This must have been one of the wettest, windiest summers on record. When my 14 helmsman Mike Lennon told me we were experiencing a ‘European monsoon', I thought he has having a laugh. However, a quick search on Google reveals that the meteorologists are indeed talking about this as a very real phenomenon, of which we are likely to see more in the coming years.

Less dramatic than the Indian monsoon, it has nevertheless been responsible for heavy downpours and lightning storms and is thought to be the reason why Wimbledon fortnight is so often a wet one. Climatologists say the seasonal rains are caused by winds blowing in off the Atlantic which drive depressions east across the UK and into the continent.

The experts say we can expect to see this happen seven in every 10 years, and is influenced by atmospheric effects elsewhere in the world. Phenomena as far away as the Himalayas, warming of the north Pacific Ocean and the melting of snow and ice in Northern Canada are all believed to be having an effect.

British International Moth sailors will no doubt bear this in mind for the future. The International Moth Worlds attracted a mammoth turnout of 99 boats, but were rewarded with just two days of sailing. It blew old boots all week, and the visitors from far-flung lands such as Australia and USA must have been getting mighty fed up with the 2012 Olympic venue after five days of no racing. Even the Thursday and Friday when they did eventually squeeze in seven races were pretty brutal, with gusts up to 25 knots.

Simon Payne, who won the Worlds two years ago, had been dieting to get down to 65kg for the event, in anticipation of a typically light-wind summer's week. But the European monsoon had other ideas, and it played to the strengths of the Aussies, who are used to the fresh conditions and in the case of the winner John Harris, to his tall and heavier frame. John is a former 18-foot skiff world champion and I raced him a few times in the 49er. He must weigh around 75kg, and that extra beef must have helped in the strong wind.

People who don't know foiling tend to think the lighter the better, and that's certainly true in marginal foiling conditions of 6 or 7 knots windspeed, where the difference between getting up on the foils, or not, is probably 10 knots boatspeed instead of 5. But once everyone is up on the foils, then it's like any other type of sailing, but more so, in the sense that the heavier you are the faster you will go. A foiling boat generates so much apparent wind that the power increases exponentially.

So no doubt John Harris's weight played a part in his victory. But that's not to take away from a stunning result for someone who has been sailing Moths for less than a year. Of course it helps to have last year's world champion, and the acknowledged guru of foiling, Rohan Veal on your doorstep, but it might also come down to the fact that the Aussies tend to be very good at pooling knowledge and resources. They are much more into tuning and sharing information, not just in the Moth but any class. That's due in large part to the fact that they are geographically so isolated, and they don't have such a big racing scene as we do in the UK.

How many of us race in the UK, and never do any form of training, tuning or other kind of practice? I would wager that would be the vast majority of us. And why not? Racing is the fun part, isn't it! But because the Aussies don't have that luxury of a regular race circuit, they have to do other stuff, otherwise they wouldn't go sailing at all. So they put a much bigger emphasis on refining boatspeed and boathandling, in the hope that this will give them a sufficient advantage when they come up to Europe to race in big fleets.

And a big fleet it was in Portland. Where the original aim for the Moth Worlds was to divide the 99 boats into four flights, when the schedule was slashed to two days the race officer was faced with little option but to mass start the whole fleet off one big start line. Not only that, but with the waves rolling across Weymouth Bay, the racing had to take place within the confines of Portland Harbour. When you look out at the Harbour, it looks plenty big enough for a championship course for most boats, but not the Moth. When the Moth can do 15 knots upwind and well in excess of 20 downwind, the fleet was gobbling up the Harbour in a matter of minutes. It must have been a spectacular sight, and I wish I had made the trip to see them blasting around Portland.

I also wish I had the mental will and discipline to get below 75kg, which people enjoy reminding me I used to weigh many moons ago in my 470 days. The Moths have lined up an exciting couple of years, with the next Worlds at the famously windy Gorge on the Colorado River next August. Then it's Dubai early 2010 and Lake Macquarie near Sydney at the end of that year. All of these are capable and likely to be medium to strong wind venues, so maybe there is room for the larger sailor in the Moth for the foreseeable future. Either way, whoever has a crack at this trio of Worlds is in for a great time.

Portland Bill

Sad news that Bill Ludlow, chairman of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, has died. Bill long had the dream of creating a national sailing centre, and when the opportunity finally arose with the closure of the naval base on Portland, Bill was the one who brought all the various parties together round the table to make it happen.

It's a sign of Weymouth's growing status that it has been named in the line-up of the first ever ISAF Sailing World Cup, which is set to launch at the end of this year with Sail Melbourne. The World Cup is an idea that has needed to happen for a long time, a way of giving some meaning to the various Olympic regattas that take place throughout the year. While each event is an end in itself, now they become part of a year-long series which will make Olympic sailing much more attractive to sponsors and the media.

Initially the World Cup will draw on existing events, but over time it's likely that we'll see different venues competing for the privilege of hosting a World Cup regatta. The inaugural year kicks off with Sail Melbourne, followed by the Rolex Miami OCR, USA; the Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain; Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France; the Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, the Netherlands; Kiel Week, Germany; and Skandia Sail for Gold, Weymouth.

ISAF President, Goran Petersson said, "The ISAF Sailing World Cup will bring a new focus to Olympic sailing, demonstrating the excitement, skill and passion of the sport. It will give Olympic sailors a clear annual competition structure, the media a definitive series to feature and sponsors exposure across a host of top quality events that will be at the forefront of the sailing calendar."

Having a World Cup series will hold the organisers of these events to a higher standard of management, which will be good for sailors and sponsors. The Dutch Olympic regatta, what for many years was known as Spa Regatta but now called Delta Lloyd Regatta, has always been the best organised event of the European regattas. Hyeres is good fun to go to, but sometimes you get the sense that nothing stands between the race organisers and their three-course lunch. Becoming part of the World Cup structure might help ensure that race organisers keep the needs of the sailors and sponsors uppermost in their thoughts, while eating a packed lunch out on the water.

Warnemunde

Talking of venue choices, I'm never in favour of heading north from the UK for a championship, but I find myself in Warnemunde on the Baltic coast of Germany for the International 14 Worlds. Just the previous week at this venue Jon Emmett won the latest in a series of Laser Europa Cups, making it four in a row after also winning in Holland, France and Austria. Jon's amazing season is even more amazing given the fact that he spent the winter convalescing and doing little other than lying down waiting for his body to heal after having surgery to sort out two of the fused discs in his neck. How he summoned the energy to write his coaching book as well, I don't know.

Another championship which didn't go quite so well was Nick Craig's defence of his OK World Championships title. Having won the last three, it would have been quite special for Nick to do it again, but this time Kiwi Karl Purdie beat him to the punch, by just four measly points. Unfortunately thunderstorms meant the final race was abandoned, so who knows what Nick might have managed to do if the series had been completed, but that would be venturing into the pointless realm of the ‘if only'.

Having said that I'm not a fan of venturing north, I have to admit the Baltic is incredibly fresh water to sail in. Whether you sail an International 14 badly or perfectly, it is always a very wet experience, so it's nice to be able to come in at the end of the day having charged up and down some fantastic waves but to have none of the red-eyed soreness or nasty salty taste that's usually associated with sea sailing.