The restoration of Griff

Bill Boyle is restoring yet another vintage era Moth Boat.  This boat was constructed in 1947 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was first registered as "Day" to Evening Star YC member Robert Armour on the 10th of July, 1947.  After racing briefly under Armour's ownership, "Day" was transferred to another ESYC member (S. DeMille) in 1952.  By 1957 she was purchased by the Zeidman family, renamed "Drifter" and moved to Mirror Lake (aka: Browns Mills YC) up near Whites Bog, NJ.   Browns Mills had a very large Moth fleet in those days and the Zeidman siblings were part of that racing scene.  In the early 1990s the son of Zeidman family brought "Drifter" to a Brigantine Moth Boat Regatta with a for sale sign on her.  BYC member Joe Courter bought her, renamed her "Griff" and raced her a couple seasons before moving to a faster Moth.  She malingered in Joe's garage until Bill Schill picked her up two years ago, "ripe for restoration".  Sadly, he never got the chance to enjoy this project.  This past spring I helped Bill's widow, Marty find homes for his Moths.  Another Bill, Bill Boyle, put his hand up for Griff.  So buckle up and follow the account of Griff's revival here:  http://griffavintagemothboat.blogspot.com/

Griff on her way back to the race course.  Will she get yet another name?

Moth Boating on Mirror Lake: John Clark's photo collection

This series of evocative photos is courtesy of John Clark, a former member of the Browns Mills YC.  This first photo shows Marion Glover sailing her Ventnor Moth Slip. Note that this Moth, like my old Ventnor, has a cedar strip planked deck rather than the more common plywood decks seen on most of the later style Moths produced by Ventnor Boat Works.  After studying the color pattern of the strips in this photo and comparing them against that of my Ventnor Moth I've come to the conclusion that these are two different boats.

The following three photos are marked "the regatta" and date to the late 1940s to perhaps the early 1950s

The boat marked by the "white-out" arrow in this picture is Lloyd Morey's World Championship Moth, Lacerta, Nr 567.  Russell Post and Lloyd worked at Ventnor Boat Works during these years and Russ told me a funny story about Lacerta.  Lloyd designed and built this particular Moth Boat after hours at VBW.  The first year he raced her she couldn't get out of her own way.  Not being one to give up, Lloyd reworked the boat over the next winter, making the bow into the stern and vice versa.  The next year Lloyd won the Antonia Cup in Lacerta !  One might ask why Morey named his boat Lacerta which is Latin for "lizzard".  Lacerta is also a named constellation in the night sky.  It was a tradition within the now defunct Evening Star Yacht Club of Atlantic City, to name Moth Boats after a Heavenly body, (and no, not that kind of heavenly body, sailor); hence ESYC Moths had names like Southern Cross, Juno, Little Bear,Cassiopeia and so on.

The boat with sail Nr 879 is a design which goes back to the very beginnings of the Moth Class (1929) and seems terribly obsolete for a sail number that high.  The 800 series numbers were issued around 1947.  One wonders if this is an old boat borrowing a new sail or the case of someone finding a set of old plans and building an obsolete design just because they liked it even if it was off the pace compared to the newer Moths in our "development" class.

Breeze-e is another Ventnor Moth.

The following pair of photos appear to be the same boat with different skippers.

This boat is not a Ventnor but is typical of the state of development for Moth Boats in this time frame.  Check out that tiny cockpit!

Another photo of Marion Glover relaxing in Slip's cockpit in between races.

This shot reveals that Slip was Moth Nr 875.

Marion had a reputation of being a good racer.  Here, in a fuzzy photo, she's seen driving Slip to weather with perhaps only the lead boat in a position to get by her if he tacks over to port.

But it wasn't all racing up on Mirror Lake.  Here a young John Clark can be seen experimenting with just how much of the lee side of the boat he can bury without flipping.  Note the adult lazing away on the inflatable raft just behind the boat.  The cars in the background date this photo to the early 1950s.

Another delightful scene simply titled "The regatta".  What great penmanship folks used to have!

Here John is sailing the Dorr Willey-built Moth Termite, Nr 807 then owned by fellow Browns Mills YC member Bea Kratz.  Dorr Willey's boats were beautifully made with cedar planks over mahogany frames and were among the fastest Moths of the immediate post-war era.  I currently own Nr 807.  She's now named Blondie.

Both Marion and John "graduated" from their slower Moths to Dorr Willey boats.  Marion bought Punkie, Nr. 948 from Elizabeth City sailor Chuck Higgins while John was able to purchase Touche, Nr 909, seen here in a rare, early kodachrome exposure, from T. S. Owens, also a member of the Pasquotank River YC, down in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  Punkie was still racing in the early 1990s but hasn't been seen in a while.  The fate of Touche is unknown.  In this photo Touche still wears the prior owner's hand painted burgee of the PRYC on her fore deck.

MAYBE II, Moth Nr 853

Note:  this is a very early post that was displaced to the top of the heap while I was attempting to add labels to all the accumulated posts to make them easier to find.  Since I've forgotten the exact date I published it I'm going to leave it here--so you can all read it again!  Many thanks to Tweezerman for his tuition on labeling--your hmble & obt diarist.

When I posted the photo of the Browns Mills YC trophy presentation I mentioned that I knew two of the individuals. One was Bea Kratz the other is Bob Kalmbach.  The posting of that photo caused William Duffield to send me some photo's of the boat Bob built after Bea and Marion got their Dorr Willey-built Moths.  Bob named his boat MAYBE II.  Bob sent us his recollections of the early days of sailing on Mirror Lake, site of the Browns Mills YC.  Among other things, this letter reveals a connection between Browns Mills and Greenwich (where William lives) as well as one with Brigantine (where I grew up):

Mirror Lake in Browns Mills, NJ, is about two miles long with a cove off to the North side. There is about a mile of good sailing water. The width varies, but is usually about 100 yds. With the prevailing wind blowing the length, a race was usually a windward beat and a downwind run. It was about a mile between marks. We sailed one or two laps depending on the wind. There are some stumps in the shallows that can bring an unsuspecting skipper to a screeching halt. This was one of the reasons for the popularity of pivoted centerboards that will pop up when an obstruction was encountered. Centerboards are also more prone to shed weeds that also could be found in the lake. At times, there were nasty little gusts coming off the trees that would frequently flip some of the light skippers. The four light Ventnors on the lake were particularly vulnerable.

George Sloan of the Greenwich-Cohansey River Sloans was the mover and shaker of our club. He arranged for the acquisition of three Moths from the Cohansey fleet around 1940. There were also several non Moths on the lake at that time. George had built what I was told was a scaled down Snipe, and John Dotter had built a monstrous flat scow with more than enough sail to cause frequent capsizes and swampings. It seemed that he often had a covey of sweet young things on board when it turned over. In retrospect, one could wonder if John's frequent abandon ship drills were the forerunner of the wet tee shirt bit. But, be that as it may, during that period there was no club and no formal races. Then came WWII and things went on hold. The war ended in mid August of 1945, and by Labor Day about eight miscellaneous sailboats had come out of Moth balls (pun intended). George organized a race with prizes donated by the Improvement Association, and away we sailed. It became obvious that because of the size of the lake, the Moth was the perfect boat. The following season we organized the club, joined IMCA, and started Sunday point races.

Our first opportunity for outside competition came the year Lloyd Morrey won the Antonio at Brigantine. Norm Parker, our first place sailor, took his very heavy "Stinker” one of the original Cohansey Moths, to the regatta resting on a mattress on top of the family Dodge. It became obvious that our old Moths were no match for the new generation of boats since Norm finished near the back of the fleet.

The following year I took four of our boats, two trips each way, stacked two high, on a borrowed pick up truck, to the first Governors Cup Regatta at Riverton, NJ. Once again, a rude awakening, TIDE!! I well remember being passed by about ten boats as if I were standing still, the only difference was they were standing still and I was going backwards fast! The tide at Riverton runs at about 3 or 4 MPH. One of our members had to be towed back from a point about half way down to the Ben Franklin Bridge. The next day you can bet we all found anchors so we could keep up with the rest of the fleet when the wind dropped.

Each year a few more Moths would be built or bought to add to our fleet that had grown to about sixteen active members at the starting line. At one time or another I counted almost three dozen Moths on the lake.

Then in 1949 it happened. As you know, while at the Evening Star Y.C. regatta in Brigantine, our Dr. Bea Kratz happened to be by Dorr Willey when he came in from a race in a well steamed mood because of a collision on the course that broke his traveler. In a fit of pique he asked if anybody wanted to buy “Termite” #807 (NB:  #807 is my boat, currently named BLONDIE). Bea jumped at the chance to get the Cadillac of Moth Boats. Being in charge of transportation, it became my job to bring this prize back to Browns Mills. As mentioned in our phone conversation, I had taken four boats down in a borrowed 12' stake truck, two on the bottom and two on top of the stakes. The only way I could bring five Moths back was to place three on top of the stakes 11' across the road. The 60 mile trip back to Browns Mills with an 11' wide load was some fun, but we got “Termite” back to her new home without incident. Then that October while at the Nationals in Elizabeth City, we found that Charley Higgins wanted to sell “Punkie” #948. Knowing that the Glovers wanted a Dorr Willey for daughter Marion who was away at college, we arranged for the sale and brought “Punkie” back to Browns Mills.

Now with two Willeys on the lake the handwriting was on the wall and it was obvious that many of our old Moths including mine, would be left in the wake of the Cadillacs of Moth Boats. What else to do but to go back to the drawing board and build a better Moth. In the dark of night that Fall (actually on a Saturday afternoon), I took the measurements of both “Termite” and “Punkie” and developed a table of offsets for each. Since “Termite” had a 48" beam and “Punkey” was 2" wider, I decided to build a clone of Termite that was to be known as “Maybe II” #853. “Maybe II” was launched in time for the 1950 season. The main difference was that she was planked with 1/4" Spanish cedar (at the time, I couldn't find any white cedar), and the front of the dagger board trunk was sloped for two reasons. It allowed the center of lateral planes to be slightly adjusted aft, and it permitted the dagger board to give if an obstruction was encountered. Also, unable to get a solid block of mahogany for the nose block, I made it from 2 or 3 pieces of 6/4 stock. To this day, I don't know how Dorr did it and kept the nose block from checking.

Greetings from Uncle Sam washed out my sailing in 1951, but I was able to sail in 1952 since I was fortunate to miss that slow boat to Korea and got stationed at Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook, NJ. I guess ‘52 was my best year and unfortunately the last year for our favorite regatta when the old Evening Star bagged it's sails for the last time. That year “Maybe II” won the Atlantic City Tuna Club Challenge Race and was part of the winning four boat team. I think John Clark in “Touché” our third Dorr Willey, was on our team. During that period, Marion Glover in “Punkie” was going head to head with Jane Bateman of Margate and Peggy Kammerman for the ladies honors.

In 1954 the wedding bells and employment transfers started taking a toll on the old regulars of the club. We ran free sailing classes that had some success, but it was obvious that we were getting burned out. In October of 1958, following the conclusion of our Central Jersey Championship, Dick Dell and I pulled the marks for the last time and we sailed off into the sunset.

From 1958 until 1971, “Maybe II” rested in her old winter home under the family summer cottage in Browns Mills, and then I moved her to our corn crib in Morrestown when the cottage was sold. In 2000 we moved to Tabernacle where we had a nice heated three car garage. Being a sentimental old fool, the old cracked up girl came along and sat outside under cover for the first winter. In the spring, from the conversations I had with Nancy and you, I learned that there was still interest in Moths so I decided to restore her. Her bottom and deck were badly cracked up, and the boom had rotted away, but the basic structure looked OK. Through the Tuckerton Seaport Boat Shop, I located a source for Jersey white cedar, and the restoration was under way. First a new bottom and then a new deck of 5/16" white cedar fastened with new stainless steel screws and the greatest glue called "Gorilla Glue”, a new boom, new rudder pin (the old one was worn about half way through) and finally the multi coats of marine spar varnish and new lettering and “Maybe II” looks better than new. Wrapping the mast with fiberglass cloth is all that remains. It will need a warm day above 60 degrees since the process produces odors that do not belong in the house. I plan to take her for a sail for old time’s sake and then sell her to somebody that can enjoy her as much as I did. Unfortunately, I don't think my aging body is up to the rigors of Mothing anymore, and Tabernacle is a long way from sailing water. I really enjoyed the rebuilding project for it brought back many pleasant memories of my youth, and the aromatic smell of white cedar drifting through the house was most delightful.

Bob wrote this letter in 2002 when he was in his seventies.  Maybe II currently is on display at a museum in Pemberton, Pennsylvania.  As the photos which follow reveal, Bob did a splendid job of restoring his old racer.

Bob Kalmbach takes the newly restored MAYBE II for a sail.

The bow of MAYBE II.  Note the symmetrical pattern of the plank fasteners and the mahogany bow block.

A close up of MAYBE II's bow block (the small piece of wood with the eye bolt was for supporting the boat while being car-top carried).  Dorr Willey carved his bow blocks from solid wood.  Bob couldn't figure out how he did this but didn't have problems with the wood cracking and checking.  William Duffield told me that the secret resides in the choice of material; Dorr's bow blocks where made from the notch of a tree limb.  By selecting a notch Dorr was using a piece of wood which had grain running in different directions within the same chunk of wood, hence check-resistant.  Bob made his bow block by laminating many small blocks of mahogany together and then shaping the block to fit the bow of the boat.  Both approaches are VERY labor intensive!

The lettering on the bow of the boat. Many Moth Boats of this era carried their name and hull number on the bow.   John Clark, another Browns Mills Moth Boat sailor, reveals the following:  "On Bob's original MAYBE, he asked me to do the boat name lettering.  I was just a young teenager and thought I could do as well as the sign painter who did Dorr's boats...not even close!.  The lettering that I have seen on Maybe II looks identical to that which I did on the original...  Well John, it looks good to your diarist!

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.

Browns Mills Yacht Club Trophy Presentation Night, 1946.

Ed Silvers currently lives in Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands.  Ed grew up in Browns Mills, New Jersey but in 1981 sailed to the BVI and never left.  As a boy Ed sailed Moth Boats and the other day he emailed me the old photo below.  This picture dates to 1946, the same year in which I was born.  However since the photo was taken at the end of the summer sailing season and my birthday is in late December it pre-dates your diarist.  Having said that I have met two of the people in this picture and own a boat which was at one time the prized  possession of one of the members posing for this group shot.

As most viewers of this blog spot have no doubt come to appreciate, your diarist loves an old photograph, particularly if a story can be pried out of it.  In the front row, extreme left we have Jon Bachelor a Moth Boat sailor who went on to the Naval Academy and was destined to play back-up quarterback at an Army-Navy game at Soldier's Field in Philadelphia when the main quarterback was injured. Next to him is Marion Glover.  Marion bought Chuck Higgins' Dorr Willey Moth PUNKIE, Nr 948 after Chuck, in a fit of pique, put a "for sale" sign on the boat after a poor showing at the 1948 Nationals. Chuck later said that she presented the cash price so fast it made his head swim and he regretted the sale until the day he died.  Although Chuck is gone PUNKIE still survives. Marion became a Minister and moved to Ohio.  Next is Jim Bachelor, Jon's younger brother.  Note that the Bachelor boys are wearing matching Hawaiian shirts.  "Eddie" Silvers, as he was then known, is at the extreme right holding his "most improved" award.

In the back row, starting at left, is Bea Kratz.  Bea went on to study osteopathy and become an Osteopathic Doctor--much looked down upon by many "medical" doctors but much loved by many Scandinavians, including my bride and her parents.  Bea bought Moth Nr 807, then named TERMITE directly from Dorr Willey at the conclusion of the Antonia Trophy Regatta which was held at Brigantine YC in 1948.  I bought Nr 807, in desperate condition, from a down stream owner and took the opportunity to visit Bea in a nursing home a year or so before she passed away.  She was a lovely woman and was very pleased that her old, treasured race boat had found her way to sensitive hands.  I have since given BLONDIE, as she is now known, a full deck-off restoration.  Next to Bea is Dick Dell who I know nothing about.  Next to him is George Sloan.  George was the "old man" of the club to whom everyone went to for advise in boat building matters and repairs, as well as for racing advise.  The tall chap  holding two trophies is Bob Kalmbach. Bob couldn't afford one of Dorr's boats but since he had access to Bea's TERMITE and Marion's PUNKIE, he made careful measurements over the winter of 1948/49 and built his own successful copy.  To the right of Bob is Greg Clayton.  The only thing remembered about Greg besides that he was the best man at Bob Kalmbach's wedding is that he smoked a pipe while sailing and seemed very sophisticated for the times. Love the glasses.  Finally at the extreme right is Harold Rudy.  Harold went on to become a commercial airline pilot.

So, there is a time capsule in a photograph.  One thing to note is that in this picture no one is wearing jeans or shorts.  All have made an effort to spiff up at least a little.  Dress slacks are in evidence.  Some of the men are wearing ties.  The young women are in skirts or in Bea's case perhaps dress slacks, hard to say from the photo, but none the less not the least bit sloppy.  This photo is from an era where people made an effort to honor an event such as an end of summer yacht club trophy presentation with a bit of respect.  As my father once told me "if you dress like a bum, you'll be treated like a bum."  Sadly, those days and that advise have passed us by.

1946 Browns Mills Yacht Club Awards Presentation