Yachts & Yachting - July 2018

T

wo years ago Paul Goodison

won his irst International

Moth World Championship.

With the event taking place

in Japan and many of the

big names like recent world champions

Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge

absent on America’s Cup duty, the Japan

Worlds came down to a three-way ‘Battle

of Britain’ between Rob Greenhalgh,

Chris Rashley and Goodison. If

anything, ‘Goody’ was probably the

least experienced of the three, yet he

displayed devastating upwind pace and

very good reliability. Greenhalgh, ever

the experimenter, showed lashes of

brilliance undone by gear breakdown.

If Goody managed to win a ‘sot’

Worlds in 2016, defending it at Lake

Garda would be a diferent prospect.

Everybody was there, with 220 entries

proving that no matter how expensive

or how much boatwork this sometimes

fragile foiler demands, lying a Moth is

way too addictive. With the America’s

Cup only just complete in Bermuda, all

the big guns were at Garda – Burling,

Outteridge, Iain ‘Goobs’ Jensen, Tom

Slingsby – the list went on and on. It’s

been said a few times that those Moth

Worlds drew the biggest gathering

of world class talent ever seen in any

sailing regatta. Few would dispute

that point. With such a who’s-who

of talent, this one was going to be

competitive beyond belief. Except it

wasn’t. Unlike the previous year where

Goody edged it in Japan, this time he

wiped the loor. Goodison won with

20 points while runner-up Burling –

widely hailed as the best sailor of his

generation ater winning Olympic 49er

gold and steering Emirates Team New

Zealand to Cup victory in the space of

12 months – inished on 40 points.

So why so dominant in Garda? It

probably helped that Goody didn’t get

much time on the AC50 catamaran

It was the biggest gathering

of world class talent ever seen

July 2018 Yachts & Yachting 43