| Looking back on it, the rise of the International Moth over the last six years has been simply phenomenal. Since the Moth adopted hydrofoils it has gone from being a back garden class for the slightly quirky sailor with relatively few members, to achieving a huge international presence with large scale production of boats. Given its present scale one wonders how much room there is left in the market now there are five major manufacturers in a variety of countries, but Bladerider designer and owner of Ka sails, Andrew McDougall and ex-Moth World Champion, Simon Payne feel there is room for at least one more as the pair recently unveiled a new venture, the ‘Mach 2’ production International Moth.
The project was only unveiled to public at the start of September, with McDougall and Payne choosing to reveal the concept virally through Payne’s sailing blog (here) and by speaking to a few other key players in the Moth World.
Before going into too much detail about the new boat it is necessary to have a quick recap of the recent geneology in the Moth class. As stated, McDougall penned the Bladerider hull shape and was deeply involved in that project, the first production foiling Moth. However, as Bladerider grew into the giant production entity it is today, McDougall moved back to his Ka Sails business - Ka being the sail of choice in the Moth fleet, as well as manufacturing windsurfing sails. Meanwhile Bladerider continued to manufacture Moths on a huge scale with hulls being produced in large numbers from McConaghy’s factory in China. ...more |
