Gulfport, Part III

Let's continue to look at some more Gen I Moths

This pretty little boat is known as a Savannah Wedge.  Jimmy Hardee and Lane Reeves built a pair of these boats about 10 years ago.  Rutledge Young from Charleston, SC is her current caretaker.

Here we see Lennie Parker an ex-pat from the Isle of Wight sailing his John Shelley designed Moth.  This boat was build on the IoW by the well known builder Wm McCutcheon.  Note the sexy Rod Mincher-built see-thru sail.

There are several other Generation I designs which regularly feature in our races such as the Cates-Florida and the Challenger.  No doubt you'll see photos of those types when I report on future races during the season.

Although GYPSY started life as a Europa Moth she acquired the humpy fore deck and deck stepped rig after her original fore deck was damaged.  The bottom of this boat, however is stock Europa. The Europa was designed in the early 1960s by Alois Roland of Belgium.  Later, when designs such as the Duflos made the Europa obsolete,  Europa owners broke away from the Moth Class and formed a strict one-design class around this particular design and called the boat the Europe Dinghy.  The Europe Dinghy in turn was selected in the late 1980s as the women's single hander for the Olympic games and participated in four Olympiads starting with the Barcelona games in 1992 and ending with the Athens games in 2004 when the IOC shifted the women from the Europe Dinghy to the less expensive Laser Radial.  So, in a backhanded way we briefly had Moth Boats in the Olympics!

As a final note on the Europe design I must contrast GYPSY with a stock boat.  This is Walt Collins' Europe.  Note that his boat has a much flatter fore deck and an unstayed mast.  Walt came in second in Gen I at this regatta.

So now we get to the awards presentation.  The overall winner and Generation II Champion was Davis Island, FL native Jeff Linton.  Jeff dominated the regatta taking 10 out of 11 first place finishes.

Jeff smiling from the cockpit of his Mousetrap.

John Zseleczky from Annapolis, MD was 2nd in Gen II sailing his Mistral Y2K BUG

Mike Parsons from Media, PA was 3rd in Gen II sailing his Mistral REVOLUTION.

Rod Mincher also from Annapolis took 1st place in Gen I sailing his trusty Maser.

Walt Collins sailing YOUR UP took 2nd in Gen I  and wait for it, drum roll please... your diarist claimed the final spot on the Gen I podium

Your diarist and diarist-woman at the awards presentation.

Trophies were customized beer bottle openers.  A much more useful trophy than another pewter cup or wall plaque don't you think?!  I can't decide on whether to mount this on the boat trailer or in the shop.

And so with the sun setting gently in the west, we bid a sad but fond adieu to beautiful Gulfport until next year.