Last weekend, Mothboat regatta road trip partner John Z and I were down at Gulfport YC, St. Pete, Florida for the Classic Mothboat Midwinters. Suffice to say that, after years of traveling thousands of miles up and down I-95 to sail the midwinters in 40-50 degree F temperatures , this year we were treated to both Saturday and Sunday temps in the high 70's to just scratching the 80's. After a chilly December, January, and February in the Mid-Atlantic, this was a much welcome change. Sixteen Mothboats sailed eleven races in lightish winds (I think I got serious in the hiking straps for a minute or two the whole series).
A great series, both on and off the water. I'll post some teaser pictures now and post a more detailed report later. Longtime Mothist, George Albaugh, in his blog "Mid-Atlantic Musings", has weighed in with his first post up on the Midwinters. You can jump to his article HERE .
First, acknowledgements to the photographers. On shore photos are from Bob Patterson and the on the water photos are from Amy Parker. Again, click on the picture to get a higher resolution image.
Transplanted Englishman and Isle of Wightian, Len Parker, with his 1960's Isle of Wight/McCutcheon built Shelly design......
Rutledge Young from the Charleston fleet with the, very pretty but unfortunately slow, Savannah Wedge design......
Walt Collins with his Olympic Europe dinghy.......
Your blogmeister with his Maser......
Greg Duncan launching his modified Mistral. Prognosis was Greg couldn't keep the transom out of the water in the light stuff (maybe a lighter skipper would be the ticket) and, in bending up the panels, he had pushed the rocker too far forward. A previous video on this design with Greg's commentary can be found here ........
Annapolitan, John Z., finished second overall in his Walt Collins built mod-Mistral "Y2K Bug"....
Derek Dudinsky showed up with his Mousetrap design after a hiatus of several years, busy with a young family. Derek runs a successful marine metal fabrication business in St. Pete..........
One of the starts............
Sail maker to the stars (at least for the Classic Moth crowd), Rod Koch rounding the weather mark in a borrowed Mistral. Rod owns a very quick modified Europe but is usually seen racing OPM's (other people's Mothboats)........
Overall winner, Jeff Linton, crosses tacks with 73 year old Randall Swan (4th overall) in the creepy crawly conditions of Sunday's racing......
Christmas Winchester
16 hours ago
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