2022 Classic Moth Midwinters

Back again, at least for the moment. Been off keeping myself amused with various non-sailing, non-social larks during COVID-time. I'll try to post to Earwigoagin irregularly, particularly if it is easy; if stuff lands in my lap.

John Z went off down south for the Classic Moth Midwinters and relays the news. Weather was beautiful in Gulfport, Florida; sunny 80F (26C), light winds in the morning with the regular breeze clocking in for the afternoon. Nine Classic Moths showed up with the CMBA resident professional and all-around nice guy, Jeff Linton, again making off with top honors. Shore photos are from John Zseleczky and on-the-water photos from Amy Linton (which I have converted to black and white in my own fashion).

(George Albaugh has his more extensive Midwinter report up on his blog.)

George Albaugh with his wooden Europe on the Gulfport YC dinghy lawn.

Greg Duncan rigging his glass Europe.

Jamey Rabbit with no. 134, his new modified Mistral design. Jamey had teething problems on Saturday but came back strong on Sunday, posting 1st's and 2nd's. Jamey started this project back in 2015, seven years to completion, which is getting into my extended time frame for boat projects. In the photo below, you can definitely see he pinched in the topsides up forward. (Compare to the standard Mistral shape of Joe Bosquet, no. 48, in the background.)

Jamey Rabbit rigging. His new Classic Moth has carbon bits and bobs all over the place. The aft deck looks like you could launch drones off it. Jamey documented his Classic Moth build over at his Blackberry Boatworks blog.

John Z motoring upwind. John would finish 2nd to Jeff in Gen II.

Mark Saunders in his modified wood-redecked Europe giving Jamey Rabbit a run for his money. Mark would win the Gen 1 division.

Mark Saunders in his Europe upwind. From this angle looks very similar to my Maser. I've been looking at film photography recently and somehow I rendered this photo in Photoshop very much in the ethos of Japanese street photographer, Daido Moriyama; very contrasty with bright highlights and darker darks.

A start. Jeff Linton, no.102, has already got a nice jump on the fleet.

Mike Parsons catching up with Rod Koch (the other Rod). Rod, along with Jeff is a past Sunfish champion. Rod raced a modified Europe back around the 2010 time frame.

Joe Bousquet holding a slim lead over Jeff Linton at the reach mark.

Mark Saunders in his Gen 1 Europe holding off the faster Gen II Mistrals of Mike Parsons and Joe Bousquet.

Header Photo: Start at the 2017 Classic Moth Midwinters

The previous header photos was of one of the starts at the 2017 Classic Moth Midwinters, held at Gulfport, Florida over the weekend of February 25 and 26. Reports back from the attendees was of warm, sunny weather, with light to moderate breezes. Our perennial champion, Jeff Linton from Davis Island Y.C., made one of his occasional appearances to win the Gen II division and the regatta overall. The Gen I division was entirely a fiberglass Europe Dinghy division and was won by Frickie Martschink from Charleston.

George Albaugh, over at Mid-Atlantic Musings, attended the regatta and wrote a detailed post with lots of photographs.

I've lifted a couple of photos from George's blog to repost here as well as two photos from John Z. Photos with no attribution are either by Len Parker or Amy Smith Linton.

The entrance to Gulfport Y.C on Boca Ciega Bay.

John Zseleczky

What a champion does; execute a perfect port tack on the leeward end of the start line. John Z. to leeward in 111 does the same. Mark Saunders on starboard couldn't quite get to Jeff.

Jeff Linton's downwind form.

Occasionally a Gen 1 Moth will beat a top Gen II Mistral to the weather mark. Here, Fricke Martschink, Gen 1 winner, leads John Z. The Gen II almost always blow by on the first reach.

I was told the Charleston S.C. fleet expropriated this massive trailer from their yacht club to transport four of their Europe Moths to the regatta.

John Zseleczky

Gen I Results

Skipper	Races	Hull Design
Frickie Martschink	3,1,2,1,[4],1,1,1,4,1,1	Europe
George Albaugh	1,2,5,5,[8],4,4,3,3,5,2	Europe
Woody Kapp	DNF,5,1,2,1,6,6,4,[OCS],2,3	Europe
Tom Kapp	4,[8],4,7,6,5,5,5,1,3,4	Europe
Rutlege Young	6,7,7,3,5,3,[DNF],2,2,4,5	Europe
Lewis Hay	2,3,3,4,3,2,2,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Europe
Randell Stoney	5,6,6,6,7,7,3,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Europe
Greg Duncan	7,4,8,8,2,8,7,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Europe

Gen II Results

Skipper	Races	Hull Design
Jeff Linton	1,2,1,1,1,2,1,1,[3],3,1	Mod Mistral - Mousetrap
John Zseleczky	[4],3,3,4,4,3,3,2,1,2,2	Mod Mistral - Y2K Bug
Mark Saunders	2,1,2,2,2,1,2,[DNF],DNC,DNC,DNC	Standard Mistral
Mike Parsons	3,[4],4,3,3,4,4,3,2,1,3	Standard Mistral
Erik Albaugh	[5],5,5,5,5,5,4,4,4,4	Mod Mistral - Savannah

Header Photo: Europe Dinghy Start and Europe Re-Decking

The previous header photo was a start for the World's most popular Classic Moth, the one-design and ex-Olympic class, the Europe Dinghy. The Europe Dinghy remains a very popular singlehander in Europe, attracting the lightweight skippers that normally would fit into the Laser Radial class in North America.

Here in the U.S. many of the Europe Dinghy's have been snapped up by our Classic Moth crowd where they are a potent competitor at the Gen I level. (even though several of our older Mothists are sailing their Europes above "racing weight"). The Charleston, South Carolina Classic Moth fleet made a push last year and restocked their fleet almost exclusively with Europe Dinghy's.

As to be expected, the boat building contingent in the Classic Moth class can't leave the standard Europe Dinghy alone. (Part of the incentive to change things up is to lighten the package, as the Europe Dinghy class weight, 45 kg, is about 8 kg heavy within the Classic Moth class rules.) Last year Bill Boyle launched his stripper Europe he built from scratch. Two builders have gone the easier route and redecked older glass Europe's in wood. Mark Saunders redecked a Europe Dinghy three years ago which was written up by George A. in his blog.

Scott Sandell from the Sag Harbor fleet, redecked a Europe Dinghy a couple of years ago and sends along this report and some photos.

"My boat [Europe] is a Winner from 1989 or so, and had a soft deck (the tanks on these boats get soft over time). One of our guys tried to repair it by slapping on layers of glass, but it just made it worse (and heavy), so on a whim, and outside in a snow storm I hit it with a saber saw. Remarkably satisfying and almost cathartic! I cleaned the whole thing out while I waited for the ply to arrive. However, there wasn’t much time before the season was supposed to start and although I wanted to order ply from Boulter in Boston, Noah’s, or CLC, I went with a local company who delivered (at twice the price. . . dumb). When the truck came I realized they’d brought 4 mm instead of 3 mm, and I almost sent it back but I didn’t have much time and figured “how much heavier can it be?” The downside was that while I’ve always been able to cut the 3 mil with an x-acto knife, I needed a power saw to cut the 4 mil.

"And, of course, the boat was heavier than I wanted.

"Once I realized how far off my game plan I was I decided to make light of it and created “the gentleman’s Europe” complete with floor boards. I even designed a cupholder that accommodates a Reidel Bordeaux glass, and I painted the hull pink and made a red sail. Just for fun.

The interior bits glued together before the deck goes on.

I didn't realize the fore and aft length of the original mast box (at least in the production Winner's from this era).

U.S Classic Mothists like to use the tub cockpit configuration. Scott Sandell follows the trend here. With a tub cockpit there is less water sloshing around.

Finished deck. A wood deck certainly adds some class to a stock Europe.

Double Elephant, with her pink hull and red sail, can't be missed on the water! Scott went with the simpler aluminum stayed rig instead of the normal unstayed carbon rig.

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Don't forget the beautiful cold-molded 1970's Europe Dinghy's from European builders like Roland, Cristalli, and Galetti. Ed Salva owns this Roland which is a glass shell with a Christalli wood deck.

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And more woodie Europe Dinghy's.

Header Photo: Classic Moth Midwinters (2016)

The previous header photo was of 2015 Classic Moth Midwinters champ, Mark Saunders, running downwind in his Mistral. This makes a nice lead-in to a quick report of the 2016 Classic Moth Midwinters this past February.

The Midwinters, hosted as usual by Gulfport Y.C. in St. Petersburg, Florida, was sailed in lightish airs for the most part, and past multiple National Champ, Jeff Linton returned after a layoff to take the title; though both Mark Saunders and Ethan Bixby pushed Jeff hard on Saturday. Frickie Martschink won in Gen 1 in a fleet that comprised mostly of Europe Dinghies. The Charleston South Carolina Classic Moth fleet traveled en-masse to the regatta, having recently restocked with several Europe Dinghies they obtained in a fire sale from the Sag Harbor Dinghy fleet.

The results:

Skipper	Races	Hull Design
Jeff Linton	2,[4],1,2,1,1,1	Mousetrap
Ethan Bixby	1,1,3,3,[DNS],2,3	Mousetrap
Mark Saunders	3,3,2,1,2,[4],4	Mistral
Frickie Martschink	5,5,4,5,4,[7],6	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Lewis Hay	8,6,5,4,3,[10],5	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Mike Parsons	4,2,[DNS],DNS,DNS,3,2	Mistral
Rutledge Young	[10],9,6,6,5,6,8	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
George Albaugh	6,7,9,[10],8,5,7	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Jack Clark	7,8,7,8,7,[9],9	Round-bilge Lindenberg (Gen 1)
Tom Kapp	9,[10],8,7,6,8,10	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Woody Kapp	11,11,[DNF],9,9,11,11	Shelley Mk1 (Gen 1)

Some photos from Amy Linton:

A trio of Gen I Moths making their way upwind. From left to right; Jack Clark in no. 82 a beautiful wooden Lindenberg, Frickie Martschink in no. 4067, a stock Europe Dinghy and no. 144, Lewis Hay in another Europe Dinghy.

Amy S. Linton

Most of the Gen 1 fleet with their skippers folded inside their boats as they slowly make their way around the leeward mark. George A. creator of the Mid-Atlantic Musings blog in the lead.

Amy S. Linton

George A. again, sporting his signature "cycling" cap.

Amy S. Linton

Mark Saunders finished a close 3rd in the Gen II division with his Mistral.

Amy S. Linton

Gen 1 winner, Frickie Martschink approaching the reaching mark.

Amy S. Linton

A start on Saturday. North Sails small boat guru, Ethan Bixby borrowed no. 103, a Mousetrap Mistral, to finish second. Just to windward is Mike Parsons in his Mistral who finished fourth in the Gen II class.

Amy S. Linton

A panoramic shot of the same Saturday start.

Amy S. Linton

George Albaugh has a comprehensive report on the Midwinters, with more photos, over at his blog.

Header Photo: Classic Moth Midwinters and Report from 2015

The previous header photo was of the 2011 Classic Moth Midwinters, held at Gulfport Y.C Florida, the last one I attended.

The 2015 Midwinters were held again at Gulfport Y.C, over the crossover February/March weekend. Ten Classic's attended but unfortunately, this year, no-one from the Florida fleet raced. Saturday's racing was called off with the threat of thunderstorms but Sunday offered up warm temperatures and a pleasant racing breeze. Mark Saunders arrived with a makeover on his venerable Mistral; he added a "Linton rocking" rig and a new North sail to secure victory in Gen II class. The three Mistal's finished at the top of the heap in Gen II with a Skol, a Duflos, and a modified, Lane Reeves Mistral following. In the Gen I class, long time class stalwart, George Albaugh in his Olympic Europe, finished comfortably ahead of three other Olympic Europe dinghies.

Much thanks to Amy Linton, who bore the brunt of the organizing this excellent regatta.

A mix of photos from Amy Linton and John Zseleczky.

One of the starts. #79 is Mike Parsons in his Mistral. #2721 is Frickie Martschink in his Skol, and #4067 is Lewis Hayes, hugging the RC boat.

Erik Albaugh in his Lane Reeves, mod-Mistral. Lane Reeves, when he bent up this Mistral, ended up with a finer bow and a flat transom.

Frickie Martschink - he of the post Lunch of Champions - had good speed in his Skol.

Winner of the Gen II class, Mark Saunders in his Mistral.

Famous designer, Charlie Morgan showed up to look at the fleet. It appears he cut his teeth on the Moth when he was a "youngin". Here is talking to Tom Price of the Chesapeake fleet. Charlie's son is standing next to Charlie.

Two of the four Classic Moths from the Chesapeake fleet who attended. On the left is John Z's Mistral (he finished 2nd in Gen II) and on the right is Tom Price's Duflos.

Rod Koch, George Albaugh and Erik Albaugh debate one of the finer design points of the Lane Reeves mod-Mistral. George and Erik made up the other portion of the Chesapeake contingent.

Click here for other posts on the Classic Moth Midwinters.

Classic Moth Nationals 2014

I didn't make it to the Classic Moth Nationals this year. That weekend I was floating around Annapolis Harbor on a Herreshoff Rozinante. John Z sent along some photos of the event so, in keeping with the dictum of the bloggosphere... when you have material, write about it (even when you were nowhere near the action).

Saturday was breezy, blowing across the Elizabeth City River, as it is a majority of the time (though a little eastward this year). Sunday was lighter and flukier with about the same direction.

This is the 25th Nationals since the revival of the Classic Moth and, to mark this milestone, the National Champion was to come from the Vintage Division (those who are racing hulls built before 1950 - there was five in number this year). Walt Collins overcame boat problems on Saturday and in deftly deciphering Sunday's shifts, came from behind to finish 1st in Vintage and take the National Trophy. Gary Gowans, sailing his homebuilt and slightly modified Cates design Good Newz, won the Gen 1 division over an Olympic Europe and Jamey Rabbit borrowed Jeff Linton's Mousetrap to run away with the Gen II trophy. (Jamey was a young hot-shot Mothist when I first showed up on the Classic scene but has been absent for about ten years... it's good to see him back in a Classic Moth.)

George A. over at Mid-Atlantic Musings actually attended the regatta and has written an extensive report complete with a large selection of  excellent photos from Hope Malott, I recommend you read his post; click here.

Some photos. Most are from John Z with the exceptions noted. As always, to get higher resolution, click inside the photo.

Below is Gary Gowan's Cates design, winner of Gen I division, sitting on the Pugh's lawn. As far as I know, this is the first time a Cates has won Gen I; the Cates being the most successful Moth design in the U.S in the early to mid 1960's. (Oops! got that one wrong. George A. sends along this correction... this is history before my time in the class.)

"Mike Albert won the Nats in 1997 sailing the ex-Bill Schill Cates, Pegasus, over Joe Bousquet's Mistral (Joe failed to attend the skipper's meeting and was dsq'ed for passing through the start/finish line on a critical race. This faux pas cost Joe B. the regatta). This was before we had the Gen I and II divisions and shows that a Cates in the right hands could be competitive against the best boats of that era. Jeff Linton also was able to almost beat Mark Saunders and co. the first time he raced a Moth down at St. Pete, sailing an old beat up Fletcher-Cates he borrowed from Ken Willus."

Gary Gowan's two Mothboat trailer rig ready for the homebound trip. His pretty Gen I winner is on top with a winter project Vintage hull on the bottom.

Jamey Rabbit is at least ten years older from the last time he appeared at the Nationals but he hasn't lost the magic sailing touch of his youth. He had six 1st place finishes out of eight races.

A Hope Malott photo of Jamey rounding a leeward mark. Concentration plus plaid sailing shorts. Now that's stylin!

Another Hope Malott photo. This is fellow Marylander Victor Stango launching from the Pugh's property for Saturdays racing. Victor has a wider Gen I Lindenberg design.

The Classic Moths are all about diversity. From left to right, a Vintage Ventnor with a wood mast (all Vintage Mothboats have to sail with a wooden mast), a Gen I Lindenberg, and a Gen I Olympic Europe.

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The Results of the 2014 Classic Moth Nationals.

The Gen II winner is marked with yellow, the Gen I winner is marked with green, the Vintage and National Champion is marked with orange.

Skipper	Races	Hull Design
Jamey Rabbit	1,1,1,1,2,1,1,[2]	Mousetrap
Mike Parsons	[4],3,4,4,1,3,3,1	Mistral
John Zseleczky	3,[4],3,3,3,2,2,3	Collins-Mistral
Gary Gowans	5,5,5,[6],5,4,4,4	Gowans-Cates (Gen 1)
John Pugh	6,[10],8,9,4,6,7,7	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Victor Stango	7,7,7,[12],6,8,6,6	Lindenberg (Gen 1)
Rutledge Young	[DNF],6,6,5,9,5,5,12	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Joe Bousquet	2,2,2,2,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Mistral
Walt Collins	8,8,[DNC],DNC,7,9,8,9	Dorr Willey (Vintage)
Greg Duncan	11,[12],11,7,8,11,9,11	Connecticut (Vintage)
George Albaugh	9,11,9,11,10,[12],12,10	Connecticut (Vintage)
Ed Salva	13,[15],12,8,12,10,11,8	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Zach Balluzzo	10,9,10,10,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Maser (Gen 1)
Dan Mallott	14,DNF,[DNC],DNC,13,13,14,13	Shelley (Gen 1)
Don January	15,[DNF],DNC,DNC,DNC,14,13,14	Ventnor (Vintage)
Bill Boyle	12,12,[DNF],DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC	Abbot (Vintage)

Classic Moth Nationals 2013 - Pre-Regatta Look

The 2013 running of the Circle M-boats at E-City is scheduled for this coming weekend, Sept 21, 22. It's been two years since I attended and this year I'm going as the PRO (Principal Race Officer) as I'm recovering from some hernia surgery. To get the pre-regatta hype going I've decided to drag two videos from previous nationals out of the Earwigoagin archives and re-post them.

From the first beat of the first race of the 2010 Nationals, Rebecca Dudzinsky gets her Europe dinghy up to the weather mark ahead of all the big names (well one big name - Jeff Linton and some smaller names like Rod Koch, Mike Parsons, Joe Bousquet, and Mark Saunders). She wasn't able to hold off the Mistrals for the regatta, finishing fourth, a good result for the Europe dinghy.



I don't think there is any class in the world that allows such a wide conglomeration of hulls to race together, designs from the 40's, 50's and 60's plus our modern interpretations, plus a wide variety of skippers. I guess you would say we are the polar opposite compared to the strict one-designs of the Sunfish or Laser.  From some on-shore photos at the 2008 Nationals:

The models of Bob

I mentioned somewhere back in Earwigoagin that my temporary job as a sailmaker for the Naval Academy went away in July. In the midst of being a somewhat older gent looking for a job in a down economy, my friend Bob Blomquist mentioned he needed someone to drive his extra vehicle down to Sarasota Florida, as he had taken the plunge and retired full time to Florida. Bob is the boatbuilder, Chesapeake 20 sailor, and the sailor I camped out with at the Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

The car delivery was, more or less, a hammer down dash to Florida (with a break at Charlestown SC with Mothist Mark Saunders) and a quick turnaround flight back, but I did get to stay overnight at Bob's new digs. Being a Florida dwelling, Bob's new home is more airy and light filled than his previous house in Baltimore and I got an opportunity to take some pics of the large sailing models Bob has scattered about his living room.

First is the modified Bolger Chebacco daysailor/cruiser that Bob intends to build. (I'm not sure when, as Bob has immediately become a partner in an E-scow and has joined the local Sarasota fleet of hand me down E-scows that race every Wednesday during the Florida winter season.)

Bob's previous racing class was the traditional Chesapeake 20 class out of West River Sailing Club, situated about 18 miles south of Annapolis MD. Bob built his own Chesapeake 20 but, before commencing construction, he did a study model to work out the decking details. The undecked Chesapeake 20 model is shown below. Above the model is a photo of a Whitehall skiff that Bob and Mark Hasslinger built in the early to mid 1980's.

And finally the most mesmerizing one of the lot; a Crotch Island Pinky. Bob didn't build this one. His Chesapeake 20 crew, Jim Reuter found this model in the attic of a house he had just purchased. It was stored next to Howard Chapelle's book "American Small Sailing Craft". The scribbles and calculations of this unknown model maker filled the page where Chapelle documented the Crotch Island Pinky hull shape. Bob added the mast, sails and stand to the still roughly finished hull.

What an absolutely stunning, curvaceous hull this Crotch Island Pinky has. I love all manners and shapes of sailboats but this model arrests my attention anytime I'm in the same room.