Meanwhile, back on Mirror Lake...

Ed Silvers grew up in Browns Mills, NJ in the 1940s and '50s.  You can see him in the group photo of awards winners from Mirror Lake which I posted earlier.  Ed currently lives in the British Virgin Islands and sent me the following old photos of him sailing his Ventnor Moth, Nr 987, named LENED, a contraction of his and his brother's and mother's first names.   These photos are undated but according to the old Moth Class records, Ed raced this boat from 1948 through the 1951 racing season.  After the 1951 racing season the boat was sold on to new owners who allowed LENED to winter unprotected on the beach.  Ed assumes the boat is long gone but perhaps someone will see these pictures and connect the dots between them and an old Moth Boat sitting in a barn.  Your diarist always hopes for a happy ending.

Here Ed is captured mid-way through a tack from starboard to port.  The iconic Mills Browns town water tank which shows up in many old photos from Mirror Lake can clearly be seen here.  Also note that Ed has the dagger board raised slightly even though he's going upwind. Racing at Mirror Lake rewarded those with "local knowledge" in that there were (probably still are) numerous tree stumps lurking in various places throughout the lake bed!  Back when I bought my Dorr Willey-built Moth BLONDIE from a Browns Mills family I received both the original, full length dagger board which Dorr had made plus a locally produced Mirror Lake "shortie" board which I still have kicking around in the garage--a silent testament to those hidden tree stumps!  Remember to click on the photo to enlarge it for better viewing.

Tack completed, Ed sails way from the photographer.  The wind appears to be in the sub 10 knot range but anyone who has sailed on lakes knows just how fluky the wind can be: drifting one moment, hiking hard the next as one passes between the wind shadows cast by shoreline trees, etc.