For December 31, we have a northerly gale howling. The Severn River below the Route 50 bridge is a mass of white horses. Temperatures tonight will dive to 20F (-6 C). Ah .... but in the Southern Hemisphere, it is summer.
A real short video of Europe dinghy sailing (11 seconds) taken in Napier, New Zealand, on the West of the North Island. Sparkling waves, puffy clouds, 15 knots of wind. To the sailing of 2008 and to the sailing to come in 2009.
As I said before, if you magically dropped me on an Open 60 in the Southern latitudes, I would be desperately making a beeline to the nearest spot of dry land before I went bonkers. In these two videos, you get a good feel for life down below on these racing machines as they reach along toward Cape Horn. The banging, the crashing, the shaking..... how can anyone get any sleep?
In the first video, our eternally upbeat Sam Davies, is celebrating Christmas with, what looks like a brewski, and some jam and toast. Not too easy to get down the hatch as the boat lurches about;
Was it a bird? .... No....In the second video, friends of Dee Caffari have chartered a light plane and rendezvoused overhead to take pictures while she passes south of New Zealand. Dee's happiness is palpable at even this minor brush with civilization. What she doesn't mention is that she has a mainsail that needs an on-boom repair, that is when the conditions moderate so she can safely hang out there! And the slamming, bashing noise and the shocks reverberating through ones bones goes on and on and on...........
Again, thanks to Yachtpals for putting these videos up on YouTube.
Meanwhile Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux continues to pour it on at the front, seemingly impervious to the breakdowns that have frustrated his pursuers.
I've had an IPOD for close to three years but never used it because all I had for listening was the stupid little earpiece. This Christmas I got an IPOD dock as well as an under cabinet radio with an audio input that I can plug the IPOD into. WOW! Put it into Shuffle mode and who knows what song will pop up next. Forget about Playlists .... I like surprises.
I found one other benefit. Tired of picking up after your grown up kids when they're home for Christmas? Put your IPOD on Shuffle mode, turn the volume up and watch your kids melt away. Must be something about bluegrass, followed by opera, followed by zydeco, followed by early period instrument waltzes, followed by "Arthur Loves Plastic".............
The International Moth originally had a Circle M class insignia. In the late 1960's, when the International Moth class merged with the Australian Moth, the class adopted; the tall fully battened rig , 7' beam and the Australian Moth class insignia, affectionately known in Classic Moth circles as the "Squashed Bug" symbol. The Classic Moth, when it was resurrected in the early 1990's retained the Circle M insignia but there was another class that had been using the Circle M since it's inception in the 1930's. This is the British Moth.
The British Moth's ancestor is the American Moth, which was popular across America in the 1930's, almost 1500 moths were registered with the American Moth Boat Association. Based on this, Sydney Cheverton designed a boat more suited to British waters.
The length of 11 ft. was retained, with the scow bow and hard chine construction. The mast was increased to 20 ft. carrying a sail of much higher aspect ratio but smaller overall area (75 sq ft. to 63.5). The small cockpit with wide side decks was retained to permit "dry" capsizing.
The British Moth, as the name indicates, is solely a British class. It remains the most popular Circle M Moth with consistent 30's attendance at their national championships.
Here is a Youtube on the British Moth which popped up recently. You have to overlook the sound track which seems to have been stolen from some kiddies TV show, but the sailing looks good.
Woodenboat magazine puts out a Small Boat issue every year. It is a smorgasbord of small boat disciplines; kayak, open decked dayboats, sailing canoes, skiffs, wherry's, dory's, catboat's, mini hydroplanes ...... and etc. etc. For a boat nut, it's a must read.
John Summers has put together a stitch and glue 16X30 sailing canoe. I've seen the plans and they are comprehensive. The 16X30 Gilbert sailing canoe is not for everybody, but if you want a challenge of sailing a sliding seat canoe (not as athletic as the International Canoe) this is the one to build.
I sailed against Ben Fuller in International Canoe's in the 1980's, and in the 2009 magazine; he has his "Rai Tan" lug sailed open camp cruiser featured. An Antonia Dias design, it looks to be very competent either under oar or sail.
My kid's and my niece, who were home for the holidays, said the feature they most liked about the blog was the "Music for Fridays" (They are not sailors). For Chris, Robyn, Lauren, and Miss Marlee, here is my favorite modern troubadour, Randy Newman. with a warm weather classic "I Love LA"
"We're going to ride it until we just can't ride it no more"
Steve Clark asked me to go through some of my archival material on the Suicide Class. The Suicide Class is one of two development dinghy classes to originate in the U.S (the other is the Moth class). The Suicide was a sail area class; limit of 125 sq. ft. The Suicide originated in New England in the 1920's with some big names (Herreshoff) designing to the rule but the hotbed transferred to Florida after WWII. It is not surprising that Moth sailors and Suicide sailors overlapped. Harry Cates, noted builder of Moths was also a Suicide builder. Both the Moth and the Suicide classes died out in the U.S. in the 1960's. The Suicide tried a comeback in the 1980's but it was just old timer nostalgia. The Moth class has resurrected itself in the U.S in two versions; the International foiler and the more sedate hiking Classic Moth.
The last rules of the Suicide class had the LOA between 18.5 and 22.5 feet, hull weight around 200 lbs., beam was 5 feet. The fleet sported wishbone booms. The crew was on a trapeze.
I find this class very interesting. Unfortunately Anne Henry was writing a class history in the 80's but I never heard any more about it.
From the annual class review of the American magazine, One-Design and Offshore Yachtsman:
Below is a picture from one of the Suicide promotional brochures. This one looks to have the high sheer chines of a Florida Moth. January 2020; Doug Halsey sends along this update on the photo:
"I've found that photo in a Miami Herold report on the 1946 Miami Orange Bowl Regatta. The boat is identified as Moray, sailed by Ralph Knowles. Unfortunately, there's no information on the designer or builder. However elsewhere, Harry Cates is listed as having built Joker (shown in one of your later photos) in 1948. That's a much different design though.
Double click on the image to get a larger version.
Addendum April 2019.
Profile drawing of the hard chine Banshee design including sailplan.
Bald but my eyebrows are growing at a prolific rate. Sailed Windmills and Y-Flyers in the 1960's. Founded Miami University (OH) sailing team. Sailed International 14's and Lasers in the 1970's. Sailed International Canoes in the 1980's to mid 1990's. Sailed Classic Moths since 2002. Enjoy boatbuilding though I'm very, very slow at it (the Internet doesn't help matters). Name in real life: Rod Mincher
After choosing this username (Tweezer is the name of my Classic Moth), further research on the Internet turned up that Tweezerman is a corporate name for a line of pedicure products. Let me emphasize that I do not work for, nor endorse these products.
