The only UK-built foiling Moth

The Ninja may not be new to the Moth fleet, but the recent RYA Dinghy Show was the first time we’d been given a guided tour to only foiling Moth still being built in the UK. While not as prolific as the Bladerider and the current foiling Moth benchmark, the McConaghy-built Mach 2, the Ninja is clearly a competitive boat as in 2011 examples won both the UK National and European Championships, Jason Belben taking the former, Chris Rashley the latter. Designed by long term Cherub sailor and designer, Kevin Ellway, the Ninja is built by Mike Cooke’s company Aardvark Technologies close to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. Aardvark is something of a hive of activity, also offering for sale Cooke’s first love, National 12s, plus three models of Cherub. In addition to the Ninja they also offer foil-pimp options for Mach 2 and Bladeriders Moths, who’s owners are looking for that extra edge. Furthermore, Cooke’s well known former offshore multihull sailor father Terry, is running the spar division at Aardvark. Clients include Nick Craig for whom Aardvark has built his World Championship winning OK masts. As mentioned Aardvark isn’t the high capacity, full productionised facility that McConaghys in China is. We put it to Mike Cooke that Aardvark is more the equivalent to Morgan in the car market. “Caterham, maybe,” he counters. However this does allow the ability to customise and as Cooke describes how his boats have evolved: “Everyone is a variant on the last one. If someone orders a Ninja they get the latest...” Aardvark has built the Ninja for three years now. While conceptually similar in design to the other foiling Moths on the market, the Ninja has more rocker and curvature in her forefoot. As she has evolved, Cooke and Ellway have been experimenting with the second iteration of