Two different scows at the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta: Rainbow and A-12

While I'm on a scow kick, mention must be made of two different scow designs that competed in the Australian ICWDR out of the South Gippsland Y.C. One of the kingpins of the Classic Wooden Dinghy event, Andrew Chapman and family, had two restored Rainbows in the regatta. (Correction: Andrew did the restoration of one "Annie", his son-in-law, Jonathan, a fine craftsman in his own right - music instruments - did the restoration of the other one, "Moonraker".) The Rainbow is an Australian 3.65 meter design that was popular as a junior trainer in South Australia in the 1960's. Andrew sailed one Rainbow with his grand-daughter and, his daughter Trilby, sailed the second one with Andrew's other grand-daughter. I asked Andrew what he thought of the Rainbow scow as a parent/kid sailing dinghy and he was enthusiastic.

"The Rainbow is lovely small boat to sail. It is very forgiving and a lot faster than a Mirror and Heron without using the trapeze and/or large spinnaker. I think it is an ideal boat for an adult and young kid or young teenagers. Trilby and I sailed with each of her two daughters and we plan to introduce them to using a trapeze on a beat and then the trapeze with spinnaker on reaches. We are also putting them on the helm and they enjoy sailing the quicker boat and they are not overwhelmed by the boats size. When they are comfortable using the trapeze and spinnaker trapeze combination the next stage will be the Gwen 12 then Cherub. I think the Rainbow is a very good small boat and it is one that is very easy for home builders to make.

Andrew Chapman and grand-daughter in "Annie".

Trilby and daughter in "Moonraker"

Three very different Australian scows in one shot. Trilby with the Rainbow on the beach, a modern carbon foiling Moth scow, and, in the background, a Classic wingless Moth scow.

Plans for the Rainbow scow can be found here.

---

The A-12 scow was Frank Bethwaite's follow-on to his Northbridge Junior scow. Designed to be a higher performance dinghy, the A-12 was longer, 12 feet or 3.65 meters, sported Frank's signature rotating mast and had a trapeze. Neil Kennedy from Nedslocker dug out a November, 1970 issue of the Australian Modern Boating which featured the class when newly introduced. Some photos from that article:

An A-12 scow has shown up at the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta for the last two years but, as Andrew Chapman writes, in the beginning no-one knew what type of scow it was.

"At the first regatta Andrew Kean sailed the boat as a Moth, with two tone blue sails, because that what it was sold to him as. He did wonder why someone had put a trapeze fitting on the mast. Apparently he never thought to measure the length. He sailed it again in the most recent regatta as an A12 with blue and white sails with a different rig.

From the photos it looks like Andrew was able to find a genuine Bethwaite rotating rig and A-12 sail.

The A-12 with the original Moth rig; a blue sail, wooden spars.

The A-12 on the Inverloch beach next to an Australian Sailfish.

For the 2018 regatta, Andrew was able to plug in the correct rig; aluminum rotating mast with a very big sail.

I'm not sure any plans exist for the A-12. None have come forward yet.

---

George McGee adds more info on the A12. (From a comment I dragged to the main body.)

"I raced an A12 at Northbridge sailing club in the mid seventies. My boat came from Starbord Products with 2 rigs. The first rig was the 85 sq foot two tone blue sail with the over-rotating wooden mast. The second rig was a 65 sq foot two tone sail with a shorter wooden mast. (Not sure of the 65sq foot size). When the smaller rig was used the boat was classed a J12 rather than A12. NSC had a number of A12s and J12s competing on Sundays in the mid seventies.I spent many a happy afternoon on the A12 redefining the term "screaming reach"

.

Drift Media covers Moth History talk by Aussie Ian Ward

 ICWDR

The good folks over at Drift Media put together a Moth History video, combining a talk by Ian Ward at the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta dinner with a compilation of Moth shots (both classic and foiling) taken during the 2018 regatta weekend. Ian Ward was a top scow designer in the 1970's and 1980's as well as a top helm in his own right (Australian National Champion as well as top placings in World Championships). Ian was also the first one to put centerline foils on a Moth in 1998. In this video he can be seen sailing his foiling scow.



ICWDR_2018_MOTH from drift media on Vimeo.

The Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta was hosted, as usual, by the South Gippsland Y.C.

Moth 90th Anniversary: 2018 Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

The Australian Moth will be the featured class at this year's Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta hosted by the South Gippsland Yacht Club. 2018 marks the 90th anniversary of Len Morris introducing his Inverloch 11' scow.  Several years later Len would change the name and logo of his scow when he came across the Rudder article on the Crosby Skimmer Moth. Len's scow became the first of the development Australian Moth class. (The Australian Moth class - actually Antipodean Moth class as New Zealand also had an active class organization - would feature a taller, high aspect rig compared to the U.S. and European Moth and would be mostly scow designs - the two different Moth rules would amalgamate into an International Rule Moth in 1969 .)

The South Gippsland Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta is over the Australia Day Weekend (Jan 26 - 28). As a kid I was always salivating over the hot-rod Australian plywood dinghies of the 1960's and I always look forward eagerly to see what sailing dinghy restorations and replications the Aussies have unearthed, to be displayed and sailed on the Inverloch Inlet on Australia Day Weekend.

My report on the scow Moths in the 2016 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta.

Earwigoagin reports on the South Gippsland Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta.

Drift Media has put together a Moth video preview for the 2018 Regatta



Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta 2018- 90 years of the Moth from drift media on Vimeo.

Ian Oughtred on Building a Gwen 12

Famous classic boat designer, Ian Oughtred, got his start in the sporty Australian Gwen 12, a single trapeze, DIY plywood, double hander. He was class champion sometime in the 1960's. Andrew Chapman has been feeding me some Gwen 12 material including this article by Ian Oughtred on building the Gwen 12. This looks to be from Seacraft issue of boat plans.

The Gwen 12 was designed by Australian Charlie Cunningham in 1948 as one of the first stressed ply dinghies. Like most Australian designed plywood dinghies, the Gwen 12 was extremely popular in the 1950's, 60's,  and 70's but died out in the 1980's. Below is the cover of the May 1958 Seacraft issue with what almost looks like a colored post card of the Gwen 12.

Here is the article by Ian in PDF format. Click here for 1971 plans for a double-bottom version of the Gwen 12.



Two restored Gwen 12's showed up at the South Gippsland Y.C. Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta in 2017.

2017 Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta - More Photos

ICWDR

I covered the Australian Sailfish class at the Inverloch 2017 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta and this is the second post of that regatta to cover some of the other vintage dinghy classes that made an appearance. Attendance was close to fifty dinghies which was a record for this, still young, event. Many of these dinghies were also featured in photos from previous Classic Wooden Dinghy Regattas.

A nice shot of the Classic dinghies on the beach. A scow Moth and and yellow-sailed Impulse are in the foreground. The blue and white sail is an Australian Sailfish.

Tim Wilson

Another beach shot with the Mirror dinghies and their distinctive red sails to the fore.

Tim Wilson

Australian scow Moth number 3130 is a Cole mouldie (wingless) design from the 1960's. This scow was painstakingly restored by Phil Johnson who had to reglue many of the veneers.

David French

This is an Aquanaut class dinghy sailed by Graeme Cox. The dinghy is around the Mirror length, 10 feet, main and jib sporting a single-chine, plywood shape. (I think it was designed for stitch and glue.) Earwigoagin has posted about an aluminium Aquanuat. I'll see if I can find out more about this design.

Tim Wilson

The Gwen 12 was a 12-foot single-trapeze design by Charles Cunningham. The class had large fleets in Australia up to about 1980 and the boat was known to be a heavy-air flyer. Two restored Gwen 12's showed up at Inverloch. (I think Earwigoagin correspondent, Andrew Chapman, is in number 2555.)

The beautiful cold-molded Aussie 16-foot skiff. Owned by Frank Raisin, this skiff was professionally refurbished.

Tim Wilson

This looks to be a double-bottom Gwen 12 (yet to be confirmed).

Another winged Aussie scow Moth.

Tim Wilson

Two of the larger three-man vintage dinghies crossing tacks; the cold-molded Aussie 16-foot skiff and the chined Olympic 12m² Sharpie.

At the end of the racing, the dinghies transition from the beach to the "glade", a grassy area where spectators can look without getting their sandals gritty and the judges peruse for "Concours de elegance" awards.

Tim Wilson

The Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta is hosted by the South Gippsland Y.C.

Australian Sailfish at the Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

ICWDR

Eleven Australian Sailfish made the trip to South Gippsland Y.C.'s 2017 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta (Australia Day weekend, January 25-28). This was an astounding number given that class stalwarts from the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's didn't start organizing until six months before the Inverloch regatta. As to be expected, this gathering of Australian Sailfish skippers was a reunion of primarily grey-beards. It will be interesting to see if the class can harness this new-found energy into some new builds and some younger skippers. It would be great to see the class translate a reunion into a renaissance of the Australian Sailfish.

Greg Barwick's more detailed report on the weekend from the Australian Sailfish website.

Some photos:

A Sailfish rounding a mark with the wooden International Canoe on the outside.

Mick Green/Drift Media

Chris Cleary (no. 1918), who contributed two Sailfish articles to Earwigoagin, chasing the eventual winner, Steven Floyd (no. 3400) who was the last national champion in 1987.

Hayden Ramsdale

Chris Drury had the newest Sailfish at Inverloch.

Hayden Ramsdale

A beautiful graphic design on the deck of a restored Sailfish. Ian Milton's Apsu.

Greg Barwick

Ian Milton on Apsu focused on punching through a wave.

Hayden Ramsdale

The bow snout of the Australian Sailfish. Chris Drury's Blowed if I Know.

Trilby Parise

A race start. I've seen several sheepish comments from the skippers that starting skills were very, very rusty, hence only three Sailfish in this photo.

Hayden Ramsdale

Four Sailfish skippers were able to reprise a photo-op from the 1970's. Jack Carroll, the Sailfish designer and class founder is second from the left. The Sailfish is Jack Carroll's original, no. 2, Debonair.

Ian Milton

The original photo of the foursome from the 1970's.

Newcastle Morning Herald, Jan 1978

Jack Carroll tweaking on his original Sailfish.

---

Tony Hastings made this video of his race at the Classic Dinghy Regatta on Flotsam, his restored Sailfish. Some rot in the transom allowed the gudgeons to pull away and the rudder to float up, ending his race (starting at 8:44). For those who wonder how you tack these narrow. low boom craft; the tacking sequences are at 1:41, 2:12, 7:00, and 7:41 in this video. Chris Cleary left a comment about Tony's unorthodox tacking technique which I've tacked onto the main post.

"Tony's tacking and gybing technique is very idiosyncratic. He has end-boom sheeting on his boat, which I hadn't seen previously on a Sailfish. That gave him space for his mid-boom belly flop. Effective though - he had his appropriately named relic going like a rocket. We were sailing side-by-side on very thin water in an attempt to avoid the worst of a strong ebb tide when disaster struck for Tony. He's an excellent sailor - a current top 10 Australian Paper Tiger catamaran skipper.

---

• Abbreviated plans for the Australian Sailfish.

Australian Sailfish - Plans for a Sit-On-Top Dinghy

As promised, here are the plans for a sit-on-top sailing dinghy, the Australian Sailfish. The Australian Sailfish is a scow version of the American Sailfish, designed in 1958 by Bruce Scott and Jack Carroll. Designed for home construction, 780 plans of the Australian Sailfish were sold. I've chunked images from the original plans into a PDF file that can be printed out. Unfortunately frame dimensions are given as given as linear dimensions along the plank edges which might make it more difficult to lay out the frame dimensions (instead of plotting X,Y coordinates). There is enough information in the PDF plans for a competent builder, with some head scratching, to complete a hull.

The rig is a stayed marconi with full battens. A carbon windsurfer mast would work fine if one wanted to go hi-tech.

Many thanks to Andrew Chapman for providing the Australian Sailfish plans.

Australian Sailfish No. 2 at the 2016 South Gippsland Y.C. Classic Dinghy Regatta.

A sailing image from the Australian SeaCraft magazine.

To view the PDF plans in another browser tab (or to print the PDF file), go to the top right corner of the PDF window and click on the pop-out icon (box with an arrow pointing to the right).

---

• Click here to see more photos of the Australian Sailfish
• Click here for a primer by Chris Clearly on how to race the Australian Sailfish

---

Scow Moths at South Gippsland Classic Dinghy Regatta

As promised in a previous post, Andrew Chapman sent over a slew of photos taken by Tim Wilson of the 2016 Aussie Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta. Inverloch, where the regatta is held, is the home of the Australian scow Moth (Len Morris with his Olive - 1927) and at this year's regatta there was a good turnout in the scows.

Andrew lists the scow Moths competing;

The Moths are as follows:

1. Phillip Johnson's ‘Frolic’ [was] built in the early 60s.
2. Jim French’s ‘Skeeta’ [is] a 1965 boat. Jim is a fairly famous Moth builder and sailor and is the person who developed the scow on foils.
3. My ‘Blondie’ - about early 60s or could be late 50s. The sail numbers do not necessarily indicate a clear progression in design.
4. Jonathan Parise’s 1970s ‘Red’ is a winged Western Australian boat. A beautiful boat to sail and Jonathan is just learning to sail it and loving every minute.
5. Mark’s [Rimington] Maggie, which you know a bit about.
6. Graham Cooper’s unnamed boat that does not have a sail number. Its design is very similar to ‘Blondie’.
7. Matt Kiely’s ‘Street Fighter’ which is another Western Australian boat. Like ‘Red’ it is very light and quick.

The photos:

Andrew Chapman's Blondie.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Matt Kiely on Street Fighter.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Maggie was a 2015 build of the classic Imperium design and was featured in last year's Earwigoagin post on the Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Scows launching. The Mouldie in the foreground.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

The Mouldie or Peter Cole designed Mouldie. They were built with super-thin veneers and thousands of staples. The restoration of this one entailed regluing a fair amount of the veneer back in place.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

The Mouldie under sail. Look at that snout!

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

The winged Red.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Street Fighter rounding a mark.

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Photo courtesy of Tim Wilson

Mike Scott, the Brit who spent his young adult life in Australia, continues his Down Under saga retelling his time in the Aussie scow Moth (dragged over from the comments section);

"Ah, memories.......after crewing Sharpies on Lake Illawarra, I moved to Sydney to work at Miller and Whitworth's new chandlery and boat store at Rochdale, where we sold the De Havilland Marine built, Alan Payne designed range of fibreglass boats - the 16ft Corsair, 12ft Vagabond, and the 10ft Gypsy. 

During this time I built my first boat from a kit - a Cole scow Moth, with not much more than a Black and Decker drill and a stapler. Loved it - so fast, couldn't believe the acceleration....sailed it on Botany Bay, and at Connels Point Sailing Club just inside the Georges River. Used to get regularly beaten by the 14 yr old kids - Aussie kids in those days were super fit from swimming and surfing.

Header Photo: South Gippsland Y.C. Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

The previous header photo was of  Australian sailing dinghies gathered on the beach for the 2015 South Gippsland Y.C. Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta, ICWDR. In the foreground we can see, from left to right, a Mirror, and two scow Moths. The 2016 Regatta was held this past January but I haven't received a report yet. When I do, hopefully I can post some photos.

Header Photo: Australian NS 14 Down the Mine

The previous header photo was the Australian, two-man, NS 14 dinghy "going down the mine" off of Anderson's Inlet, South Gippsland Yacht Club, Inverloch, Victoria.

The NS 14 is an indigenous Australian development class; a two person hiking, no spinnaker class. It is 4.27 meters (14') long and 1.8 meters (just under 6') wide. Those who have read Frank Bethwaite's High Performance Sailing know that Frank's first forays into dinghy design experimentation were in the NS 14 class and that his successful NS 14 designs were the basis for his one-design Tasar.

The 1960's NS 14 fleet.

Six older NS 14's were imported into the San Diego area around the new millennium and when that effort of fleet building stalled, one or two were brought east, specifically to the West River Sailing Club, with transplanted Aussie, Tony Arends owning one. Sadly I was never around the club when they showed up and missed the chance to take one out for a spin. West River SC already had a fleet of Jet 14's so the NS 14 was again a non-starter in the United States. I'm not sure what happened to the boats.

Some more photos culled from the Internet:

The somewhat smallish 9.3 sq. meter sail plans features the now de rigueur square-top (or nearly a square-top) main. The fleet uses a very deep over-rotating mast for more power.

The NS 14 has the modern, double bottom, full draining interior.

To save weight the reverse sheer profile is very "humpy", aggressively turning down at the stern.

Our impressive duo from the header photo, après pitchpoling.

Header Photo: Sabre Dinghy and the Return of the Retro Singlehanders

The previous header photo is of Aussie Matt Kiely sailing the Australian singlehander Sabre class dinghy. The photo was lifted from the South Gippsland Y.C.Facebook page.

Probably the major trend in dinghy racing over the last 30 or so years has been the growth of singlehanded racing at the expense of doublehanded or triplehanded classes. And the trend since the millenium has been the explosive comeback of  what I call the retro hiking singlehanders; those other singlehanded classes designed before, or around the date of the introduction of the Laser (1969). For the most part, these classes are not international (excepting the OK Dinghy and Europe Dinghy); they are popular country-by-country or region, and they attract fleets of thirty, forty or more boats at major championships. They have a builder or two turning out modern hulls, some have carbon masts, many have aluminum. They seem to fill a need in the marketplace that the Laser does not.

I have compiled a list of retro singlehanders. I have excluded the Olympic Finn - 1949 (which has a huge Masters scene) and singlehanders with hiking assists (trapeze, sliding seat). Feel free to add your thoughts about this list in the comments section. (Before the Sunfish sailors jump all over me for excluding the Sunfish from the list - let me state the Sunfish has maintained high levels of popularity in parts of North America and parts of South America for many, many years - I don't see a comeback in popularity - they just maintained it.):

• Solo (U.K.) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• OK Dinghy (Den.) - 1957 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Streaker (U,K.) - 1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Phantom (U.K.) - 1971 - carbon mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Lightning 368 (U.K.) - 1977 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Sabre (Aus.) - 1974 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• Impulse (Aus.) -1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• O-Jolle (Ger.) - 1933 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Larken-Klasse (Ned.,Ger.) - 1920's - wood mast, stayed rig, full battens 
• Europe Dinghy (Moth) - 1960 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Zephyr (NZ) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed, full battens

Despite the recent introduction of the "modern" RS Aero, or Devoti D-Zero, with lightweight hulls, mylar sails (correction - the Aero has dacron sails), carbon rigs, it seems the singlehanded market is marching in the other direction. (I must admit the North American market is an anomaly here with not a lot of singlehanded classes under the Laser - still king by a long-shot-, and the Sunfish - a solid runner-up, The other singlehanded classes in North America - like my Classic Moth - are mustering small numbers...Oops! I forgot about the MC scow, now very popular in the U.S.)