A Cruising blog with a Moth Boat connection

A Georgetown beach, courtesy of www.velocir.com

Long time readers of this blog no doubt recall the time I posted about a very pretty Ventnor Moth owned by a young couple in Annapolis.  On the day which I visited them, Grant and Amelia could only spend an hour or so showing me their Moth as they needed to finish bottom painting their big boat (an Albin Vega 27).  Since then they have worked their way down the East coast and are currently in the islands down in the Caribbean.  Amelia recently shared the URL for their cruising blog: 

http://velocir.com/ 

There you will find many beautiful photos and video clips to enjoy.  It looks like they're living the dream.  Oh, and not to worry; they still plan to get that pretty little Ventnor sailing after they return to "Nap-town".

Merv Wescoat's 5.2 Harpoon

Merv turned 85 this past January.  He started racing Moth Boats in the mid-1930s as a junior member of the old Evening Star Yacht Club.  ESYC was so named because it was founded by depression era, working class sailors who raced after work (when they had work) by the light of the stars.  Merv, thus, goes back to almost the start of Moth racing, and by virtue of growing up in Bungalow Park (the inlet section of Atlantic City, New Jersey) knew all of the founding members including Joel Van Sant. Merv only races his Moth a couple times a year now; he claims that he just can't go seven or eight back to back races like we do at the Mid-Winters anymore.  So instead he bought down the 5.2 meter Harpoon class sloop he and daughter Barb will campaign this spring at regattas near Ocala, FL.  Photo credits: Diaristwoman, IoW Len.

Merv Wescoat waiting to launch his boat at this year's Gulfport regatta.

The sail Nr 373 is the same one that Merv's first Moth Boat, The Juno, carried back in the 1930s.  Buckshot is also a reoccurring name which has graced several of Merv's Moths.  That's the dome of Tropicana Field (home field of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team) sticking up in the background.  Merv's at the tiller, his daughter Barb is forward tending the jib while Barb Parsons, in the center, holds on to a steadying can of beer.

Here's the Harpoon from the bow with a bone in her teeth..  Merv's obviously not afraid of sailing in a fair breeze.  I only hope that I'm that spry and daring if I make it to 85!

Even Isle of Wight Len is suitably impressed!

Images from the 2012 Classic Moth Boat Mid-Winter Regatta Part 2

The photos in today's offering are courtesy of Isle of Wight Len.  I'm still single finger typing so enjoy the pix!

First up is a nice off-wind bow shot featuring Greg Duncan in his Europe design Moth.  Note how Greg has lengthened the mast in order to get a bit more room to duck under the Europe's boom.

Jeff Linton's Mousetrap.  Jeff continued his dominance of recent regattas with yet another overall win.

John Zseleczky works hard to keep Y2K BUG flat on her lines as he drives to weather.

Mike Parsons seems pleased with life.  This bow shot of the Mistral design shows how little of the boat is actually in the water when correctly sailed flat. Great technique Mike!

Patrick!  Hike that boat flat!  Due to their narrow waterlines Mistrals are challenging boats to sail.

Part of the mark boat crew: two Amys, one Elisabeth.  IoW Len is also an important member, but someone has to hold the camera!

The view from the now empty launching beach.  Looks idyllic doesn't it?

Images from the 2012 Classic Moth Boat Mid-Winter Regatta Part 1

I've managed to break my right arm, (interested peeps can read about that here), so typed comments will be limted for the next few posts.  Meanwhile here are some images from the regatta.  Photo credits: Diaristwoman

30 seconds after one of Saturday's starts.  My boat is sail Nr 69.

The racing venue at Gulfport YC is Boca Ciega Bay.  The dome of Tropicana Field can be seen in the background.

Mark Saunders debuted an experimental sail shape during the opening race.  It performed well during the brief outing but will require an up or down vote at this year's AGM.

Part of the fun of a development class is the ability to tinker with various aspects of boat design.  This photo compares differences in boom height on two otherwise identical boats.

Earlier in this race I flipped and had my work cut out in an to attempt to reconnect with the rest of the fleet!  The water temp was "refreshing".

At times there was a bit of chop.

Port/Starboard situation.  John Z is on starboard tack and has the right of way over your Diarist. My choices as the burdened vessel are to either tack away instead of crossing, or duck his transom.  Sometimes it's a better call to put the bow down and go astern.

Another Port/Starboard confrontation.  Greg (sail Nr 80) on port tack, is hoping to thread the needle in that wall of starboard tackers charging across the starting line.  With absolutely no rights, his options are to immediately tack onto starboard and thus eat a lot of "dirty" (i.e. turbulent) air from the boats directly in front of him, (slow) or duck all of the boats and continue on port tack with clean air and keep his options open (better).

Abbott Moth design pix

Here are a couple of the promised photos of a Fran Abbott-designed Moth Boat.  The boat featured, Nr 1600, is the one Fran built for his daughter Kay.  This boat is currently owned by William Duffield.

Abbott Moth "Com-on-K" viewed from the bow with your diarist in the hot seat.  The venue was the 2008 Brigantine YC annual Moth Boat Regatta.

The same boat a few years earlier, this time with Jeff Gerber skippering.  NB: the sail was borrowed from another boat.

Just to put Bill Boyle's rather daunting project into perspective, below are some photos of his Abbott in "as found" condition. This poor boat is almost beyond salvation.  Luckily the keel and major structural elements are sound and can be reused.  This boat will look like a new penny after Bill re-skins her with new ply panels.  Some of the hand made hardware specific to the Abbott Moth such as the combination bow handle and stem fitting, the drain cock, etc. have survived.  However along with rebuilding the hull, Bill will have to make new spars and blades.

Nr 1603, port quarter.  The item seen dangling from the bottom of the transom is one of Fran Abbott's hand made drain cocks.  When this boat was build many items had to be made up by the builder. Fran taught himself the arts of bronze casting and metal fabrication in addition to woodworking.  Specialty dinghy hardware manufacturing which we now take for granted was in it's infancy when this boat was built, with a just few small pioneer companies such as Race-Lite and Rollege producing a limited range.  Harken and Ronstan were decades away into the future.  Back then, if you needed something that the local hardware store couldn't supply you made it yourself!

Nr 1603 as found, behind a Chestertown, Maryland warehouse which Bob Patterson had just rented for his business.  Perhaps someone will recognize this boat from the remnant of unusual green-blue colored paint seen on the side board towards the bow.  It would be interesting to learn how this boat came to rest here, a long way from Ocean City, New Jersey.

Yet another Moth Boat restoration web site

Bill Boyle, our fearless Fletcher-Cates rehaber, is also attempting to bring back a very neglected Abbott-design Moth that Bob Patterson found abandoned behind a warehouse in Chestertown, Maryland.  How an Abbott Moth wound up there is anyone's guess but Bob muckled onto her and in turn passed her over to Bill, figuring Bill could use a bit of wet firewood. The poor neglected Abbott has sat in Bill's shed over the last couple of years and now has finally moved to the top of the project list.  If you thought that old Moth Nr 264 looked pretty hopless at the onset, just wait until you get a load of this baby .

(cut and paste this link if the one above doesn't work: http://billsmothboatpage.blogspot.com/  )

A little history: Fran Abbott opened a small boat yard at 200 West Ave. in Ocean City, New Jersey just after returning to civilian life at the end of World War II.  I bought my first Moth boat from Fran in the summer of '59--a nail sick old Ventnor which he was selling under consignment.  I still have the bill of sale somewhere.  Anyway, along with servicing various big boats for members of the Ocean City Yacht Club and selling small boats on consignment, Fran built a couple dozen Moths of his own design.  Fran was strongly influenced by not only the Ventnor and Dorr Willey Moths which were current in those days but also he developed a rather strong opinion about the faster, lighter boats coming up from Florida!  Fran didn't like tippy, flimsy boats and so build his boats strong (read heavy) and stable.  Although he realized that the Moth was a development racing class he still pitched his boats more towards stability rather than ultimate speed.  In Moth boating, as in most things, speed comes at the expense of stability and longevity.  Fran over-built his boats to be able to take the abuse that beginner kids generally dish out.  These were the days before Sunfish or Optimist dinghies--the boats that currently make up the beginner fleets (I've seen inexperienced kids ram dock pilings at full till in a Sunfish and just bounce off with no or minimal damage--an Abbott could to a degree do that as well).  Having said all that, an Abbott Moth in the hands of a talented sailor was competitive against the best designs of those times.  Most Abbott Moths however went to rookies rather than the top sailors in the fleet and so didn't often figure in podium spots at the end of a regatta.  Be that as it may, I think a well sorted Abbott will be a VERY competitive addition to the CMBA's current Vintage division and look forward to racing against this boat when she's finished.  Sadly, Fran passed away a few years ago and so won't be able to comment on this attempt to breathe life back into one of his boats.   In the next few days I'll dig through my photo files and post a pix or two of what an Abbott Moth in race worthy condition looks like so that you'll have an idea of what Bill is shooting for.  In the meantime, settle in for the ride at the URL above.

DC Auto Show, Part II

Picking up from my last post, Lotus displayed several of their road cars including this Elise SC.

This Lotus Exige attracted quite a bit of interest.  It took a while before I could get a good photo of it!  These cars are a far cry from the old Lotus 7 America and Super Seven that I owned way back when.

B is for Bentley.

This cabriolet would be fun as long as one didn't think too deeply when filling the fuel tank.

The "Spirit of Ecstasy" mascot from the business end of a Rolls Royce.  This reminded me, in a random way, of a line from a Hilaire Belloc poem:  "The rich arrived in pairs and also in Rolls Royces and talked of their affairs in loud and strident voices."  I think that line is from Belloc's "Cautionary Tales for Children" but am not clearly certain of that.  Perhaps someone can leave a comment and put me straight in that department; odd what triggers  the mind.

Next up was Ferrari.  This is the new all wheel drive FF.  $377K seems like an awful lot of money for a station wagon!

Here is a two seater open Ferrari painted "refrigerator white".  I didn't think such a thing was possible!  This may well be illegal in some countries--in Italy probably so.

I heard a commotion behind me and turned to see this group of elegantly  costumed Chinese reminding us that this is the year of the dragon.  Not sure what that has to do with the Auto Show, but it was colorful never the less.

Meanwhile over at the Honda stand we inspected this Indy Car.

This particular car was driven to first place finishes at Kansas City Speedway in '08 (Dan Wheldon), Toronto in '09 (Dario Franchitti) and Milwaukee in '11 (Franchitti again).

Of course Honda is hoping that all that racing activity rubs off in the showroom and boosts sales of Accords.

What's an auto show without a few concept cars?  This is the Lexus LF-LC.

Hyundai's concept car was the "Veloster".  For the life of me I see no connection between this car and a "velo" as in cycling.  Perhaps they plan to run over a few velos...

There were many other curious things to see on the lower level but with time running on we decided to head upstairs for a look at the domestic offerings.  I'll report on the cars displayed on the upper level in my next post.