Header Photo: Sea Island One-Design Scow

Photo taken from an online article on the Rockville Regatta from The Post and Courier.

The previous header photo is of the Sea Island One-Design, a local class of large scows centered around the lowcountry South Carolina, specifically Bohicket Creek, Rockville. The 1948 design is attributed to New England naval architect, Henry Scheel but the lineage goes much farther back.

A sailing competition had started with two boats in 1890 and by the turn of the century the Rockville Regatta had quickly became a sailing contest between the towns that dotted these winding estuary fingers south of Charleston. (The Rockville Regatta also became the summer social event of the year with dances, parties, and romancing; a tradition which continues to this day, though considerably in excess - think the infield of the Kentucky Derby.) The scow shape came to the fore in the competition and Walter Eugene Townshend with his nephew, Oliver Seabrook,  managed to walk off with many of the Rockville Regatta trophies sailing their series of scows named Undine.

From the book Rockville by Alicia Anderson Thompson:

"In 1947, Ollie Seabrook took the best features of three of the fastest and  best sailing scows and gave them to Henry A. Scheel in Mystic, Connecticut, for him to create a set of plans that each island club could use to build a uniform sailboat. This three man scow was named Sea Island One Design, and it united the area yacht clubs, allowing for equal competition among the members to this day"

A scan from a sidebar article in Sailing World. The fleet has grown to nine with the addition of a new build in 2011.

There is a strong similarity of some of these pre-WWII South Carolina scows to the 1899 Charles D. Mower's Swallow scow, which was the second scow featured in The Rudder's How-To-Build series. There was at least a borrowing of the general shape. Here are the sideviews of the two starting with the Swallow.

The 1931 Rockville Undine IV.

The 1947 Sea Island One-Design is a different design, though the parentage of the Swallow is very evident. The SIOD is shorter, the transom is wider and the topside panel straighter than that of the Swallow.

For more on the Mower Swallow scow, click here.

Archipelago Rally 2014

Earwigoagin has been reporting on the exploits of the Tuthill sisters racing their boat-speed challenged Snark in this one-race, come one, come all, Portsmouth handicap event hosted, every November, in a different nook and cranny of Rhode Island coastline.

• For the Tuthill sisters racing their Snark in the 2012 event, click here.
• For the Tuthill sisters racing their Snark in the 2013 event, click here.

This year (gasp!) the Tuthill sisters jettisoned their Snark for the race, thinking they had upped their game with a lateen-rigged dink and. as it is frequently fore-ordained when you change a good thing, they unfortunately dropped the rig during the race (looks like the jury-rigged thwart lashing to hold up the mast failed). The younger sister, usually a bored, disinterested observer, was now called to the thankless and ultimately futile duty of becoming a human sidestay. These two documented the race and the disaster in a very amusing video.




Originator Chris Museler was undoubtedly pleased to have +40 boats attend this year (including the hastily splashed Crosby Skimmer Moth). I have lifted some photos from Rufus Van Gruisen's album.

The Tuthill sisters with Maharaja in "reef" mode.

My favorite "micro" dinghy, the Cape Cod Frosty.

A catboat and Penquin at the take-out ramp.

This fellow in the Zuma dinghy has a passing facial resemblance to the blogmeister (at least the mustache).

Click here for more photos from the Archipelago Rally Facebook page.

Seen at the 2014 Sailboat Show - Part 3; the Zim 15

One of the hidden casualties in the ongoing clash between Laser Performance Europe's business strategy and the rest of the small boat sailing world has been the virtual stoppage of production of the Vanguard 15, a two-hander racing and recreational dinghy that, since the late 1990's, has sold well in the United States and still has a national presence. As with any vacuum in the market someone will step in and in this case Steve Clark, one of the original team that developed the Vanguard 15, has linked up with Zim boatbuilders to produce his higher-end version of a hiking doublehander, the Zim 15.

Zim Sailing freely admits they are targeting the post-collegiate market with the Zim 15 and it comes with a bunch of modern performance features, albeit at a higher selling price compared to the Vanguard 15. What modern features do you get?

• A hull designed for higher speeds.
• Carbon spars.
• High aspect ratio blades.
• Roachy Mylar sails.
• Gnav vang to clear up the forward end of the cockpit.
• A multi-purchase rig-tensioning system run through the forestay.
• A bow stem made of high-impact plastic.
• A dangly whisker pole.
• A flow-through double bottom cockpit with open transom.
• Enough cleats in the right positions to make adjustments easier.

Some photos.

Here is the bow bumper which is cleverly molded in during construction so as to be an integral part of the hull.

The Zim 15 has a centerboard for easier launching but the centerboard trunk has grooves in each side so the board can be pulled up and "reefed" in a breeze, just as you would with a daggerboard.

The dangly whisker pole is not seen in the U.S much but is very popular in the U.K. non-spinnaker classes. It resides on the front of the mast when going upwind. To deploy, pull the dangly pole down with it's control line. To retract. uncleat the control line and a shock cord returns it to the front of the mast. There is also the multi-purchase forestay tensioner sitting on the foredeck in front of the mast.

The flow-thru double-bottom cockpit with the nifty tilt-up rudder. The hull sports soft-chines as it was also designed for team racing.

The business end of the cockpit. We can see the Gnav vang on top of the boom, the dangly pole, recessed cleats in the wide thwart and plenty of adjustments at the base of the mast.

A computer-rendered sideview of the Zim 15 (lifted from Zim Sailing's website).

Music Whenever; Bob Dylan's cover of "It must be Santa"

I first heard this song the past week playing on our local radio station, WRNR. I'm surprised I've never before come across Dylan's take on the raucous pagan festival side of the holiday. Any song that leads off with an accordion is alright with me and Dylan fits in his customary wordplay among the lyrics by interspersing the name of recent U.S. presidents with the names of Santa's reindeer.

Wishing Earwigoagin readers; Happy Holidays or, Happy Turn of the Year. (Whatever floats your boat.)

And for Jim Carrey's beautiful rendition of "White Christmas", click here.

Fleet Building: Mutineer Fleet in Grapevine, Texas

It's no secret that the most sure-fire way to build a sailboat fleet is to have that one spark-plug; an enthusiastic go-getter who passionately believes this sailboat he/she sails is the best sailboat ever to grace the bounding main.

Here is a video of one such spark-plug, Greg Reed of Grapevine, Texas. His love and passion for the 15' Mutineer sailboat, a sailboat abandoned when Chrysler divested their marine business's in 1980, is building an orphan fleet in Grapevine Texas. Of note in the video is how the fleet is attuned to bringing up the new racer.

(Anonymous, in the comment section, says both the Mutineer and the larger Buccaneer are still in production. "The Nickels Boat Company in Mich. is still building both boats and the Buc still has a fairly active class. In fact a Club in Alaska recently adopted the Buc as it's Club fleet.")

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As a follow-on to Greg's pitch in the video for Grapevine, Texas running the 2014 Nationals...there were 19 Mutineers racing in the 2014 Nationals: Gib Charles, 1st; Ty McAden, 2nd; Uwe Hale, 3rd; and Mr. Mutineer, Greg Reed, 4th.

Grapevine Sailing Club - Mutineer Fleet 2 from russ ansley on Vimeo.

Header Photo: "Wee Georgie" Aussie Historical 6-Foot Skiff

Australian Historical Skiff

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Bruce Stannard

The previous header photo was of the "Wee Georgie" a 1988 reproduction of the Aussie 6-Footer Historical Skiff Class. Aussie Robert Tearne built her and she is shown on the dock sporting her light-air rig with a boom at least over 2 times the length of the boat and a bowsprit approximately 10 feet long (3.19 meter). Talk about being over-canvassed. The 6-footer class takes the cake for being the craziest of the crazies!

There is a second reproduction Aussie 6-Footer, the Balmain Bug, built by Ian Smith in 1994. Balmain Bug has been sailed regularly since about 2015.

The history of the Aussie 6-Footers, quoting from the seminal book on the history of the Aussie skiffs, Bluewater Bushman by Bruce Stannard [1981];

"It is believed they were first built at Balmain in the 1890's and although they were first conceived as children's boats, there is no doubt that they demanded the strength of three men who were courageous, good swimmers and had the strength and agility of circus acrobats...They carried a staggering 1000 square feet of sail including a main, jib, topsail, spinnaker, ringtail, and even a watersail. [Mike Scott, over in comments, defines watersail as..."hung below the main boom to catch that extra drop of wind.....almost drooping in the water....hence the name....!] With so much sail up and so little to support it, it is hardly surprising that the 6-footers spent a lot of time "in the gutter"....

The class peaked during the early 1900's, attracting numbers because it was the cheapest way to go racing. Here are some photos of the early 6-footers sailing around 100 years ago. [Found on the Net]

The original crews sailed the 6-footers upwind with the bowsprit plowing a furrow in the water; probably the only way they could balance the whole package upwind.

Now for photos of the modern 1994 Smith reproduction 6-footer. A picture of the "Bug" off-the-wind in a fresh breeze, shortly after being launched. Looks like the crew is trying to get to the back of the bus when reaching but, alas, there is no back of the bus.

After ten years out of the water, the "Bug" was relaunched in October for this year's Balmain Regatta.

A quote from crew Campbell Reid:

"Even though she is based on a design close to a century old you can see how for their time these boats were pretty high tech...She will bury her bow in the blink of an eye but we were impressed at how seaworthy she was and were really happy that we could get upwind pretty well. In the six foot division of the historic skiff fleet at the regatta we think we are a serious threat.

 The precarious crew position Campbell Reid finds himself on the foredeck/bow may be the most comfortable one in drifting conditions. [The next two photos pulled from the Balmain Sailing Club website.]

Stick two grown men into a 6-footer and the scale becomes obvious. A 6-footer becomes a true "micro" dinghy.

The obligatory GoPro video shoot from this years relaunch. The bowsprit is so long it gives a perspective of a much larger dinghy. The 6-footers, like her bigger historical cousins, sported canvas lee cloths in a vain attempt to keep the water on the outside


A more recent 2015 video of the Bug including flying a good size spinnaker without driving her under. (Came pretty darn close though!)



And the videos keep on coming. A 2017 video of the Balmain Bug.

• Click here for other posts on Australian Historical skiffs.
• For a sketch of a possible rig if you wanted to make the 6-Footer a classic singlehander, click here.

Part 2 of the Travelogue of the French Canals in a Mirror Dinghy

Some of you, after viewing Part 1 of the Mirror Cruise on the French Canals, may have already jumped over to view Part 2. But to dot the i's and cross the t's, (and to get an easy second post out of this subject) here is another beautifully done video on the second month of the Cruise.

Again, from the video description by our intrepid adventurer, Digby Ayton.

"This month was filled with sunny days, wonderful people and beautiful scenery. I travelled through the Canal du Nivernais and the Canal du Lateral du Loire where I had to finished my journey and sold my boat at the beginning of the Canal du Centre, which was closed due to water problems. I finished my adventure having rowed 700km and passed 240 locks and had an absolutely amazing time.

A Dinghy On The French Canals. Part 2 from D.A on Vimeo.

Six Years!

This November marks the 6th anniversary of this blog. Within the last two years, the frequency of my posts have stopped, stuttered, and skipped and I've debated the end-game to this whole blogging thing. But, I have material in hand to keep going for a while and it helps that I treat this blog as a personal diary of sorts. At times, I admit, I get my enjoyment on the Net by re-reading some old posts of mine. (Narcissism anyone?)

Call it kismet but Tillerman over at Proper Course just posted "Is Blogging Dead". It may be but I'm not changing anything on Earwigoagin and I hope those bloggers on my blog list don't either.

So, after six years, let me acknowledge those bloggers I follow. They are an incredibly talented group. And let me give a tip-of-the-hat to the small cadre of "Earwigoagin" readers out there. Thanks for tuning in.

Travelogue of the French Canals: Camp cruising a 3.3 meter Mirror Dinghy

Part 1 of a well-shot video of one man's cruise in France, in, of all things, a small Mirror Dinghy. From the blurb attached to the video by the dinghy cruiser and videographer, Digby Ayton:

"A short film from my first month sailing and rowing through the French canals in a 3m sailing dinghy. I was given the boat in the town of Rouen, 150km west of Paris. After some repairs I began my adventure, sailing and rowing up the River Siene. After about 100 km I hitched a lift on a barge and three days, two nights in the cargo hold and 200km later I was past Paris and beyond. I began to row again in the town of St Mammes and soon after turned down the River Yonne. I have travelled 100km since then and have arrived at the beginning of the Canal du Nivernais in the Burgundy region of France.

A Dinghy On The French Canals. Part 1 from D.A on Vimeo.

Crosby Classic Moth "Skimmer" Plans

William F. Crosby design.

I lifted these from George A.'s blog. and put them into a PDF format. No reason these plans couldn't be modified to substitute the sit-on-deck with a small cockpit. Also, to jack the sail-plan up higher, the rule of thumb for our current Classic Moths is a 17' (5182 mm) mast length with the 15' (4572 mm) luff length of the sail, leaving approx 2' (610 mm) from deck level to gooseneck.

To download:

1. Hover the mouse over the top, black menu bar.
2. Select the upward facing arrow icon to pop it into another tab in your browser.

An original Skimmer has been found in New England.

Crosby "Skimmer" Moth

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The original Rudder article with plans for the Skimmer can be found here.

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I got an email from Chris Museler mentioning that his friend had picked up an old Classic Moth on Cape Cod. It turned out that his friend, Yarrow Thorne, of Rhode Island, had acquired a very unique find, a Skimmer type Moth designed by William Crosby in 1933. Crosby, the editor at The Rudder magazine, had designed the deep-V Snipe in 1931, which was published and heavily promoted in The Rudder. Now in the heart of the Great Depression, Crosby designed an even cheaper and easy to build sailboat in 1933, this being a catboat to fit the open 11 foot rules of the Mothboat class, a class only a couple of years old but proving to be very popular. Captain Joel Van Sant out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina had built the first Mothboat, Jumping Juniper, in 1929.

As with the Snipe, Crosby published the plans for Skimmer in The Rudder. Unlike the Snipe, the Skimmer was a very shallow-V scow design with no cockpit - a true sit-on-top dinghy. As the publication of the plans for the Lark scow in The Rudder in 1898 would have enormous international impact on small boat sailing, the publishing of the plans for the Mothboat Skimmer would also have a similar international impact. Len Morris, of Australia, had designed an 11-foot scow in 1928, a class he called the Inverloch 11-footer until he saw The Rudder article on the Skimmer and decided to change his class name to the Moth - after all his design was also an 11-foot catboat, a similar scow-type and what was the chance the Australians and American 11-footers would ever get together to race?

The Europeans, particularly the French, started to build Skimmers which formed the beginning of European Moth class. Here is a photo, courtesy of Louis Pillon's Moth article Part 1, of an early French Skimmer, this time built with a cockpit. Click here for Louis Pillon's Moth article Part 2

Considering the historical importance, a Skimmer should definitely be in a museum collection such as Mystic or The Mariners Museum.

Yarrow says his Skimmer Moth was built in plywood which puts the build date as possibly late 1930's or, even more likely, WWII or just after WWII.

Double shrouds, high spreaders, a jumper-strut on a wood mast is very typical of the state of American Mothboat rigging before WWII.

This Skimmer came without a sail, centerboard, or rudder. Yarrow was able to fit a Penquin sail on the spars.

Yarrow was able to cobble together the whole package and race this November in the 2014 Archipelago Rally free-for-all race. In 2014 terms, the lack of cockpit and the low boom position on the Skimmer do not make for comfortable sailing (as we see below with Yarrow painfully kneeling on the deck - wondered what the tacking procedure consisted of - a belly crawl under the boom?). Considering that many builders of The Rudder sailboat plans had no compunction about modifying  the designs, I'm sure many Skimmers were built or modified to have cockpits. (But low freeboard scows like Skimmer were very wet and American Mothboats started evolving with cockpits but also higher, roundish torpedo decks to shed the water before it got to the cockpit.)

Yarrow sent along his impressions on his first sail in the Skimmer.

"The boat was very balanced, the sail was wrong and the tiller was too long, not allowing me to sit far back, I still need to learn how to sail but was very surprised to launch and sail within minutes for 1st time in over 30 yrs. The boat pointed OK in 20 knt's with chop, it liked the center board up a bit and I did not load the orig[inal] rig very much ;). but down wind WOW, it's a surf board and loves to have the nose even with the water, but if you get it wrong it buries the nose to the trunk in a heart beat.

This photo, lifted from the Internet, courtesy of Rufus Van Gruisen.

British Moth - At Speed #2

Great video of a British Moth (our U.K. compatriots in sail insignia's - we both sport the Circle M) blasting along on a reach, getting passed by the larger Phantom dinghy (who almost bought it at the jibe mark) but also going by an overturned Laser. This shows that even a pre WWII hull shape can get up and go.

Great fun!

Some other Earwigoagin British Moth posts can be found here, including the original post "British Moth - At Speed"

Header Photo: Tweezer Gone ..... North!

The previous header photo was of Classic Moth, Tweezer, drifting on Megunticook Lake, Camden, ME - Photo by Polly Saltonstall.

My Classic Moth Tweezer had been languishing over at Chief Boatbuilder Bill's Delaware residence since I redirected my attention in Classic Moths to putting together and racing a Gen I Maser. Bill raced her sporadically for a year or two but she had been inactive for the last couple of years.  Tweezer was sold this summer to Will Sturdy of Maine, who, upon Internet research, looks to be a boat-builder and also a stunt-kite designer and builder par excellence. The clear-finished, cedar-strip Tweezer will be in good hands.

This October, I was reading Carl Cramer's Woodenboat of the Week blog and came across a post of his that mentioned a Classic Moth attending a relaxed fall regatta, with the name Pollys Folly, sailed in Camden, Maine. Curious, I made an inquiry of publisher, John Hanson, one of the organizers. He confirmed, via email, that the Classic Moth racing at Pollys Folly was indeed Tweezer and directed me to his wife's (Polly Saltonstall) blog for a complete report and photos on this fun regatta.

From John Hanson's email:

"We have a small camp on Megunticook Lake, Camden, ME. that we call Polly's ( my wife) Folly. We have been doing the Fall Regatta for 10 years and we get anywhere from 10 to 20 boats of various types from single shells, kayaks, Blue Jays and usually a good fleet of Lasers. Since we began, the Laser fleet has taken on a life of its own. ... But that was never the intent with Polly's Folly, we just wanted to get more people out in small boats to end the sailing season with a bang and a barbeque, the more diverse the better."

More Polly Saltonstall photos from the regatta named after her. Tweezer, heading for the barn despite the calm, being paddled with the daggerboard.

John Hanson has a pretty sailing canoe with the ACA lateen rig. He steers the way pure canoeists do, with a paddle.

Tweezer, starting her journey north. Will Sturdy picked her up at the Brigantine Regatta, N.J. this past June. Photos by John Z.

Seen at the 2014 Sailboat Show: the RS Aero

Where was I before I got distracted on some other topics? Oh, that's right, I was going on about what I had seen at the Annapolis Sailboat Show. With all the hype about RS Sailing's new hiking singlehander introduced to the Laser market, the RS Aero was top on my must-see list.

Initial impression as I walked up to the RS exhibit and tried to pick out the Aero from afar, was that the Aero was smaller than I imagined. I'm not sure why. The dimensions of the Aero put it smack-dab in the Laser size range but optically it was registering smaller to me. Maybe the hype had inflated the physical size of the Aero in my brain. Strange!

First and foremost, when looking at the RS Aero, remember that RS designed this singlehander for racing, unlike the Laser which was originally designed to target the off-the-beach Canadian cottage sailors. (Kirby slyly put enough racing features into the Laser that,when introduced in 1971, it immediately appealed to the dinghy racers.) The RS Aero, as also the Devoti D-Zero, another recently introduced racing singlehander, has considerably more racing features and undoubtedly will be faster than the Laser.

Inspecting a boat at a boat show is mostly from the top. You can get down on your knees and look more closely at the side profile to get a better idea of hull shape but I settled to go over the Aero only from the deck-side. Fit and finish of the Aero was superb; no surprise there, RS is an industry leader in that respect. RS is also known at adding innovative touches to their products. Some that I saw on the Aero are:

1. The foils sported carbon fiber trailing edges with the daggerboard having height markings already stenciled in. The foils looked to be of some laminar flow section with the max thickness close to 50% back. Laminar flow sections, famously promoted by Frank Bethwaite, are designed for higher speeds.
2.  The carbon spars are from Selden. Like the Laser, when you change rig sizes in the RS Aero, the top mast stays the same and the bottom mast changes length. The lower section also had the nice touch of integrated markings for the cunningham set-up
3. The Aero is set up for vang sheeting and the vang, a cascading type, looked powerful enough.
4. The problem with flow-thru double-bottom layout of the Aero is that, in light air, water can slosh over the transom and into the back of the boat, especially when the skipper is moving aft during a tack. RS solves this by putting two honeycomb transom fittings with mylar flaps either side of the rudder attachment hump.
5. RS has a clever custom designed fitting so that two turning blocks can hang off the same rope attachments, either side of the mast.
6. Two controls are led to the side deck, the cunningham and the outhaul. The tails on these are shock corded so they don't drag in the water. The vang is led to a swivel cleat fitting sitting just forward of the daggerboard.

Some photos:

Bow on shot. You can see the two controls led out to the gunwhales. The hiking coutour of the deck also looks particularly comfy.

The cascading vang. It ends in a single part led along the bottom of the boom, thru the gooseneck, down to a turning block at the base of the mast and then to a swivel cleat in front of the daggerboard. I didn't count the purchase but it looked to have enough grunt.

The trailing edge carbon strip which was on both daggerboard and rudder. This is the daggerboard with the integrated height markings.

The honeycomb transom flap fitting. A simple mylar flap keeps the water out and opens up when there is enough water pressure from inside.

The custom designed turning block fitting that utilizes modern rope attachment technology.

And finally, you can't truly kick the tires at a boat show. You need some hands-on experience and for that it is best to jump over to Tillerman at Aerobian.com who is actually a passionate Aero sailor and is blogging about his impressions.

Classic Moth Nationals 2014

I didn't make it to the Classic Moth Nationals this year. That weekend I was floating around Annapolis Harbor on a Herreshoff Rozinante. John Z sent along some photos of the event so, in keeping with the dictum of the bloggosphere... when you have material, write about it (even when you were nowhere near the action).

Saturday was breezy, blowing across the Elizabeth City River, as it is a majority of the time (though a little eastward this year). Sunday was lighter and flukier with about the same direction.

This is the 25th Nationals since the revival of the Classic Moth and, to mark this milestone, the National Champion was to come from the Vintage Division (those who are racing hulls built before 1950 - there was five in number this year). Walt Collins overcame boat problems on Saturday and in deftly deciphering Sunday's shifts, came from behind to finish 1st in Vintage and take the National Trophy. Gary Gowans, sailing his homebuilt and slightly modified Cates design Good Newz, won the Gen 1 division over an Olympic Europe and Jamey Rabbit borrowed Jeff Linton's Mousetrap to run away with the Gen II trophy. (Jamey was a young hot-shot Mothist when I first showed up on the Classic scene but has been absent for about ten years... it's good to see him back in a Classic Moth.)

George A. over at Mid-Atlantic Musings actually attended the regatta and has written an extensive report complete with a large selection of  excellent photos from Hope Malott, I recommend you read his post; click here.

Some photos. Most are from John Z with the exceptions noted. As always, to get higher resolution, click inside the photo.

Below is Gary Gowan's Cates design, winner of Gen I division, sitting on the Pugh's lawn. As far as I know, this is the first time a Cates has won Gen I; the Cates being the most successful Moth design in the U.S in the early to mid 1960's. (Oops! got that one wrong. George A. sends along this correction... this is history before my time in the class.)

"Mike Albert won the Nats in 1997 sailing the ex-Bill Schill Cates, Pegasus, over Joe Bousquet's Mistral (Joe failed to attend the skipper's meeting and was dsq'ed for passing through the start/finish line on a critical race. This faux pas cost Joe B. the regatta). This was before we had the Gen I and II divisions and shows that a Cates in the right hands could be competitive against the best boats of that era. Jeff Linton also was able to almost beat Mark Saunders and co. the first time he raced a Moth down at St. Pete, sailing an old beat up Fletcher-Cates he borrowed from Ken Willus."

Gary Gowan's two Mothboat trailer rig ready for the homebound trip. His pretty Gen I winner is on top with a winter project Vintage hull on the bottom.

Jamey Rabbit is at least ten years older from the last time he appeared at the Nationals but he hasn't lost the magic sailing touch of his youth. He had six 1st place finishes out of eight races.

A Hope Malott photo of Jamey rounding a leeward mark. Concentration plus plaid sailing shorts. Now that's stylin!

Another Hope Malott photo. This is fellow Marylander Victor Stango launching from the Pugh's property for Saturdays racing. Victor has a wider Gen I Lindenberg design.

The Classic Moths are all about diversity. From left to right, a Vintage Ventnor with a wood mast (all Vintage Mothboats have to sail with a wooden mast), a Gen I Lindenberg, and a Gen I Olympic Europe.

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The Results of the 2014 Classic Moth Nationals.

The Gen II winner is marked with yellow, the Gen I winner is marked with green, the Vintage and National Champion is marked with orange.

Skipper	Races	Hull Design
Jamey Rabbit	1,1,1,1,2,1,1,[2]	Mousetrap
Mike Parsons	[4],3,4,4,1,3,3,1	Mistral
John Zseleczky	3,[4],3,3,3,2,2,3	Collins-Mistral
Gary Gowans	5,5,5,[6],5,4,4,4	Gowans-Cates (Gen 1)
John Pugh	6,[10],8,9,4,6,7,7	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Victor Stango	7,7,7,[12],6,8,6,6	Lindenberg (Gen 1)
Rutledge Young	[DNF],6,6,5,9,5,5,12	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Joe Bousquet	2,2,2,2,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Mistral
Walt Collins	8,8,[DNC],DNC,7,9,8,9	Dorr Willey (Vintage)
Greg Duncan	11,[12],11,7,8,11,9,11	Connecticut (Vintage)
George Albaugh	9,11,9,11,10,[12],12,10	Connecticut (Vintage)
Ed Salva	13,[15],12,8,12,10,11,8	Olympic Europe (Gen 1)
Zach Balluzzo	10,9,10,10,[DNC],DNC,DNC,DNC	Maser (Gen 1)
Dan Mallott	14,DNF,[DNC],DNC,13,13,14,13	Shelley (Gen 1)
Don January	15,[DNF],DNC,DNC,DNC,14,13,14	Ventnor (Vintage)
Bill Boyle	12,12,[DNF],DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC,DNC	Abbot (Vintage)

Some Idem Photos from Andre Cloutier

Andre Cloutier over at the Ravenwood blog took some fetching photos of the Idem class sloop Elfmere when he was attending the Wooden Heritage Canoe Association Assembly on Lower St. Regis Lake. His original post of the WHCA gathering can be found here.

I have posted before on Earwigoagin about the Crane designed Idem class sloops where I provided more details about one of America's oldest racing classes.

In the early 1900's, St. Regis Lake was the summer destination for many of New York City's upper-upper crust as the New York Times reported in this 1902 piece.

"The month, of August in the Adirondacks opens with all the camps occupied, with possibly a few exceptions, and in those instances preparations are hastened to have everything in readiness for the coming in the near future of those who are to occupy them. Of camp life in the Adirondacks this season it may be said that it is the most fashionable of years, for the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Reids, the Morgans, the Blaines, the McCormicks, the Stokeses, the Mortons, and many others are in their camps, some of which are new and others of which were enlarged and extended In anticipation of entertaining many friends during August and September. This, together with the number and class of the applicants who have reserved apartments at Paul Smith's for August and September indicates that the St. Regis Chain of Lakes will he the rendezvous of many persons distinguished in the financial and business worlds; as well as the social world.

More of the interesting history of the St. Regis Yacht Club can be found over at their Wiki page.

And here is a particularly well-done drone video of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association showing the stunning beauty of the lake region.


Wooden Canoe Heritage Association 2014 Assembly from Above the World Films on Vimeo.

Seen at the 2014 U.S. Sailboat Show - Part 2 - MXNext

The MXNext is the most swoopiest, curvaceous, and colorful of the current crop of performance singlehanders. With a narrow, wedge hull with very little waterplane up-front (very similar to where the International Canoe class is going) married to wide, arching wings, the MXNext is a stunning visual experience when viewed on land. A 4.35 meter, all carbon, hiking singlehander with main and assymetric, designed by ex-pat Russian Vlad Murnikov, the MX-Next is being built in Massachusetts by Mark LeBlanc.

I talked briefly with Mark at the show. He said stability was similar to the Laser but the speed was much faster, as to be expected with the power of the wings and spinnaker. Twelve had been sold into Russia and there was a fellow who showed up on the first day of the show to put a deposit down on a hull. As Toyota found out with the Prius, not only do you need to make technical advances but the customer also needs to make a visual statement, hence the Prius shape has remained more-or-less the same angular sides/curved hatchback shape for fourteen years. If you want to go fast without undue gymnastics and embarrassment (as the foiling Moth treats novice owners) and have the added bonus of the most stand-out dinghy on the lake, look at the MXNext. A tad expensive at 13K but sometimes statements cost a bit.

I hate to admit it but the MXNext looks more moth-like than the Classic Moth class.

Seen at the 2014 U.S. Sailboat Show - Part 1 - Dinghy Rudders

I did attend the U.S Sailboat Show this year - as usual somewhat late in getting around to posting on it.

How deep is your rudder? Probably not deep enough when looking at the rudders to these three performance dinghies exhibited at the show.

Rudder for the MX-Next

Rudder for the RS Aero.

And the winner for the deepest, narrowest rudder goes to the Zim 15.

Music Whenever: "Pantaloons" by Tape Five

A brassy, lusty, swing tune with enough skin, but still safe for work.

2014 MASCF - The Rescue

After watching the start to the sailboat race for the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival sailboat race I had the option of being dropped off with the race committee at the corner of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum harbor to watch the finish or, stay with the CBMM workboat, Volunteer, and motor through the fleet as it beat toward the finish. I chose the latter but as soon as we poked our nose out of the harbor there was, dead ahead, a sail with no hull, a sight that brokered further investigation.

It turned out it was one of the racers that needed assistance and it was also someone I knew. Larry Haff, a canoe sailor, was racing his homebuilt Polynesian outrigger canoe and as we drew near, we could see his main hull awash, Larry sitting forlornly in what was now a bathtub with the outrigger bobbing alongside, completely detached. The outrigger attachment point had failed when Larry had hardened up to go upwind and he was now discovering that he didn't have enough buoyancy in the main hull to support his weight and the sloshing water. I wondered how difficult this rescue would be as we would have to maneuver this longish workboat alongside but Lad Mills did a great job. Thankfully, the aft freeboard on Volunteer is low, the aft deck wide so we were able to work efficiently to get the rig out of the canoe and onto Volunteer, the outrigger stowed onboard and then, with some tugging and grunting, roll Larry up onto Volunteer's deck.

On our initial approach, the crew on Volunteer viewing the half sunken canoe. From left to right, Tweezerman, Rick Scofield, Lad Mills with Larry Haff in the water. Photo lifted from the CBMM Facebook page.

Rig and outrigger secured on Volunteer, Rick watches closely that the canoe main hull, still with very little freeboard, doesn't veer off or dive under the water as we slowly tow her in.

Lad Mills at the helm. Larry Haff  adding another pair of eyes astern. Other than the outrigger attachment failure there didn't seem to be any other major damage.

Larry Haff's outrigger canoe, back on shore, loaded up for the journey back to Massachusetts and some engineering modifications over the winter.