Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Boatbuilding: Update on the Nantais Classic Moth

Plans de Moth Classique


David Simms of British Columbia, Canada, sends along an update on his build of the French Moth Classique Nantais design. My first post on Dave's boatbuilding can be found here.

"I've attached a couple of pictures of the Nantais, in its present state... All of the frames are made of laminated 1 cm x 1 cm, straight-grained Douglas Fir. I'm amazed at how light, and STRONG, they are. Presently, the fairing has been nearly completed and the frames have been sealed with epoxy. There are fewer than a dozen screws in all of the deck framing. I have rough cut the plywood for the deck and I've also sealed the inside face of the decking with epoxy. 
[Second picture] A bit of humour, here. I'm struggling to move the boat into one of my sheds, for winter storage. This little struggle has convinced me that my original thoughts of building a boat that could be transported on top of a car were somewhat unrealistic. Given that I'm not related to Charles Atlas, I'll soon be looking for a trailer."



Lines drawing of the Nantais Moth. Typical of Moth design for France and the U.S in the 1940's. (The Dorr-Willey, Ventnor, and the Abbots representing similar U.S. designs, Click here to view a post on the 1940 Moth designs.), the hull has a scow type stem married to deep V sections.



2 comments:

my2fish said...

Oh man, I would not be yanking on a newly made boat like that.

Tweezerman said...

My2Fish

Actually the older Moths with their more substantial scantlings and modern glues are very robust, even without their decks. Some of the old-timers used doped airplane fabric on their foredecks to reduce weight.