This month, C-Tech’s Head of Design, Riley Dean, competed at the 2025 Moth World Championships on Lake Garda, finishing in the Gold fleet. With years of hands-on experience in both sailing and design, Riley shares his latest observations on rig tuning, mast bend profiles, and how the top sailors are using their sails and battens to stay fast.
While every sailor has their own preferences, Riley says one of the clearest performance differentiators was rig setup especially around mast bend. Subtle changes to tip stiffness, hound position, and rig tension were having a noticeable impact on behaviour.
“You could see how much variation there was between sailors, but one thing they all had in common was how specific and repeatable their setups were. Having a solid understanding of your mast and rig tune and how it translates to performance was a big factor in boat speed.”
This aligns with the work Riley and C-Tech’s Moth mast specialist, Tim Willetts, have been focused on: refining mast design, developing new hound fittings, and improving consistency in top sections to better match foil loads and sail behaviour.
Battens were another area of fine-tuning. Top teams were running multiple batten sets with varied taper profiles or carbon layups depending on the day’s conditions. Bend shape and stiffness played a key role in controlling leech twist and drive.
“It’s really interesting how small tweaks can impact twist profile and power. Having consistent, high-quality battens helps you isolate what changes are actually making a difference, especially at the front of the fleet.”
One of the most talked-about control system trends at this year’s Worlds was the widespread adoption of adjustable outhauls. With big pressure variation between the top and bottom of the course, on-the-fly control over foot depth and twist gave sailors a critical edge. The C-Tech system stood out for its reliability and responsiveness, quickly becoming a go-to onboard tool.
As gear complexity in the Moth class continues to evolve, consistency and reliability are just as important as innovation. C-Tech’s above-deck systems performed exactly as intended under pressure allowing sailors to focus on racing, not the gear.
