Scow Moth Update; November 2009

I am one of the few Yanks who has ever owned a winged scow Moth. In my case I had one-off Australian designed and built scow Moth shipped to the U.S and, as it turned out, the scow was not a very good scow design, fun in flat water and a breeze, almost impossible to sail in any sort of confused chop. I wrote about it in more detail in 2003 and if interested, one can view my scow experience here . A picture of me sailing my scow Moth...



I still love the scow Moth, even though it's been over 20 or so years since the scow was eclipsed by the monohull Moth in International competitions. Today many sailors see the scow as very ancient technology when stacked up against the current foiler Moth. But then some have accused me of always being the contrarian; and so I continue to collect scow Moth news wherever it pops up.

Englishman (also living in the U.S) Len Parker seem to be at the center of most of the current scow news. In the summer, Len Parker collected a badly decomposed Imperium design from somewhere in the Southeast USA and dragged the hull back to Florida for a rebuild.



And Len's pal Ray, on the Isle of Wight, has done a beautiful job restoring a Red Ned design (a 1970's Western Australian design). Pic following;



Meanwhile in New Zealand, the New Zealand one-design scow Moth is still raced out of Stewarts Gully Sailing Club. This is a wingless design and was very popular in New Zealand until the Laser showed up. More information here . Picture from Lindsay Russell,



And finally, from New Zealand again, this YouTube video shows a winged scow Moth that had the rudder drop off.....