The resurrection of Swiss Miss Part One: A rogue Moth "comes in from the cold".The

Fellow  Mothist, Chris Hart was moving to New England.  He had an old fiberglass, Fletcher-built "Swiss" Moth that he couldn't take with him.  He offered the boat to me--I seem to be the home of last resort for wayward Moth Boats.  I'm sort of the Moth Boat version of a crazy cat lady.  Of course I took her.  I couldn't see salvageable Moth going to the curb for bulk trash removal.  It took me a while to place the boat but eventually I found the right home for her in the hands of Joe Bousquet.  Joe's wife Susan glares at me whenever our paths cross...

Actually, after a bath which removed a lot of the grunge, she doesn't look too bad.

The generous amount of keel rocker is evident in this photo, as is an ominous piece of duct tape, no doubt covering a crack in the gel coat.

Another bit of duct tape on the starboard side.

The Swiss design (aka: Dunand) has a fuller bow than the Mistral.  More bits of duct tape!  One can see from my roof rack straps that this boat will not pass the CMBA's string test due to the small winglets extending from the main deck.

That lip needs to come off.  Bedsides, rats have been gnawing on the stern corner.

A closer view of a quick and dirty racer's repair.

The hull has some dents as well.

One of the two sails that came with the boat. A Ratsey and Lapthorn.

The other sail was a Seidelmann.  This sail is an interesting piece of Moth Boat history in that it was a transition sail between the low aspect and high aspect rigs.  Basically, the hoist and foot lengths are as per the circle-M rig but the sail has an enormous roach.  These sails permitted sailors with low aspect rigs to compete (not well, mind you) against the tall, high aspect Aussie rigs.  It was OK as a stop gap until one could afford new spars and a proper sail after the rule change in the late 1960s.

The blades were typical of their time.  Solid mahogany with little attention to shape.

Fletcher used this kick up rudder design with the massive stainless steel stock on several Moth designs from this boat's era.

This shows the kick up part of the program.  Useful for beach launches but one wonders if the shape provides enough area for good control as the wind pipes up.

The remaining photos in this section are ones which Chris provided before I picked the boat up from his family's summer home.

She'd been living outdoors for a while.

A bit tatty but basically sound.

More duct tape!

Chris set the boat up.

Originally, the Swiss came with a massive free-standing spruce mast.

The original boom was also wood but at some point an aluminum replacement was fitted.

A split in the glass deck.

Laser style vang.

With that amount of vee one wonders if she'll stand upright at the dock.

The bow shot is perhaps the most appealing.  Part two of this saga will take us through Joe B's deck-off transformation of this poor old dear from a rough  beach toy to a National Champion.  Stay tuned.

This one's for Erky; Part 3

When I woke up the next morning you couldn't see the other side of the river.

But the sun started to burn off the fog and the wind socks started to stir.

The fog did lift, so the Race Committee went ahead with the scheduled 10 am first warning.  But as can be seen here, the water was still quite glassy at 9:30 as racers started to launch boats.

A series of pix for those curious about the Swiss Moth design.

Same view with a bit more wind to fill the sail.

Here's a view giving a glimpse of the transom.

This pix more clearly shows the hull's chines and also the "yellow jersey" with the bullseye on the back that the overall leader from Saturday wears so that all hands know who they've gunning for.

A few cat's paws started to show up on the water but still not enough to properly fill sails.

On other parts of the river it was still light and glassy.  One had to pay attention and not stray too far from the starting line as the clock ticked down to 10 am.

I like the brick house in the background of this pix.  No doubt breakfast on one of the decks with a view of the racing was a v. pleasant affair!

Sunday's breeze went from 0 to maybe 3 knots during the first race--just enough to keep the boats moving.

The geese in the upper right hand corner are reminding Moth Boaters to book their hotel rooms for the Mid-Winter regatta down in Gulfport, Florida.

We sailed a total of seven races; five on Saturday and two more on Sunday morning. 

John Z. in Y2K2.

Another look at Swiss Miss's chines.

As compared to Swiss Miss, the Mistral design is quite round.

Sam gave Erik and me plenty to think about.  Sam finished only a single point behind Erik in the final tallying of the scores.  Hopefully Sam will be back--he's a good racer!

The same for Lorelei.  Although she missed the first four races she improved with each race in which she competed.

Bill Boyle broke part of the Abbott's combing on Saturday but kluged her back together with duct tape to complete the Sunday races.  He tried to buy tape at the local LOWES store but they had not restocked since the hurricane and that shelf was bare.  Fortunately the Dollar Store came to his emotional rescue!

The last race was painful!  The wiind dropped to drifting conditions.  I was trapped at the start under Bill's wind shadow and with ever falling wind pressure could not escape!

Finally towards the end of the race I managed to find a little puff and reel in some boats but it was too little too late.

Joe rounding ahead of Mike.

Note how the skippers are tipping the boats in an effort to reduce wetted surface and keep sails filled .

Craig Hatcher rounds the mark.

This is Tar Heel, the first Moth boat which Erky built back in the winter of 1989.  She loosely follows the Dorr Wiley lines but as "new construction" is classified as a Gen I boat rather than vintage.  She's currently for sale and with a bit of work would be a good introductory boat for someone new to Moths.

My "keeper" trophies.  On the left is the one for winning Gen I division. The one on the right is for being the fasts geezer.  And that, constant reader, is a wrap on this year's Classic Moth Boat Association National Regatta.