Tuesday, September 24, 2013

"Some day Orville, man too will fly."

Here's a short video, shot by Lennie Parker this past Sunday, of Joe Bousquet successfully coxing his wife's old McCutcheon-Shelley design Classic Moth to lift her skirts and foil.

http://s133.photobucket.com/user/iowlen/media/ClassicMothNationals2013045_zps628826bd.mp4.html

The demo flight recorded above took place after the conclusion of racing at the CMBA Nationals, and was short because (a). the wind went soft at the end of the day and (b). Joe was adapting the relatively small foils from his IMCA-legal foiler Moth and thus probably didn't have the area required by the heavier Classic for sustained lift.  But he did prove the concept and does get to claim being first to get a heavy (hull weight ~75 lb/all up weight ~100 lb) Classic to foil.  Actually Joe almost pulled this off a couple of years ago at our Mid-Winter Regatta but in that case the winds were a tad too strong:  

Joe in Aftermath during the 2010 Classic Moth Boat Mid-Winter Regatta, Gulfport, FLA.
 No doubt Mr. Bousquet will continue to refine this and give the rest of us Classic Mothists a rules headache! 

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