It doesn’t need a PhD in rocket science to understand the success of MACH 2! Stefanie Schurer ( sschurer@unimelb.edu.au )

 “What should be the ideal weight of a Moth sailor?” and the answer was given by Greg

Wise on a blog from 2004 (http://www.moth.asn.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=81):

“It really depends on what conditions you sail in. If it's mainly under 10-15 knots, then 65-75Kg

would be good, usually the less you weigh the better. Above 15 knots and you could carry a

little more weight, say 75-85Kg and above 20 knots anything up to 90 Kg is fine.”

Wind conditions in Dubai so far were less than 10 knots, hence, those sailors, who weigh

75 kg or less should be the fastest sailors. Let’s test it:

See below the weight distribution by boat design: for both Mach 2 and Bladerider

(includes Fastacraft, Prowler, Assassin, and Full Force) riders the mean weight is slightly

less than 75 kg. The median is slightly greater for the Bladerider riders (approx. 77kg).

Nevertheless, this suggests that, on average, most riders should be fine in light winds.

However, have a look at the full distribution of weight for both boat designs and you will

realize that the variation and the range in weight are much greater for all Bladerider

riders. It appears that a larger fraction of riders lie in the optimal weight range for Mach 2

riders: 58% of them weigh 75kg or less. Among all Bladerider and other boat design

riders, only 47% weigh 75kg or less. Among all 15 Mach 2 riders who weigh 75 kg or

less, 80% are in the Top 20 of the current ranking (After Race 12) . All of these 15 sailors

participated in at least one of the last two World Championships in 2008 or 2009 and six

of them participated in both of the last two World Championships in 2008 and 2009.

There is not a single junior sailor among these 15 sailors.

Among the eight other riders who sail a Bladerider (or another boat design) and weigh 75

kg or less there is only 1 sailor in the Top 20 (Position 20). Among these eight other

riders three are juniors and two are women. None of these eight sailors participated in

both of the last two World Championships in 2008 and 2009, and only two participated in

one or the other World Championship. [In fact, only four of all Bladerider and other boat

design riders participated in any of the last two WC, while 19 of all Mach 2 riders did so.

17 of them are ranked in the Top 20]. 

Hence, my conclusion from the available data so far is that the majority of highly

competitive sailors, i.e. the best trained (proxied by weight) and most experienced

(proxied by participation in past Moth World Championships) made an investment into a

 2

MACH 2. I wonder, what would happen if all MACH 2 riders in the Top 20 would swap

their boats with the Bladerider sailors for the remaining two race days. What do you

guess would happen?