Joe Bousquet was the chap who re-released the squirrely narrow waterline 1960's Mistral design on the reconstituted Classic Moth class some fifteen years ago. Except for one year when Jeff Linton won with a Florida Wedge design, the Mistral or one of it's variants (Mousetrap) has won the nationals ever since. After fifteen years, Joe's original Mistral "Try-Umph" needed a redeck as the 3mm (1/8") plywood can take only so much of asses and knees crashing down over time. Joe details the redeck job in this post from his blog "MadMothist". Joe lightened things up by sistering foam with his rolled tank frames. Here is a pic I stole from Joe's blog of Try-Umph's deck and frame layout (which in it's basic form has been copied by almost all of the Mistral builders).
Mike Parsons also did a redeck on his Mistal. Mike has done several deck versions; this year must be his third or fourth. His previous version had used 1.5mm (1/16") plywood on the foredeck that for weight reasons had only one coat of varnish. That one coat of varnish quickly disappeared and last year the deck took on the hue of weathered teak and became a sponge, perpetually wet when coming in from the races. Mike went back to a 3mm deck over the winter and using his carbon laminating prowess, lightened the mast step and daggerboard trunk so the actual new weight was slightly less than the old version. A pic of Mike's Mistral with the new deck taken at this years Brigantine regatta.
And finally, Patrick Burger, he of the weird but wonderfull FrankenMoth/Mothball design sprung at this years Midwinters , decided to up the ante, and has built himself a Mistral, but not just any old Mistral. Patrick has built the first foam/glass Mistral that I'm aware of in the Classic Moth World. Shortly after the Midwinters, Patrick scarfed up a plywood Mistral hull from Rod Koch that had spent too long out in the Florida sun and was unsalvageable. Using the wood Mistral hull as a plug, Patrick taped down some contoured foam and glassed both sides to lift a new hull. The hull and deck are now complete and pictures show some radical visual differences.
Patrick has put in a V-transom with the hull continuing aft as planing strakes. The sidedecks are narrow with no decking surrounding the daggerboard trunk, hence the cockpit looks enormous compared to the tiny footwell of the Bousquet layout.
This side on shot shows the reverse sheer with the V-transom shape.
With the large cockpit of the Burger Mistral, one truly gets the feel of how narrow a hull the Mistral is (not a flat area anywhere).
Patrick is a painter by trade and used finishes not typical in the Marine Industry on his Mothball. I'm sure the color layout he chooses will be another interesting facet of this Classic Moth build.
More on the Mistral design can be found here
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