Thursday, July 16, 2015

Scow Moth Sailing - About 15 Years Ago

Here I am sailing my Quinlan design scow Moth at Brigantine YC, New Jersey. I named her Flatoo-a-T since she had no rocker at all. The design worked fine in flat water and some breeze; abysmal in a short chop. Another photo of USA-9 over over here.






Posted by at 10:19 AM
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10 comments:

Baydog said...

Rod, you've always had the coolest toys

July 16, 2015 at 3:26 PM
Alden Smith said...

Very cool boat although I think I would only like to sail her hard Downwind! in any sort of seaway.

In response to your link / post. I have sailed at the Stewarts Gully Yacht Club in my youth. The club is close to Christchurch at the mouth of the Waimakariri river. It was there that I really learned the importance of sailing close to the shore to keep out of the rivers main tidal flow and to keep away from the bar at the river mouth when the tide was going out!!

July 17, 2015 at 3:48 AM
Tweezerman said...

Baydog

I've always enjoyed the variety of experiences you get in sailing different classes, especially the high performance ones. The scow Moth was cool. Definitely not a light air machine but gave windsurfer-like performance when the wind was up. I do have an E-Scow story stored up which maybe I'll get around to telling.

Alden Smith

I guess if I had loads of time and loads of money, I would pick out the most unique small boat clubs and endeavor to do a club race in each one. Stewarts Gully Y.C. would be one such club. I think a description of the Stewart Gully Yacht Club (what other yacht club has Gully in its name?) should be one of your future posts on your blog. Which NZ class did you learn to sail on? The P-class? As an aside, looks like you are making good progress on your Starling project.

July 17, 2015 at 4:28 AM
Alden Smith said...

I live in Whangarei Northland (North Island of NZ) but I learned my sailing on the Christchurch Estuary at the Pleasant Point Yacht Club (now demolished since the big earthquakes). Stewarts Gully was a club we visited from time to time for inter club yachting events.
I learnt to sail in a P Class (In my mind the greatest little boat ever invented - but I am biased : > ) ---- I recently did a restoration (and blogged about it) on a P Class and it is hanging in my car port above the current Starling restoration. My next yacht was an OK Dinghy, a much loved yacht of mine. When I moved North in 1974 I built 'Mariner' my 30 foot keeler which features on my Blog Page.

Stewarts Gully blog post??? What a good idea : > )

July 17, 2015 at 3:45 PM
Dieharddinghysailor said...

I love those scow Moths; there is a Facebook page 'Scow Moth Club' that posts tons of new and archive footage, much from Japan. I built a Coles Moth from a kit in Sydney around 1969, sailed it on Botany Bay and Georges River at Connels Point Sailing club, loads of fun, and so exhiliarating when accelerating on a broad reach surfing down waves......hmmm, memories....then had an OK, like Alden, would love another.
Mike. Whidbey Island

July 18, 2015 at 9:23 PM
Tweezerman said...

Alden,

Now you've done it. I went digging back through your blog to read up on your P-class restoration. Several side trips as well; the history of Wally's Island, Camping wit P-class yachts, transporting P-class on running boards - all good stuff. The P-class looks to have a very big rig for such a small hull.

Mike,

I thought you told me you had a line on a very old plywood OK dinghy. (The Pacific North West was the heart and soul of the U.S OK dinghy fleet back in the 1960's and early 1970's - before the Laser muscled the class out of U.S existence.)

July 19, 2015 at 6:56 AM
Alden Smith said...

Glad you enjoyed looking at my blog Tweezerman, I enjoy reading yours. Although I have been building and sailing for decades, I still learn from others and enjoy very much reading about other peoples sailing experiences.
When my first P Class was built during a club building programme in the 1960s along with a lot of other P class yachts, about 6 'restricted' Moths were built. These were multi - chine skiff like hulls. I have some photos somewhere so I will blog about these Moths - you may be interested and be able to give me some Moth information about them. I remember sailing my friend Malcolms Moth 'Freon' - it was very fast, and very exciting to sail!

July 20, 2015 at 2:03 PM
Tweezerman said...

Alden,

Look forward to the posts. Bruce Farr's first design was a Moth. He lives here in Annapolis, retired now, heard he has got into racing cars. Maybe I should track him down and see if he would talk about his first attempts at sailboat design.

July 20, 2015 at 5:38 PM
my2fish said...

Sweet boat! Didn't they have color photos 15 years ago?

July 24, 2015 at 6:52 PM
Tweezerman said...

My2fish,

The originals were indeed in color but they were so washed out that these photos look better in black and white. (I kinda like black and white anyway.)

July 25, 2015 at 3:44 PM

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