SLINGSBY DOMINATES AT MOTH WORLDS

The New World Champion Credits 3Di Decksweeper for his Winning Boat Speed

When North Sails announced four new 3Di Moth sail designs six months ago, class leader Rob Greenhalgh said “I am confident Moth sailors will reap the rewards on the race course.” This week, Tom Slingsby proved him right by sitting out the final day of the 61-boat Gold Fleet at Moth Worlds, after clinching victory with bullets in all but one race. Greenhalgh himself finished seventh, and six other North boats finished in the top 10.

“I’m really happy with the North Decksweeper,” Slingsby said, shortly after cementing the overall win. “It’s been performing all the way through the range for me, from about 10 knots all the way to 25-plus. It’s the only sail I’ve used all week, and in all conditions I’ve had a lot of boat speed.”

He described his final race day as a beautiful afternoon; “15-25 knots of seabreeze here on the Swan River.” With such impressive boat speed, only a breakdown, getting tangled up with another competitor, or a starting penalty could lose him the championship. “The final race, I had a really good start. I was concerned I was OCS, but it was all clear.” Once he got out in front, he managed the traffic well and crossed the finish line first, again.

To prepare for the Worlds, Slingsby trained with Greenhalgh and Scott Babbage, who finished fourth behind Tom Burton. “We’ve got a really good training group. We’re able to slowly make refinements and then check it against a stable platform. So every time we made a change, we’d see how it would go against the baseline. If it worked, we’d all move to that concept. If it didn’t work, we’d go onto the next thing. We just constantly made little steps, and it’s shown in the results—all of us are in the top group. It’s really satisfying that our little group’s done so well.”

Tom thinks the Decksweeper could also win next year’s Worlds in Weymouth, UK. “It’s also a flat water, windy venue. There might be a couple of little refinements, but the concept is there. What North has done is a great product, and I think you could rock up to next year’s Worlds with the sail right now and be competitive.”