The Bieker Moth – Choice of the top six sailors at 2021 Moth Worlds
by Julia Faire 8 Sep 2021 06:46 BST
8 September 2021
2021 International Moth World Championship - Lake Garda, Italy - September 2021 © Angela Trawoeger
Fast just got redefined at the 2021 Moth Worlds with the Bieker Moth being the choice of boat sailed by the top six - five of whom competed in the last two America's Cups.
Our congratulations to Tom Slingsby showing impressive form to take out this year's World Championship title with two races to spare. To Iain Jensen and Paul Goodison, 2nd and 3rd place holders, our congratulations to you both too.
As builders of the Bieker Moth, to have the first six boats at these Worlds, makes it all the more exciting for our team. This is in a fleet of 138 competitors. Our congratulations to you all.
The recent 2021 Moth Worlds provided everything a World Championships could ever wish to deliver - top sailors pitting their skills against each other in what is arguably the fastest single-handed boat to ever grace the waters.
The Bieker Moth was no exception at these Worlds. "The Bieker is hands down the fastest platform as soon as we are in foiling conditions, and we have made huge steps to improve the light air performance and it showed," says Slingsby.
If there's one thing we've learnt as boat builders, you simply can't keep still in this Class. This is a Class that just keeps pushing the performance boundaries further and further every time. And why not - it's a development Class after all.
The recent development of our new "low-drag" verticals (the MV-V3 and RV-V3 models) just before the Worlds gave sailors the added speed needed for early lift off in light airs and easier maneuverability. The defining characteristics of these low-drag verticals was in shortening the length and making them narrower which resulted in reduced area. The result is less drag and weight which in effect makes the boat go faster through the water for the all-important early lift off in light airs.
And this showed at the Worlds, "The new verts are way less sticky and boat handling is better. Acceleration out of the tacks is insane," says Slingsby.
The introduction of this new foil design also took advantage of the refinements we've made to our foil construction process which enables us to produce even more consistent, perfectly shaped foils.
Future developments: focus is on the construction process
We've now built close to 50 Bieker Moths. During this time, we've refined the build process and have come to understand that a new hull mould is needed to improve even further our construction process of the Bieker Moth. This improved construction will mean more accurate boats are built. In effect, more accuracy leads to lighter, more consistent boats.
The new mould will also include a new gantry design and attachment system to further enhance light air performance.
It's important to note that this new mould is not changing the current shape of the Bieker Moth.
However, we will admit that, as this is a development Class, you can be certain we're forever working hard to give our sailors the edge.
And why wouldn't we with the development team behind the Bieker Moth. This is the team that turns ideas into performance gains for the Bieker Moth.
- Mackay Boats team is headed by three times JJ Giltinan [World] 18ft skiff champion Dave McDiarmid
- Scott Babbage - Project Manager
- Paul Bieker - Naval Architect
- Riley Dean - Design Engineer
- Leopold Fricke - FEA engineer (IXENT)
- Hal Youngren - Foil Section Designer
- Nico Rousselon - CFD engineer
- Alex Vallings - C-Tech
- James Gell - Prototype Boat Builder
Bieker Moth sailors and overall fleet placing