Friday, January 6, 2017

RazMoth: Classic Moth News: Winter 2017

Contstruction de Moth Classique

Bertrand Warion (French designer of the Mariposa Moth) is at it again. A couple of months ago I received an email from Bertrand detailing the building of a new Classic Moth design (the RazMoth Mk II):

"Mariposa is now out my mother's garden and back in my new home (it’s been 3 years,a lot of other work and lot of things to do). As soon I finish my home renovation (rebuilding another part of my home) I am thinking of building a new deck for Mariposa for a little more hiking comfort.

"This summer a new Classic Moth (RazMoth Mark II) was built in my backyard in 10 days. It was to a design previously built by myself in 2000/2002 with some modifications.

"The new owner is very happy with RazMoth Mk II (he is a surfer, not a sailor but learning rapidly).

"The first trial of the RazMoth Mk II was in July, on a little "ducks lake" near my home and then one week on the rivers "Garonne" and "Gironde". We also sailed on Lake Sanguinet and Arcachon bay this summer. It is an easy Moth to sail, very easy to surf....

"This winter my young friend will build his own mast. (We were using Mariposa’s mast to begin with). It will probably be a free-standing mast (he is also a carpenter and joiner).

"Regards b. warion
RazMoth Mk II is a very simple, very easy to build Classic Moth. It has a shape similar to the Fireball (flat rocker panel, multi-chine shape) with a scow bow. Bertrand supplies details of the specifications for the RazMoth Mk II:
"The new RazMoth Mk II is made of exterior grade plywood, 5mm, glued with epoxy and glassed on the bottom. All stringers are 25mm/15mm. The hull weight is 45kg (for a total weight of 54/56 kg (with the mast weighing 5kg). The mast is a carbon windsurf shape with an aluminium sail track glued on with some "home depot" polysilcone compound
Some photos of the Moth build.

Setting up the frames. Only five including the transom.


Laying in the stringers. You can see the flat rocker panel and the multi-chine hull shape.


Right side up without the intermediate plywood panel installed.


Hull sides and flat rocker panel attached. Looks like Bertrand's backyard back up next to a vineyard. Now, that's cool!


Sea trials for RazMoth Mk II at the "Duck Pond". I have the same color "Crocs". Must be something about crazy Classic Moth sailors.








The original RazMoth Mk 1.



Bertrand writes of the Mk 1:

"RazMoth Mk I in 2002. The boat was made of very low quality interior plywood and destructed 3 years later (really low cost boat). I sailed the first RazMoth with my great dog "Tango" (we were both young back then!)"


Simple plans/drawing of the RazMoth.


5 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a neat project!

George A said...

The shape reminds me of scow Moths from the early days (Van Sant era) of Moth Boating.

Dieharddinghysailor said...

I'm curious as what are the other boats in the background....in the first picture, could be an Enterprise or Leader, further down, that plumb stemmed hull under cover looks like an I-14, whaddya think.....?

Interesting easy design, I remember my Cole Moth was pretty simple back in the day, I only had a couple of tools and a stapler, Cascamite (resorcinol glue), and no skills...!

la coulée douce said...

hello
i am bertrand warion the "designer" of razmoth
having a look on this page i saw your comment

the white boat under the barn roof is a "caneton 1957 one design" by andré cornu
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caneton_(bateau)
in france it was the pecursor of the 505 class

the boat under the cover outside is a modern "dinghy herbulot" made of plywood
http://www.asvaurien.fr/documentsasvaurien/pdf_archives/Dinghy%20par%20JPAigrot.pdf
http://www.asvaurien.fr/le-vaurien/trucs-et-machins/50-jj-herbulot/ses-realisations/148-le-dinghy-herbulot

Tweezerman said...

George,

Yes the RazMoth does have a retro look from the early period of the class. From the top it looks somewhat similar to the Crosby Skimmer but it does have the hull shape of a Fireball. I don't think the RazMoth was designed to be a top racer but a good entry level Moth to learn on. From the looks of it, the design meets the requirements.