worlds
Jonny Fullerton talks to Andrew 'A-Mac' McDougall, designer and creator of the Mach2 Moth at the 2015 McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds, exclusively for YachtsandYachting.com.
Jonny Fullerton: Andrew, just update us since Hayling last year, I think you had about 75-80% of the Moths there and it looks like the same here, what's changed on the Mach2 since Hayling?
A-Mac: There's been a few changes, we've got a new high-lift front foil which has proved to be very, very successful in the light winds, I think 6 of the 8 or so races has been won on one of those foils. We've got a sail that is a little bit more all-round and I think all our top guys are using it - it's from a prototype, or at least it should have been a prototype but I decided to bite the bullet and build plenty of them to bring here, and it's proven to be pretty good. We've got the new, slightly more aero(dynamic) front wing bars, slightly lower which just seems to sit the boat up a lot better and match with the high clew sail, so you can still get under the boom while raking the rig more than we were. There's been a little bit of development in the mast, we've got some stiffer masts now and we're probably moving the stiffness up the mast a little bit for a few people; Tom Slingsby's been running one, Dean Barker's been running one and I've been running one, and they're already in production now. A lot of little things have been working out pretty well.
JF: A number of the top sailors have been saying to us that they've been using various little canting systems, is that becoming the norm now or a general trend?
AM: I started using canting in 2010 at Dubai and Simon Payne had a bit of a look at that during the first race and said 'I'm doing that' and went on to beat me so it's definitely really good. I think it's one of those things that you can just have a little bit of cant and it works for everything. The New Zealand guys have got full manual systems which they can pull up to centre and change the canting throughout the day and they can change the rake of the mast while they're sailing - I feel that's probably extreme for racing but it's great for testing. I think cant will become the norm because I think that little bit of (rig) heel to leeward just works and just balances everything better, you've got the rig more upright. Some people say it's better in light winds to have the cant, some says it's better in high winds, some say it's better downwind, some say upwind, I just use it all the time and it seems to work.
JF: JF: Anything else in the last year that has become more the norm that you've noticed?
AM: There's a lot of work on aero, I have been very reticent about doing any aero stuff because I want to have it in production before I show anyone what I'm doing. It's not so much commercially, it's just I hate doing something and then people see it and build it before I do it - it's not very nice! I've got some very strong ideas as to what the aero should be and I think that when you do all the maths that the aero is a very major part of drag. The foils upwind aren't that much drag, we're already doing around 17 knots.
JF: Talking about future development, you mentioned a while ago that you've got a new project in the can with the Waszp (one-design, one person foiling monohull), tell us a little bit more about that?
AM: We've got the plug made and I think they're pulling the mould off that this week. All the aluminium dies are about 20 days off, once we get them we'll be able to do all the injection moulding because there's a little bit of tolerance in that and we want to make sure that they'll fit. There's a bit of work to do on the rig but we're looking at having a boat available in about 2 months. That's the plan and obviously there will be a few little teething things.
JF: Could you tell us what the Waszp is all about?
AM: As far as sailing it's going to be very similar to a Moth, we don't ride tricycles for a very good reason, you don't fall over on a tricycle but they're not right really, and I think that's the same with trying to making something too stable, it's not right for what we're doing. We need to heel the thing to windward, we need a narrow hull to be able to get up and foil and the scale of a Moth is pretty good, even for a kid, as long as you get the foil size right and the sail size right, so what we've done is actually make it so that it's actually more tolerant to a heavy guy than the Mach2 is, it's got a slightly higher volume hull. The Waszp is really the answer to all those kids' fathers who come up to me on the beach and say, "I'd really like to get one for my son but..." and there's all the buts; the cost, the launching, the danger, the not having a mode for learning, which this one does, and the one-design factor. The Moth is always going to be a development class, and it's going to be fun because of that, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, particularly for a kid who's just starting out where you've got to tinker or you won't go fast. So the foils are out of the box, you can't do anything with them, they're aluminium, the tips are moulded so everything is out of the box - you go sailing, you go racing and have really as much fun as you're going to have on a Moth. You're not going to do 30 knots, or 35 that supposedly we've done, but you are going to do 23-24 knots fairly easily and you're going to get up (foiling) in about the same wind speed as a Moth does.
JF: So almost like a perfect feeder class really?
AM: Well there's going to be 3 rigs and there's going to be 3 foil configurations and that's just simply having different length foils as they're all having the same aluminium extrusion, and it'll be very easy to fine-tune that over the first year of working on what is the perfect foil size for various weights. So it'll actually cross a much bigger range of weights than the Moth class does. The biggest sail will be 8 square metres, we could do a bigger sail, we're building everything strong enough so it'll take a 100kg person and it will work for a 50kg person, or even a 40kg person. Perfect feeder, yes - I think that so many people are put off by some of those factors I just talked about with the Moth and I've put far more effort into designing this than the Mach2 because there are so many restrictions; you're trying to get it light, you're trying to get it cheap, you're trying to get it so it's easy, you're trying to get it so it's fast, all these different things and I think I've thrown out the basic design about 4 times and just started again saying "no, that really doesn't work". So yes, it's been nearly 5 years of design time.
JF: I'm really looking forward to it, I might even be able to get in one myself.
AM: I reckon you're the perfect size!
JF: Good luck for the rest of the regatta and thanks for your time.
AM: You're most welcome, thank you for the opportunity.
www.mach2boats.com
A-Mac is operating a fully stocked workshop at the 2015 McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds, providing a life saving service for the vast fleet at this championship. If it wasn't for this service most of the key named sailors could now be out of contention!
www.mothworlds.org/sorrento