The 2020 Nationals--The Regatta that almost wasn't

The Classic Moth Boat Nationals, by tradition, follows on the 3rd weekend in September.  The combination of Covid-19 restrictions and hurricane remnants almost derailed this year's regatta. Even delaying the regatta from the traditional date to the Columbus weekend in October didn't get us completely out of the cross hairs of this year's hurricane season. Winds were predicted to be on the light side of the spectrum for Friday and Saturday. Sunday was billed as a probable day of steady rain. Whenever one changes the date of an event, there are winners and losers due to unmoveable obligations and other commitments. We were happy to have sixteen boats assemble for the regatta. What follows is a collection of photos taken by Greg Duncan and/or Lloyd Griffin during Saturday, the single day which we sailed. Racing was abandoned on Sunday.

Joe Bousquet brought four boats.  He was uncertain as to how many student sailors would be free to sail in the morning but he rigged them all anyway.

After getting the boats set up, Joe pulled them over on their sides for the night.  Very light wind were predicted overnight.

He placed the blades on the sails for a bit of weight against the odd puff of breeze.  The boats were fine the next morning.

Bill Boyle's vintage division Abbott Moth.Add

Jay Yerkes did a lot of structural and cosmetic work to his Mistral since the last time we saw her.

The same can be said for Donald Hewitt's Mistral.

Mike Parsons' Mistral. 

For the  sake of comparison here are the bottoms of  the four boats which Joe brought down from Norfolk.  First his Mistral.

Next we see the  lines of the Lane Reeves designed "Savannah Mistral".  Lane wanted to make the Mistral shape a bit more user friendly.  He did succeed but at the expense of the amount of skipper weight which the boat will accommodate.  This would be a great boat if one weighs 90 lbs. 

The bottom of the  Fletcher-Cates.

The bottom of the Fletcher-Swiss.

Here we see Joe Bousquet in the blue Mistral leading Parker Purrington in the Swiss Moth (Nr 2739) at the weather mark.  Matthew Panek (Nr 71) and Bob Patterson (Nr 217) are keeping the Gen II boats honest.

Here, your old diarist, sailing his wood Europe, Nr 151, rounds just after Joe's Mistral proving that in light air most logs drift at about the same rate.  I was sporting a new sail, stitched up by Justin Ailsworth (Evolution Sails, Chesapeake).  This sail gave me more boat speed than I've seen in many a day.  I hope the shape works in a breeze as well!

A sign of the times.  Bill Boyle is that masked man.  We all wore masks while launching and retrieving and some forgot to remove them once away from the dock!

Jay Yerkes, Mistral.

Maggie Mayer, one of a pair of sisters racing at this regatta, is a summer sailing student at the community sailing program.

The Abbott.  Bill was the default Vintage Champion since he was the only  Vintage division boat competing. 

Donald Hewitt's primary objective was to complete the course in the tippy and new to him Mistral.  In that regard he had a successful day even though he slipped in the boat and put a foot through a side tank panel.

Generation II and overall winner, Mike Parsons (nr 79)/

Bob Patterson (Shelley, Nr 217) and Logan Weeks (Europe Nr 99).

The new sail has a loose foot rather than the more familiar bolt rope foot, so I'm sure there's lots for me to learn about proper adjustment.  Additionally, the top batten is full length, and although fairly soft, the batten, at least in this wind range, had the annoying tendency of staying inverted after a tack and requiring a smart snap of the boom to get it to pop over.  So much for "attached flow"!  This was so even with no tension on the batten.  I'll need to seen if RBS has a softer tapered batten.

Glassy.  The wind ranged from zero to about 2 knots.

We get our due in the Daily Advance.  After over thirty years of holding this regatta in Elizabeth City, Moths are still newsworthy in this small northeastern North Carolina town.

One last look at 2020.  The remnants of Hurricane Delta were pushing rain up from the gulf and so racing was abandoned for Sunday.  In hindsight, we could have probably gotten several races in before the rains came, but then we would have been loading boats and driving home in the rain.  All in all I think the RC made the right decision.  With no regattas on the schedule until the Mid-Winter regatta down in Gulfport, Florida, we bid adieu to the pandemic year and hope that the virus doesn't cost us more lost regattas in 2021.

The 1938 Governor's Cup Race

Once again Flea-bay has produced a piece of Moth Boat history.  This time in the form of an old newspaper photograph dated the 17th of October, 1938.  I was particularly drawn to this photo because William Duffield and I have been slowly restoring the 1938 National Champion, Imp Too, Nr 449. 

Imp Too was designed, built and raced by Edwin Channing, a naval aviator.  At the beginning of hostilities, Channing asked Dorr Willey to store his boat for the duration.  Channing did not survive the war and Dorr had this boat in storage along with one of his own Moths until a local Elizabeth City man, Gordon Fearing, asked if he could buy them.  Dorr agreed.  One of the interesting features of Imp Too is that she has "soft" or rounded chines.  This feature is very difficult to build but Dorr, obviously influenced by Channing's boat, built four or perhaps five examples of his own design, incorporating this feature rather than the normal "hard" chines which are featured on not only on his stock design but many other Moths as well.  The other Moth which Dorr held onto after the passage of time was one of his own soft chined Moths, Miss Inez, Nr 808.

The Governor's Cup was one of a number of races held during the National Regatta.  There were also separate races for Junior sailors, Ladies, etc.  This permitted some boats to be shared and gave those skippers competing in the heats that constituted the Nationals a chance to tune their boats and sharpen their boat handling skills prior to the main event.

The back side of the photo.  Many old press photos have a note like this one which provides a limited  description.  Sadly, there is no mention of which newspaper this photo was published.  However the note provides the location (Elizabeth City) and the name of the winner of this race (Harry Andrews).  Harry Andrews won the inaugural National Moth Boat Regatta five years earlier in 1933.

A close up of the photograph.  One sail number, partially obscured, appears to end in 49.  Could this be Nr 449?   If so, is that Edwin Channing at the tiller?

One might ask what I mean when I speak of hard vs soft chines.  A few pictures might clear that up.  First, here are a couple of pix of my "stock" Dorr Willey- build Moth which has hard chines:

Note the sharp chine edge of the blue side board.

Another pix showing Blondie on her lines in the water.

Compare that with these photos of Imp Too, currently under restoration:

In contrast, Imp too (and a very limited number of Dorr Willey's Moths) do not have a chine edge, but rather the planking "wraps around" the hard turn of the bilge.  Imp Too was quite revolutionary in the late 1930s and by accounts from the old timers I've talked with was considered very tricky to sail.  Indeed, when I acquired this boat she came with a dagger board with the leading, trailing and bottom edges covered with heavy bronze strapping.  I haven't weighed this board but it's heavy; the bronze was fitted no doubt to add ballast to an otherwise very tender boat.

Another view of the "soft" chine.

The next two photos show the shape of the frames.

We have to make wood planks, at the turn of the bilge, conform to the shape of those ribs!  There are three ways we could do that. 1. we could take a thicker than required plank and "back it out" on the inside to fit the shape of the frames; 2. we could steam planks of the actual required thickness and hopefully not have them split once they cooled; 3. we could resort to using thin cedar strips with bead and cove edges as is commonly done during the construction of wooden canoes.  The first choice produces a heavy plank and requires a special plane.  The second approach is probably the one Channing and Willey used.  The third option, while the easiest is unauthentic and in my mind not suitable for this restoration.  William and I have built a steam box twelve feet long and will no doubt waste some good cedar before we master the technique.  Since this photo was taken, we have removed all of the original planking in order to repair the keel and framing.  The boat was heavily damaged after being hit by a car while on the way home from a regatta.

So, getting back to the picture which started this post, while I may have a rare photo of the 1938 U.S. National champion on the water, the resolution is too poor to learn anything new about the boat or her skipper.  I will keep trolling Flea-bay in the hopes that a better photograph will eventually surface.

30th Classic Moth Boat National Regatta

Hard to believe that 30 years has slipped away since Classic Moths resumed racing down in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  I've attended all but the very first event, which featured five boats.  This year's event saw twenty three Moths compete.  The age range of skippers was from 12 to 75--one is almost never too young or too old to race a Classic Moth.

Diaristdaughter was once again part of the mark boat crew and what follows are some of the photos she managed to take in between moving course marks.

Both days of racing featured mostly sunny skies, temps in the agreeable side of 80, and light (4 to 6 knot) wind from the SW.

Due to the continued efforts of Greg Duncan (Elizabeth City) and Joe Bousquet (Norfolk), we had a record (for us) of seven junior sailors (U-18).  I recall one Nats wherein our "junior" was the youngest sailor (aged 34), just to give the trophy away.  That was then, this is now.  Above, we see one of the E. City juniors, David Panet sailing Walt Collins' former Europe, now owned by a local sailing club.

Kale Jones sailed the ex-Joe Courter Europe, also owned by the E. City sailing club.

Bodie Blackford, from E. City, sailed Greg Duncan's Europe

Finally, our last E. City junior, Sam Moncla (leading Bodie) sailed John Pugh's Europe.  Sam is a descendant of Wilbur Van Sant, (Moth Boat founder Joel Van Sant's brother).  Sam must have inherited the sailing genes from them.  His winning ways are impressive!

Pretty in pink.  Down from the Norfolk area is Abbie Kiggans, sailing Joe Bousquet's Maser.  In past years Joe has loaned boats to Abbie's older brothers.  We tend to lose junior sailors to college.  Hopefully some of this crew will return.

Another Norfolk area junior, Chase Brittain, sailed Susan Bousquet's modified Shelley.

Rounding out the junior sailors from Norfolk, Severin Lavarius sailed the Swiss Moth which Joe B. sailed to overall victory in last year's National Regatta.

With the juniors accounted for, we will now list the, (cough), older skippers.  In no particular order we have:

Your old diarist sailing his Galetti-built Europe, Femme Fatale.

Diaristson, Erik sailed our Winner-built Europe, Ooh La La.

Bill Boyle sailed his son's cedar strip Europe.

Zack Balluzzo is seen here in Y2K Bug, his Collins-built Mistral.

John Pugh sailed Wingnut his Gen I, Gregory-built Mint design (sail Nr 20).  To leeward is John Zseleczky sailing his vintage division Ventnor Moth, Tweety.  Tweety  was formerly owned and sailed by the first CMBA President, Ekry Gregory.

Walt Collins was back, sailing his Gen I Moth Feather.

Gary Gowans, sailing in Vintage, is seen here in Tennis Bracelet.  This boat was built in Pittsburgh, PA during the late 1940s.  Gary recently rebuilt the boat and with Gary in the hot seat she is deceptively hellishly fast.

Eric Bellows sailed the Merv Wescoat-built Shelley Lookout.

Don Hewitt sailed Legend, a vintage Connecticut Moth.

Bob Patterson sailed Deacon, his McCutcheon-Shelley.

Ed Salva is seen here sailing his Europe Maple Leaf.

Don Janeway rounded out the vintage division fleet with 3-D, a Ventnor Moth which has been in his family since new.

John Z's son Pete took over John's Mistral Y2K2 for this event.

Another Gen II competitor, Mike Parsons, is seen here in Nr 79, Revolution.

Joe Bousquet reverted to his Mistral, Try-Umph, for this event.

Heading out to the starting area on Saturday morning.  Lots of slack in the Cunninghams.

A bit of breeze here.  It didn't last long

Waiting for a start.

More waiting.

Gary had Tennis Bracelet punching way above her weight, as did Walt in Feather.  Both boats were quite often mixing it up with the Gen II Mistrals.

Down wind legs could be frustrating.  After working hard to eek out a lead, one could often be treated to the sound of a gaggle of boats surging up from behind on a "private" puff of wind.

The light air and random puffs tended to cluster the boats leading to moments of "togetherness" during mark roundings.

The camera lens shortens the length of the leg between these two marks.

Abbie about to get pinwheeled off at the mark.  See next pix.

Europe booms are low!

Very patchy wind.

Milling around before a start.

An old geezer in a wooden boat crossing the finish line all alone.  #So Sad!

Just drifting and drifting.  Hey, that reminds me of a song from the Paul Butterfield blues band...

John Z's Ventnor. 

Walt Collins in a Ted Causey-built Moth from the early 1990s.  This boat had been listed for sale on mothboat.com but found no takers at the initial asking price.  The owner, who was in the process of moving house sent me an angst filled email, two days before the move, indicating that if no one wanted the boat (now offered for free), she was going to the dump.  As can be imagined, the significant price drop caused something of a frenzy within the membership.  Joe B. was closest to the boat and saved her from a ride to the dump.  The boat will soon have a new permanent owner--Joe has too many boats!  The former owner asked that if possible, she'd like a photo of the boat assembled and in the water.  Walt, who knew the owner from high school days obliged.  While sail-able as is, the boat will need a bit of tweaking to bring the hull up to current minimum weight and the sail within current measurement rules.

The winners?  Mike Parsons was the overall and Gen II division champ, followed by Joe Bousquet and Pete Zseleczky.  The order in Gen I was Walt Collins, Sam Moncla and Bob Patterson.  The Vintage division winner was Gary Gowans, followed by John Zseleczky and Don Janeway, Walt took the Founder's Award (oldest competitor) and Sam Moncla was the top Junior sailor.  So, that's a wrap on this year's Nats.