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?

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.