Music Whenever: Edward Sharpe, Magnetic Zeros, "Man on Fire"

I haven't put up a music video in a while. Hippie, stoner, Edward Sharpe and his musical troupe, the Magnetic Zeros, they, who keep the Woodstock vibe going in the new millennium, put this great video up to their song, "Man on Fire".

• Edward Sharpe, Magnetic Zeros, Home

Seen at the 2018 Sailboat Show: the Minicat Guppy

Given the millennial's desire to store things in their apartments (see this post, Whither the Millennials), the models of inflatable sailboats continues to expand. (I previously wrote about the Tiwal inflatable sailing dinghy from the 2016 Sailboat Show.) At this year's show it was the small Minicat Guppy catamaran, a 3 meter inflatable that continues to expand the market selection for knock-down small boats. I took two photos but didn't hang around to talk to the salesman so I didn't get an idea on U.S.A. pricing. (More info at the above link.)

I've dragged this comment from Nail Sadykov to the main post. Nail says the Russian and Ukraine sailors have been designing inflatable sailboats for a while and the technology is advanced.

"English language link, with several different models; From Boatdesign.net. And from a Russian forum. New Ukrainian boat. Possibly, next year in Everglades challenge or R2AK race. In ex-USSR existed a long tradition of inflatable, demountable boats, suitable for transportation by passenger train or other public transport."

This year I did come across a rather forlorn, inflatable SUP, somewhat deflated, on a car roof rack. My guess is this particular boat owner assembled the SUP early in the summer, strapped it on his car for the duration of the summer months, and hit it with some air pressure when he wanted to use it.

• Seen at the 2018 Sailboat Show: the UFO.
• Seen at the 2016 Sailboat Show: the X-Cat

Europe Dinghy: 2018 Europeans

Every once-in-a-while I throw some love out at our most popular Classic Moth, the Europe Dinghy. Not quite fifteen years after losing Olympic standing, the Europe Dinghy remains a popular singlehander in Europe. The following video is some good hi-speed action from Race 2 of the 2018 European Championship on Lake Garda.



And the Race 3 video has more slo-mo and close-in shots of competitors.



Although you won't see any at a major championship, there are some very beautiful wooden Europe Dinghies. And Classic Moth plans over here.

Seen at the 2018 Sailboat Show: the UFO

I've already posted about the UFO, the Clark design, short LWL catamaran entry into the foiling market. At this years Annapolis Sailboat Show, I was able to look at the UFO on the stand with the rig up and also watch it sail out of the harbor (they were giving demo rides at the show). Unfortunately, in my short time at the Sailboat Show, I only was able to see the UFO sailing in lowrider mode. According to Dave Clark they have now produced 200 UFO's and shipped all over the world.

Lowrider Mode. The bowsprit holds the wand which automatically controls ride height.

This is a big rig on a short hull, but, then again, the hull is not in the equation when foiling.

Modern fat-head, clear mylar mainsail.

A brilliant solution to constructing the wishbone boom. The front end is attached to the outboard end of the jumpers on the mast. You can use straight tubing and still get the wishbone away from the sail and the wishbone also adds leverage to get the mast to rotate in-line with the sail.

Another shot of the end of the wishbone attached to the jumpers.

Bertrand Warion's Swiss Moth: A Dunand Variant?

Moth Classique

The Classic Moth crowd here in the U.S is all abuzz about Swiss Moths, particularly the Swiss Dunand design of the early 1960's, as this design, in the hands of Joe Bousquet, just won the U.S. Nationals, breaking an almost 20 year string of wins by the Mistral design. This post isn't about Bosquet's Swiss Dunand design (more about that in a later post), but rather about the fiberglass Swiss Moth which Bertrand Warion sailed at the French Moth gathering this past September. It seems to be another design variant which is always intriguing to a Classic Moth design geek like me. But a variant on what?

When I first looked at a photo of this Moth taken from above I thought, looking at the decks (which Bertrand installed), early Europe Dinghy (Europa) but when Bertrand sent more photos it is obvious this design is from the deep-V family, i.e. the Duflos or Mistral. Bertrand clarified in a follow-up email that it is a round-bilged variant on the Swiss Dunand design. However Bertrand's Dunand looks very much smaller than the American one that Joe Bousquet has just refurbished; Bertrand's looks almost like it was squished to fit into a Europe Dinghy deck mold.

In this photo you can see in the reflections how the topsides fold up in a soft chine from the midships aft. The original Dunand design has a topside chine in approximately the same area.

Bertrand's Moth has the shallow-V transom of the Dunand.

The rocker line looks very similar to a Mistral.

Bertrand finished the shell with his own decking in wood. The side tanks look tiny which is the old-style look. This definitely makes a commodious cockpit at the expense of more water sloshing about in a seaway.

Had to add this shot of Bertand's Dunand with the Cruising Moth in the background. Looks like raising the anchor can be somewhat precarious on the Cruising Moth

Do you know your way to Pondicherry?

This is somewhat old news. I received an email back in May from Filio Shiavina that a group in Pondicherry (south-east corner of India) were building eight Y2K Mistral Classic Moths. We received a photo of the first one being spray painted. Lionel Mallard and son Nat, who own the Ultramarine boatyard are supporting the Moth building effort and I assume the following photo was from their shop. Since then no further news/pics have surfaced.

Update, October 26, 2018: Joe Bousquet, who is on Instagram, came across several photos of the launch of one of the Pondicherry Mistrals, sans rudder. Seems like 15 year old Siam Mallard couldn't wait to build a rudder and launched his Moth with just a paddle for steering. The last photo had him a fair distance from the launching site. Oh, the courage of youth.
 

Filio has been working on a 3D modeling of this mod Mistral. He noted one discrepancy in the offsets given in the post. We await some pretty 3D pictures of his work.

For those who like their geography, here is the Google Map for Pondicherry (officially Puducherry in India).

Header Photo: Three Moths from the Sucé-sur-Erdre Get-together

Moth Classique

The previous header photo featured three Classic Moths from the 2018 French get-together on the River Erdre, just above the city of Nantes. From the left, David Balkwill sailing a 1940's Nantais Moth, Jean-Yves, sailing his homebuilt Moth (built when he was 12; I'm guessing the 1960's), and on the right is Jean-Jacques Cadoret in the 1960's cruising Moth, Moth Béarnais de Camping.