A Wing and a Prayer

© Courtesy Bora Gulari

Moth champion Bora Gulari tests his new wing sail.

“The Eagle has landed.”

Last summer, Moth sailor Adam May posted these words to his blog, announcing the successful sea trials of his solid wing sail, a first for the class. Since then, three other wing sails have appeared. Though they've yet to compete in a race, wings sails have created a firestorm within the Moth class. Sailors have shipped wing sails to Australia for the 2011 Zhik Moth Worlds, which begin Jan. 8, and the class has yet to decide whether the sails are legal and, if so, how to measure them.

Caught in the middle are American Moth sailors Bora Gulari, 2009 world champ, and George Peet, who have traveled to Australia unsure whether they'll be able to race their wing-powered boats, built by Object 2 Skiffworks, the shop that produced the boats that won the last two editions of the International C-Class Catamaran Championship (Little America's Cup).

Established in 1928, the International Moth Class was created as a development class with just two fixed parameters, length (11 feet) and sail area (8 square meters). Over the years, the class has evolved from scow, to skiff, to ultra high performance hydrofoil speedsters.  With the emergence of the foiling Moth, the once class has shifted  from mostly homebuilt boats to production hulls from makers like Mach 2, Assassin, and Bladerider. The excitement of foiling and the ease of acquiring a hull have helped the class grow in recent years, and there heve been growing pains. The early Bladerider hull has been all but obsoleted by the more advanced Mach 2 hull, and if you want to win the Worlds, you had better be riding the most current hull. With boats now costing upwards of $20,000, the arms race can get expensive in a hurry. But such is the nature of a development class, where sailors are always in pursuit of the leading edge.