Old Pix from Wildwood Yacht Club

I recently received these undated photographs of scenes of racing at the Greater Wildwood Yacht Club (in southern New Jersey) from Deborah Rau.  The first one shows several Comet Class sloops (one of which is sail Nr 3400) in the foreground.  More interesting to me are the several Dorr Willey-built Moths which can be seen in the background.  This photo probably dates to the mid-1950s.  The other photo shows a group of Moths perhaps waiting for the next starting sequence.  This second photo can be dated to about 1961 or '62 by the highest sail number  (2209) seen on one of the Cates design boats.

The boats in the foreground are Comet Class sloops.  However, I "super-sized" this photo to better examine the group of Dorr Willey-built Moths in the background. The number of DIPPER, the furthest Moth tied next to the pier , is Nr 806.  This can just be made out (you may need to click on the photo to enlarge the view).  This boat is one hull number older than my Dorr Willey Moth, BLONDIE, Nr 807.  I wonder if DIPPER was as lucky as BLONDIE and survives, perhaps tucked away in a barn or garage somewhere.

This photo shows several different Moth designs from the 1940s through the 1950s.  Sail numbers 656 and 666 are examples of Ventnor Boat Works-built Moths and were probably built during the war years from scraps left over from VBW's war time PT-Boat construction.  Numbers 1944, 2003 and 1666 are Etchells "Connecticut" design Moths.  Skip Etchells formalized the Connecticut design in the late 1940s but Connecticut  Moths were a popular choice for newbie racers and so this design was built into the early 1960s by various builders in addition to Etchell's "OG" (Old Greenwich) Boat Works.  Number 1564 is a Challenger design Moth and numbers 2209 and 2084 are Cates "Florida" design Moths.  The Cates Florida design was built by several builders in addition to Harry Cates of Miami.  Hopefully not all of these boats are enriching the earth.