Of Ospreys, Eagles, Falcons, and Moths
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 27 Jul 23:00 BST
Richard Didham at the 2025 Moth Worlds at Lake Garda © Martina Orsini
All are airborne. The first three are birds of prey. The last one is an insect. All are so completely different. As it turns out for us, the first three have also had their name, formidable qualities and fantastic reputations applied to fantastic aircraft made by Boeing. We know the latter as the incredible OTB development class, the International Moth. Now a certain Richard Didham sails one of these. He also just so happens to work for Boeing. Close that loop...
Usually, the top sailors in the Moths are pros. Damn fine ones at that. So, when Didham made the top 10 at the 2024 Moth Worlds in Auckland just seven months ago, his 8th place was pretty noticeable. A DNC and a U Flag aside, it's a pretty cool set. His drop was a 27th, which was by far his worst effort on the track. He won't tell you (literally he didn't), but there's a bullet and a second in that string of results, as well... Round of applause please.
Move to the 2025 edition at Malcesine on Lake Garda that finished only a couple of weeks ago, and Didham placed 19th, with a 23rd and another 27th being the discards, and a fourth the shining light. As it turns out, Mattias Coutts, who won in NZL, only placed 12th in Italy. Such is snakes and ladders that is large fleet, fast boat racing. The short of it is he did not have his best regatta, and by his own words, "...a lot of stuff went wrong, and then I compounded it by making a lot of mistakes, especially in a couple of races where I came off being well back in the third row."
To say Didham's priming himself for Perth in November of 2026 is honestly, total folly. He wants to be on the podium. I believe the statement was, "Hell yeah!"
Now when you have a day job, that all means you're either obsessed by wishful thinking, or you're a meticulous planner. Didham is a software engineer, so that kind of indicates which camp he belongs to. Now as we sat down for the conversation that spawned this, the poster from Fremantle in 1987 on the wall behind set a terrific tone, and highlighted Didham's respect for things from the past, as it was well before his time on this here planet, and an ode to future marks. No rolling over going on here, I can tell you. (Another loop closed BTW.)
Not a pilot. Not your usual pathway...
By now I just bet you're thinking Didham is a pilot. Nup. "Definitely the only sort of flying I've done is on hydrofoils. I grew up sailing at a fairly young age. My dad is a shipwright/boatbuilder, and his niche is old wooden yachts. Back in the day he used to build the whole craft, but today is more about maintenance/repair/restoration for the current custodians."
"When I was really young, I remember just being around various boatyards near our San Diego home, even before I actually remember being on boats or sailing. During the summers, my dad would always put me into junior sailing camps, or summer sailing schools, because it was like nearby where he worked, and he liked to keep my brother and I busy. It is sort of ironic that I actually wasn't that interested in racing at that stage, which would come a fair bit later, as it turned out."
"So, when other kids were into Sabots and Optimists I just wasn't interested in the competitive side of sailing. I was more into sort of like other sports like soccer. By the time I was just going to high school, a couple of different things switched, and took to competitive sailing swiftly and distinctly, never looking back."
The Laser/ILCA was the weapon of choice, and even though he was late to game, as such, he was able to progress swiftly to the national level. He placed second and a High School Nationals and third at an Open Youth Championship, but even at that stage, did not leave US shores, and did not pursue the Olympic dream, either. Instead, it was all about going to college.
Yes, he continued to sail, with some time on an I14 offering up an idea as to what something a bit more technical and somewhat more of a performer would be like. Yet it was a viewing of a Moth on a trailer in carpark back in the high school days (say 13 years of age), along with the money saved during an internship later in the piece that became pivotal moments, and he metamorphosised into a Moth owner.
"The Moth was like the coolest thing ever, and I do not remember the first time I saw one foil, but I sure do remember the one in the carpark. It is completely etched into my mind. All I said was, 'That thing looks crazy!' Today I can say that is the speed which is holds the big appeal."
"When I got my first Moth, it was the only thing I was interested in doing within sailing, and to take it as far as I could go. Today I have a Bieker V3." (These happened to dominate the results at Garda BTW, but it looks like the Exploder maybe making a comeback of sorts.)
Didham was attracted to the Moth first and foremost because it is a foiler. He's even made parts for his own boats, but the development class aspect is second fiddle to being airborne, and reflected on this, "The Moth is definitely the coolest boat out there. I was first exposed to the Moth when Bora was pretty dominant in the class, and busting through the 30-knot barrier."
"I definitely remember thinking that guy can like win the Moth worlds, so there's no reason another American cannot do it to. He was definitely a bit of inspiration. Today, if the breeze is up, and you're not going 30 knots, then you're probably a bit off pace."
Talking about Rohan Veal Port-tacking the entire fleet at Lake Garda during the Worlds back some 20 years ago, Didham simply said, "That'd be that'd be an awesome feeling."
"Executing boat handling in the Moth is so difficult compared to lots of other boats, just because there's such a delicate balance of all these different forces and accelerations when you do manoeuvres. I feel like it's like very, very rewarding because of how difficult it is to in comparison to displacement boats. When you nail you remain fast. When you don't, you stop!"
Nice friends
As for healing to windward, which of course means the 'T' of the foil acts to reduce lateral slip, Didham says, "Muscle memory is a wonderful thing. Yes, you're hiking closer the water, not going away from it, but a few sessions in and you're fine with it. My first sessions were on a friend's Moth. There we were sailing along, and I said, 'Let's trade?' He's very cool, said, 'Yeah. Sure.' He stopped his boat, swam over to me, I swam to his, and here we are."
"At the time I could not believe it. I do remember bearing away a little bit from the upwind angle, and the boat like wasn't quite foiling. All I heard him yell was, 'Heel to windward. Heel to windward.' A Moth is unbalanced given where the rig is, relative to the foil, when you're perfectly flat. You also get more righting moment because the boat is quite overpowered most of the time. At any rate, the boat popped out, and I felt super out of control. When my instinct worked it all out it was just like cruising along."
As for a foiling tack or a foiling gybe for the first time? "That's a whole separate conversation."
A whole new tack
You could somewhat argue that Didham is almost out on the white charger with the lance pointed down trying to lead the US fleet here, literally. "I feel like the US is definitely not as strong in sailing now as it was back in the day, and I think there's a variety of reasons for that. I think I almost have different answers from one week to the next, but they are also all intertwined."
"The US is very focused on high school and college sailing, and the sailors don't often get credit for is how good those sailors are in that specific sort of discipline within sailing, such as FJs and 420s. So simpler boats and really short courses. It doesn't really translate well to the whole rest of sailing outside of that, and lot of sailors struggle to take the skills they have really refined in those boats and then apply it elsewhere."
"Also, that form of sailing just stops when you finish college, with the exception of some really niche things. American sailors usually do really well in international teams racing just because it's very similar to the kind of stuff they train they do a lot of in college. In short, a lot of what happens inside the borders does not translate at all well with the international scene. There needs to be more evolution of what we do. We have probably been slow to adapt, both on and off the water."
"I do believe that there's a lot of potential for the L.A. Games to be a springboard for positive change. It will be really cool to see how things go over the next three and a half years." Having a strong US sailing scene is good for everyone, me thinks.
The mission
Growing up in San Diego provided Didham with skills in breezes and swells, which will translate well to Perth. He now resides in Long Beach, where things are more moderate, more often, and he gets to hone that side of the equation, which is essential as the Moth now gets away in six knots.
So, if he has a job to do to get onto the podium at Perth by continuous refinement, then let us not forget that he has a job, today, tomorrow, and the foreseeable future at Boeing. You know, the one that pays the bills. Didham did Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, and then stayed on for his Masters, concentrating in computational mechanics.
This is important to note, for we have written up a lot of younger sailors in the last couple of years, and it's either a trade or engineering that will get you ahead.
"My Masters was essentially on the premise of how do you use computers to solve mechanical engineering problems? This was a start into the realm of software engineering, and then I continued to be kind of on the border between those two when I first started Boeing, but a year or so into it I was just doing straight software engineering."
Yes, there are strong links between the nautical and aeronautical spheres, and Didham did get involved in CFD, especially in the college years, but the real crossover these days is in process, problem solving, and multi-factional thinking, as the projects he works on look to solve internal workflow and human interaction scenarios - specifically data storage and usage at various stages of engineering development - just as much as how metal and composites work in different ways under different forces.
Didham added, "Creating my own software is as much fun as racing. I have looked at how fluids and solids are modelled or approximated in computer codes. I know a lot about that topic and have used it both for the Moth, and also for my actual work within Boeing, where I have been for six years now since graduating."
"Sailing has become very technical, and it is a much bigger component now than when I was growing up. The other thing I'd say which is interesting is, that I have a couple of friends on American Magic, and they didn't go to college. They might not know the maths behind the physics of sailing, but they have an intuition that is very similar to that you build up as an engineer studying mechanical engineering. Impressive."
Didham is the lead on the project at Boeing, and it has been his sole focus for two years now. "I think one thing that I've learned from sailing that has influenced my work at Boeing has been the power of making continuous improvement over a long period of time. There are a lot of parallels with the way I think about software engineering problems and the objective of sailing the moth as fast as possible."
"Now both of these things are like very large and abstract to start with, but I think the thing that's allowed me to be successful in both disciplines is just the approach of trying to make small improvements every day, or every week, over a long period of time. Even the project's parameters have evolved since inception."
As a parallel, contemplate that a Boeing airliner takes off at three degrees, whereas the fighter can climb vertically. Different stresses on airframe and persons, and goes all the way back to two key variables in this life. Distance and time. (And desired outcome.)
Please enjoy your yachting, stay safe, and thanks for tuning into Sail-World.com
John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor