Back in the early days of Moth Boating in the US, there were fleets of Moths scattered quite a distance from the east coast hot beds of racing. Examples were the fleets at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Topeaka, Kansas, New Orleans, Louisiana and Shreveport, Louisiana. Occasionally a boat or two featuring that club's best sailors would make the long trip to the site of the Nationals or the World Championship. The boats featured in today's post were from the Shreveport Moth Club. I've puzzled over these images for several years and have attempted to communicate with that yacht club but have received no reply. Perhaps someone will recognize the boats and sailors in the following photographs and provide a bit of information to help preserve their history.
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| Here we see Peggy Conrad in her Moth WAHOO, Nr 1037. This boat should not be confused with the boat in the previous post (Nr 215) with the same name. Note the incredibly flat "shovel" nosed bow of this design. WAHOO was probably fast as long as the water also stayed flat. I'd hate to think about sailing this design in any kind of chop. |
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| Viewed from the stern, WAHOO appears to be fairly conventional for the late 1940 design period, |
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| This photo shows fellow Shreveport Moth sailor Ricky DeLee sailing REBEL. This exposure gives us a better look at that unusual bow shape. Can anyone tell me more about these Moths (who designed and built them) or about the two sailors or the Shreveport Moth Club? |
Sorry about the Saab news, Geo!
ReplyDeleteHi Baydog. It wasn't unexpected. The workers at SAAB haven't seen a paycheck since September. When GM acquired controlling interests in both SAAB and Lotus (both favorites of mine) I knew it wasn't good for the long term health of those small, independent manufactures! Now SAAB is dead and Lotus is owned by another absentee owner that doesn't understand the needs of a small innovation-driven car company. But we'll always have the memories of Erik Carlson winning the Monte Carlo rally in a 3 cylinder SAAB two-stroke and Jim Clark's amazing drives for Lotus during the Colin Chapman era. Sigh...
ReplyDeleteHaving driven both the three banger and a 900, tis a sad day. Back to the Moths, very interesting bow shape, certainly a different design from the East Coast Dorr Willeys and Ventnors. It's sad that a lot of Moth history in the out of the way places have been lost
ReplyDeleteI had a 750cc model 93 två tack (two stroke) SAAB with suicide doors followed by a pair of long nose model 96 (850cc) two strokers. I miss the sound of those little engines: like enraged pop corn poppers! Rrrrimm-bim-bim-ba dim! Some day I hope to find a two stroke Sonett at an agreeable price.
ReplyDeleteAs for far flung Moth Boats, I'm hoping someone down in Shreveport who knows or knew the Conrads and DeLees will see those pix and tell me a story. It appears that this post has already been re-posted on a Shreveport electronic bulletin board so fingers crossed.