... or so the words of that famous Roxy Music song about the chap and his Blow up doll go, deluxe and delightful, disposable darling, the perfect companion or so it seemed, for the Farr 37 as a young chap appeared to be wrestling it into place. Clearly someone well versed with the manipulation of the ungrateful hussy, who was resisting his attempts to close her legs and mount her as a trapeze artiste, just his luck I should show up, frantically thrashing every button the iPhone had to fire up its camera and snap the first delight of this years dinghy show. 

 Turned out it was none other than perhaps not so young Cap'n Jack Sparrow from here and much banter ensued and I got a good discussion about the Farr37, followed by an intriguing chat with a guy on the National 12 stand. following the logic of maybe building a gantry and Tfoil to deal with the pitching moment that would probably ensue if the little Farr had to deal with our chop down here. Then they introduced me to a chipper young beauty from Seaford who at 47 kilos seems to do OK and what am I blubbering about at 67 kgs. Then I tried the rig, with it's carbon mast and the downhaul actually did proper windsurfing style depower stuff, there was a guy there who'd built one himself and reckons there isn't a breeze strong enough to stop him taking it out, short of a hurricane.

Getting back to that National 12, I had a great technical discussion with a young guy he'd fitted a flap on the centreboard and shortened the foil reckons the increased efficiency of an asymmetric plate with the reduced drag of a shorter chord will produce good results, we talked about that over maybe a gybing plate and came to the conclusion he was probably right provided there was enough wind speed for movement over the foil but he might suffer leeway in lighter wind if there was insufficient flow. I love this show for chats like that, really stimulating what with the plastic doll as well, this years show was off to a great start.

I had promised to man the Solution stand so spent a fair bit of time there but not without checking out the F101, a tad too big for our boat park but quite a stunning creation none the less and the thing I'd most like a go on although the Mike Lennon moth with it's incredibly upswept wings in the foyer was equally tempting but probably impractical for those of us prone to snr moments.

We were also checking out Streakers but were diverted by the Byte with its price tag and rig, then there was the new Blaze on Hartleys and the Contender, would they consider a Contender Cutdown, no I didn't think so, but it had to be asked, they could build one to 55kgs, imagine that with a more manageable and stable rig, we can dream.

There's loads going on this year and if it is to be the last then better it ended on a high, much better than last year, I still didn't get to see everybody I intended but it was fun, a great day out, no doubt there will be more I remember later, but I thought I just had to report so far..

I dunno, the wings being as high as they are, were in fact closer to the centre line, that was quite obvious from another Moth nearby with conventional straight wings that only raised the 'normal' angle. So not 'more' righting moment than normal in fact you could argue less, maybe a heavier sailor who wants to ride more inboard and lever from there, my money is still on more windward cant and therefore more lift from the sail to complement the foil, it would have been great if someone had been on hand to ask. Ironically I met a guy who allegedly had a hand in it, old mate from windsurfing, Simon Reynolds a mothy, I should have asked him he'd have known.

Think I might have met him later if he's the lone Burfield warrior.

And, yes, it does look very jewell