Moths in waves

Originally posted by aardvark_issues Big waves, no real problem. Short chop, horrible.

Curiously the big wave surf foilers appear to work well because they don't get knocked about by the chop on big waves. I presume there is a specific range (height and wavelength) of chop that is horrible for Moths.

Also is the same chop upwind and downwind very different?

Originally posted by aardvark_issues Bizarrely we don't seem to sail at actual wavy venues very much

I have a theory that the faster the boat the less fun waves are. At least for me.

If I think about sailing a Laser in waves, then upwind there's time to pick a route up around, between whatever, and downwind the boat is slow enough to really get up on a wave and surf for long periods, grab the steepest bit, mess round in surf, all that stuff. And with longer waves, ocean waves or whatever I have time to handle them, think about them and if its just short chop by Laser standards then they aren't that big anyway.

If I think about a high performance boat on the other hand then upwind those waves are coming at me easily twice as fast. There isn't as much time to do much in the way of route planning because as soon as I've slammed into one the next is on the way, and the impacts are so much more violent, knocking the boat about and tiring me out, and what constitutes short chop at the speeds I am going can actually be much bigger waves. Downwind I'm overtaking waves fast, so no time for sustained surfing, instead its much more HTF do I avoid going down the mine ploughing into the back of the wave in front.

So in a fast boat I'd much rather have either flattish water or really long open ocean waves, stuff in between isn't much fun for me. In a slow boat waves are more fun, but as everything else about sailing such boats doesn't appeal I don't sail them anyway.

There's also the thing that many wavy venues also have challenging launching and recovery. I can't imagine wanting to launch a Moth off an exposed shingle beach for instance.

If that sort of thinking is also true for many of the Mothies, maybe that explains why not so many wavey venues?

Talking about chop, the 2014 aussie national had some proper waves in day2and3! Cannot post link from my phone, but just search youtube.

In those conditions it definitely gets challenging to get in one piece tho the leeward mark,at least for me :D