String Pullers Convention: The 505 East Coast Championship

I was reminiscing in a email exchange with Kiwi Neil Kennedy about the string puller classes; those dinghy classes that seem to have a mind-bending assortment of rope controls to tweak everything. The old Olympic double-hander, the Flying Dutchman comes to mind as good example. These dinghy classes were more prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's and also can be found in the modern sailing world in other dinghy cultures, such as the English... not so much in the United States... except for the always interesting 505 class. I closed the email saying the 505's were coming to town for their East Coast Championships in September and I would try to get some photos of "string".

I was able to wander around the SSA dinghy park before the event started and did get some photos. Many of these systems photographed below I saw on the old International 14's of the 1970's and 1980's. However, on the modern 505 they have been refined to the Nth degree, using modern materials so they work flawlessly.

This 505 had a condensed user manual electrical-taped on the aft starboard seat tank. I asked the crew about it and he said it was from the previous owner - they didn't abide by the instructions but kept it around anyway.

This 505 dispensed with the jib tracks on the inside of the tank and replaced it with a floating jib lead adjustment using thin spectra line (possibly to bring the lead further inboard - I didn't ask).

The ultimate. Supposedly a German dinghy fitter takes a bare Rondar 505 shell and this is what you get back. Note the hoop center main on a traveler. This allows weather sheeting of the main when you really want to twist off the top leach without having the rest of the leech sag off too far. One other advantage of such complexity in the middle of the boat; you can concentrate more weight in the center and get around the corrector rules.

An older 505. You can tell it has been much modified by the multiple filled screw holes on the centerboard cap. This is an over-under mainsheet/vang control/cleat (mainsheet on the top, vang on the bottom).

The German fitted 505 didn't use a mast ram at the gooseneck. Pre-bend of the mast was controlled by moving the shrouds fore and aft on a shroud track. The 505 mast rake can be adjusted throughout the race. With this set-up, the multi-purchase system used to tension the shrouds is out in the open and not buried inside the mast ring frame. Usually shroud tension on these dinghies requires something like a 36-1 purchase system.

The control console on the German 505. I didn't ask about specific functions of each string shown.

The modern 505 has twin spinnaker poles, slung on each side of the boom. This allows the crew to jibe the spinnaker without ever having to clip the spinnaker pole onto the mast or the spinnaker guy onto the pole - everything is done by pulling a string. This is the custom twin pole fitting on the mast.

Twin carbon spinnaker poles on a 505 where the boom is not yet placed on the gooseneck. When the pole is launched the spinnaker guy is automatically sucked up into the pole.

There are still very competitive wood-decked Lindsay 505's from the 1980's, albeit fully upgraded with the modern kit. The class now allows carbon booms but still requires an aluminum mast.

Some other posts featuring the 505 from the Earwigoagin memory bank.

505 Dinghy and Annapolis 2017

I wandered over to my old sailing club, Severn Sailing Association, on Sunday and ran into Ali Meller, just in from Laser frostbiting. Ali is a long time 505 racer and I was interested in finding out how preparations are going for Annapolis to host the 505 Worlds in September, 2017. The 505 fleet at SSA is relatively small, ten boats or so, and to take on such a high-profile regatta as the 505 Worlds must be a daunting task for such a small group. To pull this one off, the 505 fleet has gone out to the Annapolis sailing community. Two yacht clubs are sharing the responsibility in running the event, SSA and Eastport Yacht Club and the RC is being recruited from the best of Annapolis. Given the strength of the dollar Ali expects the Worlds fleet to be around one-hundred, which, for North America, is huge numbers for a two man high performance dinghy.

Below is a great 505 promotional video shot by Chris Love, who does all of the Intercollegiate sailing reporting in the U.S. Although the 505 aficionados interviewed in this video downplay the intensity of the class, make no mistake; to race at the top level in the 505 is just below the commitment of an Olympic campaign. A true fanatics performance class.




International 505 Promotional Video from Chris Love on Vimeo.

Two photos of the 505 from the Earwigoagin archives; these taken at a SSA's Tuesday night series a couple of years ago.

Photo John Zseleczky

Photo John Zseleczky

For those who have dug back in Earwigoagin, you may have come across the fact that the blogmeister raced Internatonal 14's back in the 1970's and early 1980's. The International 14 of those years was very similar to the 505, single trapeze, big symmetrical kite. The modern International 14 has developed into a skiff but I occasionally wonder what the International 14 would look like today if it stuck with the rig of the 1980's - probably very similar to the current 505. A photo of the Canadian Harvey brothers ripping it, I think in 1980 (just had to sneak this in).

Photo Ellie Martin

Oh! Wood Butcher, Slopper of Glass, What is the Answer?

One of the ironies of life is that I, the one who does not let craftsmanship nor beauty get in the way of working on boats (the gorgeous Tweezer was an aberration, due mostly to the efforts of Bill Boyle and George Albaugh..... I wanted to paint that Moth, to hell with all that pretty Atlantic cedar) it is I who seem to be asked my opinion on how to fix boats. I think that people assume that since I've built boats, I must know what I'm doing...Hah!

Last Friday, I wandered down to SSA and ran into Ali Meller, who for a good twenty years or so was Mr. 505 of North America (now he races road bikes and does quite well I'm told). Ali was helping a son and dad rig a newly purchased used 505 and I recognized it immediately as a Lindsay (the spruce rolled seat tanks were the give away). Ali confirmed my guess (in life's quest, knowing the lineage of a 505 may not seem much, but I'll take that little nugget as evidence of a superior intellect) and Ali elaborated further into the history of this particular 505. This 505 was one of twelve of the original batch of Lindsay 505's, where Mark built the wood interiors into a English Parker glass hull, circa late 1970's. We had a good laugh as that would only be knowledge that old fart dinghy sailors would know.

When the son started listing the problems of this older 505 (hey, all old boats have problems), he seemed particularly worried about the ply delaminating on the underside of the deck between the shroud bulkhead and the forward bulkhead. I didn't see a problem... if you can't see it, no problem. but then Ali asked me how I would fix it. How I would fix it??? Hmmmm! Hmmmm! (Try to look confident here.)

"Oh, Just turn the boat upside down, drill some holes, take a syringe and squirt epoxy between the delaminated veneer and the good plywood, take some bricks to force the delaminated veneer in contact with the good ply. Should be good to go. You do have some syringes don't you?" Delivered with surety, I didn't want to explain further, so I begged my leave to continue on my tour of the dinghy park.

It was only getting into my car, that I realized I wouldn't have fixed it that way, I would have cut the delaminated ply away with a razor knife, thrown it away and glassed over it with 4oz. fiberglass. A true half-assed Tweezerman repair.

Here is a top down picture of a later model Lindsay 505. This one has mahogany veneer rolled seat tanks instead of spruce. The used Lindsay I was looking at on the SSA dinghy park also had the foredeck painted, probably because the aircraft plywood, after 30 some years, was getting grungy (it was, after all, delaminating underneath).



And here is a 505 punching off the leeward end of line during SSA's weekday TESOD series.........

505 Classic Moth

Continuing with the 505 theme, the image above is one that ever-vigilant Neil Kennedy plucked from the Web. It is buried deep within a very interesting article on 505 designer John Westell, written by British historian David Henshall, found on the Yachts and Yachting website. The image is the lines drawing, the waterlines and buttocks of a Classic Moth that John Westell designed on his 505 theme. (No date is given for the design but it would be safe to assume sometime in the 1960's.)

I initially thought this design would not have met the 1 inch (25mm) hollow rule the class had in the 1960's (and a rule that our modern Classic Moth class still retains) but on second look it seems that John Westell did meet the rule (the rule applies aft of the daggerboard trunk and John did reduce the gunwhale flare to what looks to be legal limits in the back of this Moth).

Speed-wise this design does not offer any advantages to our current Gen 1 race-horses (the Shelley, the Europe, the Cates) but for someone who wanted to build a lovely mini-505 and race Classic Moths, this would be a very interesting and welcome addition to our polyglot group.

E-Scow Absolutely Cooking

This video is one of the more popular sailing videos on YouTube with over 24 thousand hits as I write this. This E-Scow is jib reaching in breeze with spray everywhere. What a hoot!



I sailed on an E-Scow once, even got to steer. Very powerful and deceptively quick from inside the boat. You needed to look aft at the stern wake to fully appreciate how fast you were going.

I remember back in the 1970's standing on the shore at Mantoloking YC on Barnegat Bay and watching off in a distance, a 505 at full stride under spinnaker. I watched in awe for about a minute; the 505 blasting along, and then realized there was another boat a couple of hundred yards behind under spinnaker that was just eating this 505 up. It was an E-Scow that looked to be going twice the speed of the 505. Very impressive

A Fresh Look at the Gate Start

It's been a while since I did any race committee; not being a member of any sailing club at present. I gather one of the issues with RC work during this pandemic and the need for social distancing is the amount of people needed on the main committe boat. It's all for the start.    You need a fair number of people to make sure the start goes well, most of them there to run flags, check time, watch the line. After that probably two people would suffice; the PRO to make decisions and someone to handle communication with the mark boats and rescue boats. I wonder if it's not time to revisit the gate start as a way to get the number of RC people off the main RC boat. The gate start is not a very popular option; I would venture to say, across the board, a very much unused starting option. Except for the 505 crowd, who love it and use it exclusively for their big events.

The very basic concept of a gate start is one of your competitors comes across on port tack, you duck his stern whilst sailing on starboard tack and you are off. I've done this basic start when out practicing with a group of us, but must admit I've never done gate starts in any regatta. Of course a proper gate start is somewhat more complicated than that but over the years the 505 crowd have done a good job of ironing out the wrinkles. I did locate online race instructions for the 505 gate start at the 2015 Buzzard Bay Regatta.

I do think the gate start is a good option for getting the RC crowd down to manageable proportions. As far as the argument that I've never learned how to do gate start, I can't do a gate start, file it under all the other "never done this" arguments that have been rapidly trashed in this pandemic.

Here is a video of the 505 pathfinder leading the way during the Europa Cup:

Edge of Having Fun Zone

The title quote is from Douglas DeCouto, participant at the ongoing 505 Worlds on Berkeley Circle, a big wind destruction derby, crash fest, heavy air smackdown that is San Francisco Bay in August. The SAP 505 World Championship has the most comprehensive web reportage of any dinghy sailing event I've come across; with professional video by Tucker Thompson posted every day, photos and photos and more photos, and geeks on Sailing Anarchy that seem to have nothing better to do than twitter all the mark rounding positions.

I sympathize because I sailed the 1993 International Canoe Worlds on San Francisco, held also in August. We lucked out and didn't see any of our races blow over mid 20's and most days the first beat would be in the teens and then build quickly into the 20's after that. The problem with Berkeley Circle is boats like the 505 and International Canoe are too fast for the track; i.e you can't really steer around the short chop upwind because you are onto the waves too quickly so you alternately launch or plow and sometimes in the big gusts, stagger with most of the rig luffing. Downwind it's the same story but you are going so fast that launching or plowing at the wrong time is disaster. The good guys were able to keep the pedal down but I found it faster to back off and pick my way downwind. And the water is cold!

Douglas's interview fits San Francisco dinghy sailing to a tee; blasting exhilaration ending in some disaster, you're swimming and not quite sure how it happened. For Douglas Decouto and all the other 505 mid fleeters the regatta becomes somewhat of a grind, trying to put the debacle and the carnage of the last race behind and soldier onward. I finished about half the races in the 93 IC Worlds (I did have two races I can file in the sailing memory bank compartment marked good). I wasn't physically up to the rigors, which wasn't a big surprise. The IC Worlds was just the middle part of the grand adventure of driving cross country with my family. And the sailing and the trip all add up to great memories.

This is the only 93 IC Worlds sailing pic I've come across (I was in some video shot at the Worlds). This is one of my stellar starts (I'm 208 tacking over to port on the start line)

Classic Moth plans

Plans de dériveur classique Moth, Plans de voiliers classiques Moth

Before diving into this very lengthy post, you might want to Click Here To View Classic Moth Images courtesy of Google.

You also might want to Click here for a YouTube video with commentary on some of the various Classic Moths racing at the U.S. Classic Moth Nationals in Elizabeth City.

(Addendum September 2012 - I first wrote this post in 2010. Since then various boatbuilders have popped up, building reproductions of vintage designs. Francois Vivier has also produced a kit Moth. In the two years I have made many more posts about Classic Moths on Earwigoagin and it might be worth the reader to investigate. For more articles on the Classic Moth from this blog, use the Blogger Search Box at the top left  (next to the orange B icon). Type in "Classic Moth" to pull all the articles on the Classic Moth from this blog. Or go to the Labels on the right side of the blog and select "Classic Moth" I keep adding plans and sections for various Classic Moths. Use the following links.)

• Little Mae" PDF plans from magazine.
• Little Mae" Metric station offsets.
• French Vintage Classic Moth "Nantais" build - classique Moth voilier.
• French Fragniere Moth Classique - sections and offsets.
• Francois Vivier Classic Moth kit -conception classique Moth voilier.
• Some other posts with references to Classic Moth plans.
• Offsets for the Zippy design, a modified Proust - conception classique Moth voilier.
• Zippy sections in PDF format.
• Plans for Willam Crosby's vintage Skimmer scow design in PDF format.
• Plans for Len Morris's original Aussie scow, the MK II in PDF format.
• Duckworks Magazine offers a set of Classic Moth plans by Paolo Lodigiani.
• The Florida Cates offsets and partial plans.
• Mistral Hull Panel Offsets
• Mistral Y2K Section Offsets
• How to Bend Up the Mistral Hull Panels
• Plans for Benoit Duflos' flat-bottom Moth-Pop
• Drawing for RazMoth by Bertrand Warion
• Offsets for Bilbon by Christophe Couton
• Lines for the Swiss-Dunand
• Section drawing for the Duflos
• Brewsabee, another narrow waterline Moth
• Puriri, a 1962 New Zealand multichine design

(editors note - I've dragged the Conclusion to the top of the post - August 2013) CONCLUSION - Let me be clear. The Classic Moth is a short hull and a light hull. At the Gen2 (higher performance racing) level, the Classic Moths are challenging craft to sail but very rewarding at the same time.  A Laser is like an aircraft carrier compared to the more twitchier Gen 2 designs, the Mistral, Energizer, Tweezer or even the Shelly. 

But there are more stable Classic Moths that we classify as Gen 1. I've never sailed a Mint or a Proust design but I would assume that they would be very much the same stability as a Laser or Sunfish. Or, an even older design, a reproduction vintage design such as the Little Mae or Nantais Moth would be the most stable and perfect for kicking around on the lake. 

So there you have it. The Mistral, Shelly and Florida Cates have more or less complete plans. Other designs you would probably need to work off a set of lines drawings and use your builders experience. George Albaugh is our plan librarian. His email is linked from Classic Moth website.  George is also another sailing blogger. You can view his Classic Moth posts over at Mid-Atlantic Musings.

All lines drawings (except the Europe dinghy) were done using MaxSurf's NURBS software.

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Quick review of some of the more popular designs and the availability of plans. (Updated September 2012)

(Note; To give a rough idea on the tippiness of a hull, Joe Bousquet developed a scissor-like device he placed over the midsection to visually show the amount of V. I've included his pictures of the various V's from the Mistral, Shelly, Europe, Energizer.)

(Another note: To scroll through hi-res pictures, just click on a picture. Once the hi-res picture comes up, click again in the picture to step through all the pictures on this post.)

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MISTRAL - easiest to build. Developable plywood. Stitch and glue. Two 3mm plywood panels are bent up to shape, a centerline piece attached to hold the run flat, a spreader bar at the gunwhales is used to get the correct shape when bending up and glassing. A weekend of work will give you the rough shape. Adding two permanent bulkheads, a temp bulkhead and the transom finalizes the shape. Many people have hacked the hull shape by pushing here or pulling there so we have some semi Mistral hullls out there. Here is a link to a blog post of a local Annapolis Mothist, John Z building a Mistral. A Mistral or some variation of the Mistral has won the Nationals the last umpteen years.

However, the Mistral is a very deep V design. Very floppy and has a tendency to scare newbie Mothists who try to sail her. Many have come ashore and either; 1) rapidly put the boat up for sale or 2) put the Mistral back in the garage for a while and then discreetly sold her. Not all mind you, as we have a core group of about 6-8 who regularly sail a Mistral (or modified Mistral design, i.e. the Mousetrap or Y2K designs) and are able to race them hard in all conditions and win. It helps to have some Laser or Sunfish experience but this is not an ironclad requirement. If you pick a Mistral to build, consider yourself warned. If you decide to proceed, George has the plans (see bottom of article).

The Mistral on the Bousquet V-meter.


Top View of a Mistral Mod Design, the Mousetrap by Jeff Linton.

Picture of the tank framing for Joe Bousquet's Mistral. Note the sistering of insulation foam with the plywood frame to provide gluing surface for the plywood decks.

Not all Mistrals are built in plywood. This one was done in foam core/glass, with the hull splashed using an existing wood hull as a mold. Note the very interesting transom design.

Here are the lines to a modified Mistral, the Y2KBug built by Walt Collins. (Pretty extreme wouldn't you say!)

• A discussion on the differences between a Mousetrap and a Mistral.
• A short video of a a Mistral hull modified with a flatter Europe type transom.
• Mistral hull panel offsets can be found here.
• Mistral Y2K section offsets can be found here
• How to Bend Up the Mistral Hull Panels
• More Mistral images from Google.

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ENERGIZER -Just a hair more stable than the Mistral is the Energizer design. A modification of the 1970's Stockholm Sprite, it is a full chine design but still very V'd. Two have been built with some success. No plans.

Energizer on the Bousquet V-meter.


The original Energizer was the first Classic Moth I owned. Here I am sailing Energizer at Chester River in Maryland.

The Energizer hull shape from the stern.

A lines drawing of Energizer showing it belongs to the deep-V family of Classic Moths.

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TWEEZER - Yep, this is my design. I called this design Tweezer D as it was the fourth generation in what I drew up, but the D version was only one built. A Gen 2 design racing against the Mistral, Energizer designs. Stability somewhere between the Mistral and the Shelly (though some other sailors have told me it is close in stability to a Shelley). Flatter rocker in the Tweezer has proven to be quick in a breeze but suffers against the Mistrals and even the Shelly in the lighter stuff (non-hiking breeze) which, on the East Coast, seems to be the majority of our conditions. I may be biased but it is a hull with little vices and I enjoyed racing this design. Round-bilged and the original was built using cedar strips.

• A Post about Tweezer.
• View the YouTube of Tweezer's construction.
• Tweezer's new owner.

Picture below is of me lollygagging around on Tweezer, before a start at E-City.

 

And the Tweezer D hull lines:

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SHELLEY - A wider, flatter chined design with moderate rocker from the brilliant New Zealand/English dinghy designer of the 1960's, John Shelley. Much more stable and, in the hands of Joe Bousquet, has done very well in the National championships. George has the Mk3 plans.

Shelley on the Bousquet V-meter.


A McCutcheon built Shelley in dinghy park at the Gulfport Midwinters.

The lines for the Shelley Mk III.

Bill Boyle is doing a new build of a Shelley MkIII which he is documenting in a blog. Click here to check out his progress.

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MINT - Qualifies for Gen 1 (our Classic Moth division for the more stable, higher wetted surface hulls that are not Vintage). A Bill Lee national championship winner, the Mint is a reasonably docile design from the 1950's. Never built one but the bow sections go very fine and look to present some challenges to the home builder. That being said, 6 hulls were built in Elizabeth City in the 1990's. George has the section lines.

A picture of the beautiful restoration of the first Mint built.....


And John Pugh sailing a Mint at the E-City Nationals.

The hull lines of the Mint showing the concave sections up forward.

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FLORIDA CATES

The most successful American design of the 1960's. Florida boatbuilder, Harry Cates, evolved the shape from Warren Bailey's Mach 1. massaging the shape to make it easy to home build in plywood. Charlie Hunt drew up the plans. A Gen 1 design, the Cates is another V'd shape with a distinctive small topside panel with chine. The transom is small, reminding one of a Sunfish transom. The Cates is very beamy at the gunwhales forward. Low freeboard, a wet boat, but most sailors find it reasonably sailable, with plans available. George A. has the plans (see contact info at top of post).

Gary Gowans has built two of them, with slight modifications. He won the Gen1 class at the 2014 Championships over an Olympic Europe.

A topside shot of a Cates. Bill Boyle in 1965.

The lines to the Cates show a considerable V, hollowed bow sections, and a tiny topside panel. Beam is 1.72 meters.

The top down view shows a pinched transom and wide side-decks.

The sideview shows moderate rocker. The tiny topside panel that disappears at the bow is also clearly shown.

The offsets to the Cates design can be found by clicking here.

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MODERN FLORIDA -There are two designs by famous Florida MORC designers; OH Rodgers designed the Florida Wedge (a low rocker design, very stable, but slow in waves and squirrely downwind in a breeze). Four hulls were built by the St. Petersburg fleet and Jeff Linton won the 2003 Nationals with one. I'm not sure if any plans exist.

A stern view of the Florida Wedge showing the flattish, low profile, transom and no stern tank:

Paul Lindenberg designed a Classic Moth which has a resemblance to the Windmill hull. Lindenberg will sell his Classic Moth plans for $400. I don't have an address.

Lindenberg's website does show some Classic Moth building.

A transom photo of a Lindenberg Moth (from George A.'s blog). Note the anti-reflective strips on the transom for safer trailering.

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SAVANNAH WEDGE - A Moth copy of the Zuma dinghy built by AMF in the late 1980's, this Classic Moth was designed by Lane Reeves with two built in Savannah, Georgia.  This Wedge design had a wide, flat transom, low freeboard, double-bottom and reverse stern. The Savannah Wedge is not competitive as a Classic Moth racer, too much wetted surface, but with it's double bottom this is a very capable kick-around-the-lake daysailor. No plans existing that I know of.

Briggs Monteith begs to differ with my assessment - I have dragged his comment to the main post:

"I know this is an old post but as for the Savannah Wedge not being competitive, I finished third in a Savannah Wedge in the '99 midwinters sailing one that I borrowed from Jerry Carter. The boat was amazingly quick I thought, It beat Mean Tangerine and Randall Swans Vanilla. in extremely light air conditions. I think the boat has suffered from sailors who didn't understand the boat." -Briggs Monteith

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SKOL; The Skol was a British production fiberglass Moth from the early 1970's. The Mk II, the most popular version, was a de-tuned Mistral with very round sections.  The Mk II had a tub cockpit with a back tank. Here are two pictures of a just retrieved, hence dirty, Skol Mk II. The winglets are illegal in the U.S. Classic Moth Association Rules. (We have a 1" hollow rule.). There are no known plans but a used one would make a good re-decking project (see the last photo is this section).

The original ad for the Skol Mk II

Here in the U.S. Joe Bousquet did a decks-off/plywood redeck restoration of a Skol Mk II, shown here sailing in the 2014 CMBA Midwinters.

A transom shot of the same Americanized Skol. A very round transom, equivalent to the Duflos or Mistral shape.

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EUROPE Dinghy- The ex-Olympic Europe is based on a 1960's Europa Classic Moth and there is an active section of Classic Mothists who have purchased plastic Europes, modified the sail to fit the Classic Moth and are sailing them mostly as stock (though we do have three modified Europes, Mark Saunders has done a Europe hull lighter with a wooden deck).

Wooden Europa dinghy on the Bousquet V-meter.


Walt Collins with his Olympic Europe.

The lines to the Olympic Europe dinghy.

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PROUST DESIGN - In 2009, Jim Young built an old French design he found on the Internet. Despite the name he gave her (Tippy), this Classic Moth was anything but. A stable, buoyant design which Jim built modern, in foam/glass. Details on "Tippy" can be found over at this blog post. I've also put up offsets, both metric and English, for my version of the Proust, the Zippy.Also the Zippy sections are posted here.


Tippy at the 2008 E-City Nationals.

The simple single-chine sections for Zippy. There is no compounding of plywood here. This design has ample flotation forward, which makes for a safer hull, particularly downwind in a blow. (For reference, buttock lines spaced at 150mm and waterlines spaced at 60mm.)

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TITAN - The Titan design is another stable design from the 1960's. It is a round-bilged design, a pretty hull, but the original hulls were built very heavy in fiberglass. Reports from Mothists who have sailed them find the Titan well mannered. The design has some similarity to a small Uffa Fox International 14.

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RESTORATION - Many of the 60 designs have reappeared as derelict hulls and have been restored rather than homebuilt from scratch. The oldest designs for Vintage (Ventnor, Connecticut, and Dorr Willey designs) must be restored to qualify to race in  the Vintage division (you can still race a reproduction Vintage in the Gen 1 division). 

Here is one of the original ads for the Ventnor Moth.

Bill Boyle has done quite a few Moth restorations and has written about them.

1. Click here to view his restoration of a Fran Abbott Moth.
2. Click here to view his restoration of a Fletcher/Cates Moth.
3. And his latest restoration of a Ventnor copy.

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DESIGN YOUR OWN - With the introduction of free hull design software, the more adventurous can design their own Classic Moth. The American rule limits length to 3.3528 meters, beam is limited to 1.524 meters, no concavity greater than .025 meters aft of the daggerboard trunk and hull weight (including fittings) is no lighter than 34 kg.

John Watkins published this set of Classic Moth lines to the WoodenBoat forum in 2015. This design would fit very nicely into the U.S. Gen 1 division.

MARIPOSA

Mariposa is a French Classic Moth three plank design by Bertrand Warion, featuring a flat rocker panel married to developable bow sections, built stitch and tape. The design was one of several new Classic Moth designs built for the "concours de plans Moth Classique" sponsored by the French traditional boating magazine, Chasse-Marée in 2001.

RAZMOTH - another French design by Bertrand Warion. This one is patterned after the Fireball and has a flat rocker panel. RazMoth is another simple flat, two chine, easy-to-build plywood shape, ending in a scow bow. The RazMoth design is on it's second iteration.

BILBON - was another French design built for the "concours de plans Moth Classique" sponsored by Chassse_Marée magazine in 2001. Designed by Christophe Couton, a professional draftsman, it is a simple flat V, easy-to-build plywood shape, ending in a pram bow. Bilbon was one of the faster new designs that appeared at the 2001 design competition.

Here is a middle-of-the-road round bilge design I drew up. A very conventional dinghy hull shape. For reference the waterlines are drawn spaced every 60 mm. and the buttocks are drawn at 150 mm. spacing

Click here for the DXF file of this round bilged Classic Moth design.

I've also pushed around the lines to the Fragniere design by adding a flat rocker panel.

Click here for the offsets for a three plank modified Fragniere Classic Moth design.

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William Crosby's SKIMMER - A very early Moth design, published in The Rudder in 1933. According to Crosby, hundreds were built but very few have surfaced in modern times. A scow type, this would make a good off-the-beach boat but is not competitive in the Vintage Divsion when compared to the deeper V vintage designs like the Dorr-Willey or Ventnor.

Skimmer Plans can be found here.

A Skimmer found in a barn in Cape Cod. Note the lack of cockpit.

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MASER - And for those with the true hacker spirit - there is the Classic Moth that uses a sliced and diced Laser hull - deemed a Maser.

A Maser at the 2011 Midwinters. You can sort of see the Laser transom, still intact.

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MOTH CLASSIQUE: The French have a rich tradition with the Classic Moths and their designs. The French Duflos was the fastest Classic Moth before the arrival of wings. Click here to view Part 1 of Louis Pillon's fascinating history of the French Moth class. I have come across two small jpeg's of French Moth designs on the Internet.

The first is the vintage, scow bow Nantais design which has been mentioned before in this post.

The second is the Fragniere design, a unique transom bow design which was most popular in France before the appearance of the very narrow Duflos and similar designs. Click here for the offsets for the Fragniere.

Here are some photos of a recent build of the Fragniere design. Following the plans, the Fragniere has a full length cockpit.

French designer Francois Vivier has designed a Moth Classique to be built in kit form. Here is the side view of his Moth Grand Largue.

Benoit Duflos, who pioneered the very fast, very Vee'd, very tippy racing Moths of the 1960's also designed a more stable, flat-bottom Moth for the home-builder. Called the Moth-Pop, plans for the Moth-Pop can be found in the links at the top of this post. Here is Benoit's iso-view of the Moth-Pop

The lines plan for the Moth-Pop.

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The 505 Moth - John Westell, the designer of the 505, also did a 505 type Moth. I haven't come across any that have survived to the modern day.

Image courtesy of David Henshall

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SCOW Moth - The scow Moth was THE Moth of Australia and New Zealand until the narrow waterline winged Moths proved faster in the mid 1980's. Len Morris was the founder of the Australian scow Moths with his Flutterby design which he built in 1928. His post World War II MK II design was very popular and is still an easy-build proposition out of plywood. Plans for the MK II can be found by clicking here.

The sections for the MK II show a simple flat-bottom scow with vertical sides.

A double bottom MKII built in the 1950's.

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Classic Moth Sailplan

All dimensions in mm. For the original post on the Classic Moth sailplan, click here.

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Where to put the mast and daggerboard in a Classic Moth?

Luckily, John Shelley's construction drawings for the Shelley Mk 1, which he used in a patent application, have now surfaced on the internet. His mast and daggerboard placement as indicated in the drawings below are good placements, though, if you went around the fleet with a measuring tape, you would find this might vary by up to 75 mm from boat to boat. 

Center of mast back from stem - 695 mm.

Leading edge of daggerboard back from stem - 1453 mm.

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What constitutes a Gen I Classic Moth design?

"What constitutes a Gen I Classic Moth?" As of now, and for the foreseeable future, the good old eyeball. Among the class, we have discussed various parametrics, but the difficulty of measurement, and the almost certain chance of designers trying to skirt any numbers written down (bumps, lumps and so on), have kept us to a subjective division. Most of the designs featured on the this design page are Gen 1 designs. They include the Europe dinghy, the Proust (Tippy or Zippy), the Shelley, the Florida and Savannah Wedge, the Maser, the scows, the Cates, the Mint, the Nantais, the Little Mae, and the Titan. The age of the design does not matter for Gen 1. The primary determinant is waterline beam. If it looks narrow, it doesn't fit Gen 1. Sailing a Gen 1 design should be relatively straightforward for anyone with dinghy experience.

The Gen II designs (narrow waterline) on the Earwigoagin design page are the Mistral, the hard-chine Energizer, the Tweezer, and the wood-decked, modified Skol. They are definitely a tippier proposition to sail and race, but rewarding for those who like a small boat challenge.

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Other links to other Classic Moth design posts from Earwigoagin..........

1. My answer to my first email inquiry about Classic Moths..... Classic Moth Designs Part 1 
2. And also a good read.......Why a Classic Moth is Better than a Laser.