Darin McCauley
The previous header photo was taken by professional photographer, Darin McCauley, at this year's Classic Moth Nationals at Elizabeth City. If you look closely, you can see this photo was captured just a millisecond after the point of no return, witnessed by the still present trail of water coming off the tip of the daggerboard. (Also many thanks to Jay Yerkes for performing this difficult athletic maneuver so elegantly.)
I didn't make this year's Nationals because, for most of the summer, my head wasn't into racing. Turnout was off this year for the Nationals but the local fleets in Maryland and South Carolina are gaining strength with local regattas featuring 11 Classic Moths - so a bit of a trade-off.
I feature several other of Darin's excellent photos below. Just a quick plug for Darin, he writes;
"If you know of anyone who could use photographic coverage of any sailing event please let them know I'm available!"
To reach Darin McCauley - DMC@darinmccauley.com
Bill Boyle debuted his
brand new woodie - a cedar-strip Europe Dinghy, one of two home-built Moths seeing their first Nationals. Bill is slated to build a second one over this winter.
Click here for Bill's website on the Europe build.
Darin McCauley
John Zseleczky (on the right) debuted the second home-built woodie, his Y2K-mod Mistral, and finished 2nd overall.
His build was documented here.
Darin McCauley
Blogger George Albaugh finished 3rd in the Gen 1 class with his Olympic Europe Dinghy.
George's more complete report on the 2016 Classic Moth Nationals can be found here.
Darin McCauley
Gary Gowan won the Gen I division in his home-built, woodie, modified Cates (he actually finished third overall which I think is a first for a Gen I since we started slotting the slower designs into their own division).
Darin McCauley
Finally, not a Darin McCauley photo, but one by John Z, of his new Moth with the race area on the Pasquotank River in the background.
John Zseleczky
Results of the 2016 Classic Moth Nationals. Congrats to Mike Parsons, the 2016 champion.
Skipper | Races | Hull Design |
Mike Parsons | 1,1,1,1,2,2,3,[3],2 | Mistral |
John Zseleczky | 2,2,2,2,1,3,2,2,[3] | (New) Mistral -Y2Kmod |
Gary Gowans | 5,4,4,5,3,4,7,6,[7] | Cates - mod (Gen I) |
Bob Patterson | 6,5,5,3,4,8,8,[8],4 | Patterson Shelley (Gen I) |
Walt Collins | 4,3,3,6,13,5,6,4,[13] | Feather - mod Ventnor (Gen I) |
George Albaugh | 7,6,6,[7],5,6,4,5,5 | Olympic Europe (Gen 1) |
John Pugh | 3,[13],7,4,6,9,9,9,6 | Olympic Europe (Gen 1) |
Joe Bousquet | 13,13,13,13,13],1,1,1,1 | Mistral |
Zach Balluzo | 9,8,9,8,7,7,5,7,[9] | Mistral |
Bill Boyle | 8,7,8,9,8,10,10,[10],8 | (New) Woodie Europe (Gen I) |
Don Hewitt | 10,12,13,13,12,12,[13],11,10 | Olympic Europe (Gen I) |
Jay Yerkes | 13,13,12,10,9,11,DSQ,12,13 | Mistral |
For the first time in a while, there were no vintage Classic Moths racing in 2016. It is also interesting that 9 out of the 12 competing were wooden dinghies.