2012 Wooden Boat Regatta; Part Three.

Let's see if blogger will let me finish this story...

This is one of several dory-type boats which were entered in this year's Wooden Boat Regatta.

I think that this very pretty Blue Jay also sailed last year.

One of the CLC "Pocketship" kit boats.

Here is the sailing canoe, shown earlier on the beach, under sail.

This dory has the skinniest lee boards I've ever seen!  Sunday's wind was a good bit stronger.  I wonder how he made out?

This International 210 came over from Gibson Island.  At just a whisker under 30 feet she dwarfed most of the other boats.

Dudley Dix in Paper Jet has a lot to keep track of once the asymmetric chute is flying.

The Hampton One Designs proved quite competitive against the Lightnings and Thistles even without the benefit of a spinnaker.  One wonders how this shook out in Sunday's higher breeze?  I couldn't attend on Sunday.  Hopefully someone will leave a comment.

Another attractive boat was this Windmill.  Rock Hall Yacht Club had a Windmill, complete with a rusty trailer, on the lawn for sale, $250 or best offer!

This is Utilis.  At 29' 6" she was the second largest boat in the regatta.  I believe that she is a Bolger Whalewatcher design.  If she had a few rows of oars she'd look like a modern day Greek trireme!

A bow shot of the Whalewatcher.  Very unique.

If one grows tired of boats, views of the surrounding farms can give rest to the eyes.

Meanwhile, the Moths were keeping things close.  Over the two days, John Z. prevailed in the Mistral.

Here's a shot of the Crowninshield cat boat under sail.

Crowninshield bow shot.  Very pretty.

And finally a few shots of that $250 Windmill.

Carl Cramer was sorely tempted!

I've seen worse ways to spend $250.  Just remember one of the most expensive phrases in the English language is "Cheap Boat For Sale"! 

Did she find a new home?

2012 Wooden Boat Regatta; Part Two.

On the way to the racing area one occasionally sees very nice homes along the banks of the river.

When was the last time you saw a Lightning with a three digit sail number?  This boat probably dates to the late 1930s and is well preserved.

On the way out to the starting line the Thistles explore the possibility of flying spinnakers.  The wind was from the Northwest and hence very light and fluky all day.

Charlie McCoy, slowly sailing his Hampton One-Design "Calamity Jane" to the start.

Last year Classic Moth Boats were the most numerous class at this regatta.  This year we managed to muster three boats:  Victor Stango in his Paul Lindenberg design, Bob Patterson in the Shelley and John Zseleczky in the Mistral.  I'll be back on the water next year!

The Lindenberg design is a single chine shape with a gentle V-bottom.

The Shelley Moth has a flatter run aft of the centerboard trunk than the Lindenberg.  She is essentially a scaled down version of John Shelley's successful International-14 from the early 1960s.

The Mistral design is a sharp stem, round bilge shape with very narrow waterlines.  Both the Mistral and the Duflos Moths are VERY challenging to sail!

 The blogspot is getting wonky so I will stop this post here and pick up the story in Part 3.  Stay tuned.

2012 Wooden Boat Regatta; Part One.

Last weekend was the second year that Wooden Boat Magazine sponsored a two day regatta for smallish wooden boats.  Once again, Rock Hall Yacht Club hosted the event.  Although I got out of my cast two days before the event, my arm isn't anywhere strong enough to safely handle a boat so I was strictly limited to spectator mode this year and MINT stayed in the boat house.  But this is not all bad news.  Carl Cramer, the publisher of Wooden Boat Magazine kindly invited me aboard the launch "Lady Lancaster" for a day of up close spectating out on the two race courses.

Things are a bit agricultural in this neck of of the woods, but at least one knows which road to follow to the yacht club!  The car in front is John Zseleczky.  The boat is a Mistral design Classic Moth.

Bob Patterson brought two Moths.  This is his Duflos design boat.  Derek Chester's Mistral design is a successful attempt to capture Benoit Duflos' elegant but difficult to built shape in a stitch and glue format which can be built from flat ply panels.

However for this event Bob wanted to sail his McCutcheon-built Shelley design Moth.

This curious cloth skin over wood frames sliding seat canoe was unfortunately a no-show out on the water.  Perhaps he broke something during Friday's practice.

Last year there was only a single representative of the Hampton One-Design class.  This year there were several Hampton ODs attending.  I guess the word got around the fleet that this was a good regatta!

There were also several Lightnings at this year's event.

Several Thistle Class dinghies made an appearance.

This sailing canoe and several dory type boats were rigging up on the launching beach.

Larger boats included this B.B. Crowninshield designed cat boat.

Tattoo was one of three Chesapeake Light Craft "Pocketships" competing in the cruising class.

This very odd boat was also in the cruising class.  I'll have more photos of "Utilis" later in the post.

Shortly after the skipper's meeting the mark boats and committee boats headed out to the racing area.

 

I boarded the open launch "Lady Lancaster" and we were soon in hot pursuit.  I'll post the on the water pix in the next post.

The Wood Boat Regatta

Classic Moths were the largest fleet at the Wooden Boat Magazine's "Wood Regatta" hosted by the Rock Hall YC this past weekend. Seven Moth Boats, all different designs competed. Erik sailed GYPSY while I sailed MINT (see my earlier post about MINT). There were a number of very pretty and interesting boats that came from far and wide.  We raced a total of 10 races over the two days. Yes, I could feel it in my legs the following Monday morning!

Saturday's wind was from the NW and, as expected, was light and variable. We had a nice 5 or so knots for the first race and I got a good start in MINT and led that race almost from start to finish. John Zseleczky, sailing his Mistral design Moth, Y2K BUG, was able to reel me in half way down the final beat to the finish and won comfortably by several boat lengths. It was fun seeing the bow of Y2K BUG for a change even if I couldn't quite close the deal!  And, although a bit out classed by newer, faster designs, MINT still showed that she has the legs of a Champion. After the first race the wind went soft and we thought that the rest of the day would be a float fest but after a slow second race, where Moths overhauled the "Corinthian" Class (big heavier boats) and got stuck in their huge sail shadows, the wind clicked on enough for the remaining 3 races to be fair contests before dying just in time to make sailing back to the beach (~2 miles or so) a slow process. Moths could routinely reel in most if not all of the bigger boats that started in front of us, a situation that repeated itself the following day when we had more breeze. At the end of Saturday's racing John Z. had 5 firsts, Erik led Victor Stango by 2 points and I trailed Victor by 3.

Sunday's wind clocked around to the E and was blowing around 10 to 12 with gusts a tad higher. Rock Hall YC sails in a cove off of the Chester River called Langford Bay which, while protected from the river's current, is fairly shallow. As a result, East winds tend to kick up a short, nasty chop. The combo of a good breeze and stiff chop made for some challenging sailing. At the start of the first heat both Erik and Victor Stango (sailing his Lindenberg design) were over the line early. Erik tacked back to restart but Victor had an unexpected swim when he hit the front side of a wave and the head stay fitting pulled out of the stem. The rig went to leeward and Victor was tossed out of the boat to windward. As I sailed past he said he was OK. The dismasting was a shame because Victor and Erik were locked in a tight battle for second and the breeze seemed to favor the Lindenberg over the Europe. As a result Erik cruised to an easy 2nd overall, behind John (who had perfect bullets) and I managed to round out the podium. As a final note, I decided to not race the last race of the day because I had noticed that MINT's wooden mast was bending in an alarming fashion if a gust of wind hit the rig at the same time the boat was knifing through the chop. I hated to leave the festivities with such a nice breeze but I didn't want to burden the RC with a second dismasted MOTH. As I sailed back to the beach on an absolutely wonderful screaming reach I noticed that the tiller felt odd. Looking back I realized that the nuts for the machine screws that hold the tiller to the top of the rudder had slackened off, so I was doubly glad I'd decided to skip the last race even though it cost me maximum points!

At the awards presentation, Carl Carmer, the organizer from Wooden Boat Magazine Praised the Moths as "inspirational". I'm not quite sure what that means but it sounds good! Trophies were not handed out at the club. Carl indicated winners would get engraved trophies by mail.

So, bottom line on ex-world Champion MINT:  she's off the pace of the newer designs but I expected that. Twenty extra years of development does not defy one's expectations, the newer designs are faster.  However, she did exhibit moments of great boat speed.  Like any boat which hasn't been raced for an extended period of time she has plenty of areas that need refinement.  However 3rd place overall and almost winning the first heat count for something, plus I now have a good idea of what changes to make prior to the next time I race her.  For now I leave you with some images of  a few of the other wood boats which were part of the regatta.  More photos can be seen here: http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/d…oat%20Regatta/
and here:  http://chessiephoto.com/f388029379 
Comments from the organizer can be read here: http://woodenboat.com/boat/

This custom design came up from Florida

Another view of HAIKU.

Several Windmill class dinghies competed.   The Windmill was designed by Clark Mills in 1953 as a follow up to his more famous Optimist dinghy.

The Windmill is quite narrow for its length.

A nice detail carving inside the transom.

A study in Moth Boat designs.  From closest to the camera to furthest away:  Shelley, Cates, Tweezer, Lindenberg

Dudley Dix came up from Norfolk, VA with PAPER JET.  This complex boat is sailed by one person!  PAPER JET was the subject of an article in Wooden Boat Magazine a few years ago.  Fifty or so of this design have been built to date.

PAPER JET, stern view.  Lots of strings to pull and keep track of...

Victor Stango's Paul Lindenberg-designed Moth Boat.  Sadly this boat was dismasted early during the Sunday racing.

Jim Cobb's Wayfarer dinghy (white hull) beached next to Ed Sadler's Hampton One-Design.  Jim usually sails a Moth but deserted us this weekend for his Wayfarer.  Click on the photo for a better look at the beautiful Chris-Craft mahogany runabout in the background.  The Chris-Craft was the mark boat and crash boat for our race course.  Also note the radio controlled scale model Lasers that had their own racing fan base.

Another look at this pair of boats with a better view of the Hampton OD.  A lovely boat but I'll bet that cockpit combing is a leg biter...

Tom  Lippincott borrowed a family member's Duster for the weekend.  Dusters were a popular dinghy in southern New Jersey when I was just starting to race back in the late 1950s and many were built by the Lippincotts.  Like the Moth, the Duster died off.  Unlike the Moth the Duster hasn't yet mounted a successful rebirth.  Duster racing is currently confined to a single lake in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.  I hadn't seen one in over 40 years.  Dusters carry a fair bit of sail for their size and thus are a brutal boat in stiff wind but quite fast in the right hands.  Tom came in second in the "Corinthian" Class.

The winning Moth Boat, Y2K BUG, is a Mistral design Moth.  This photo reveals the large amount of rocker in this design's keel line.  This greatly reduces the wetted surface when the boat is sailed in displacement mode.  Note the almost semi-circular transom shape.  Mistrals are quite challenging to sail, especially downwind in a big breeze.

A final look at the Rock Hall YC's mooring field complete with radio controlled mini-racers.