Good to be King
Newly crowned and reigning World Moth Champ, Bora Gulari, recently punched through the
elusive 30 knot mark in his McConaghy Mach2 moth. Yeah, he’s pretty cool – I mean the guy can
do a flying gybe with his moth still up on its foils, making it look like all you have to do is
just duck your head and then slide over to the other side. We all know that it’s anything but that!
Recently, he was asked what was important about getting to the top of the game and he replied, “There are three things":
- Time in the boat
- Time in the boat
- Time in the boat.
That seems pretty accurate to me, because in rowing, we always said, “Good miles makes good
champions!” Bora puts his motivation down to simply “…just trying to be as good as I can be…” Bora is a laconic, self-confessed wind junkie who hails from Detroit, Michigan. He sailed at the
University of Michigan and then campaigned a 49er before wind, foils and a featherweight carbon
shell in the form of a foiling moth got him truly fired up.
Only a week ago, Bora set the new
Moth speed record of just over 30.31knots on Lake Pewaukee, which is a just a touch West of
Milwaukee in Wisconsin, USA. “It’s a fairly small inland lake, but on that day it was good” Bora
commented. “I know quite a few other moth sailors have been chasing the 30 knot barrier for a
while. Though I might be the first person to do it, I am sure we will see more sailors breaking 30
soon”, a really happy Bora added of being the first to be able to prove he’d reached the holy
grail.“I used my practice MSL 10 and the stock Mach2 foils and boat”, Bora said of the run. You can
check out the GPS logs here and also have a look at
the pics of the flying gybe while you’re there.
“Flying is the best, and shear joy does not even do
it justice”, Bora then told me. “The next worlds will be hotly contested and it will be a good event
with Puma now sponsoring the regatta”, he went on to add and he’s surely added a whole new
dimension with this recent effort.
Interestingly, he spent most of the time out there on Lake Pewaukee in his 30kg Mach2 at over
25 knots.
For me, I love how he shares his name with another super-quick legend – the Maserati
V8 Bora of the 70’s, which in turn was named after the very strong, cold wind that blows from
the northeast onto the Adriatic region of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia – so it really does seem very
fitting indeed.
When asked about achieving this milestone,
Cameron McTavish, McConaghy’s Director of Business Development said to me, “We do build some pretty fine yachts that are proving to be very fast, but it’s really the sailors that
make it all happen out there, making us look good in the process.”
As Bora said, “Yep, it was all
standard Mach2 gear from McConaghy.” John Curnow.
