John Z went off down south for the Classic Moth Midwinters and relays the news. Weather was beautiful in Gulfport, Florida; sunny 80F (26C), light winds in the morning with the regular breeze clocking in for the afternoon. Nine Classic Moths showed up with the CMBA resident professional and all-around nice guy, Jeff Linton, again making off with top honors. Shore photos are from John Zseleczky and on-the-water photos from Amy Linton (which I have converted to black and white in my own fashion).
(George Albaugh has his more extensive Midwinter report up on his blog.)
George Albaugh with his wooden Europe on the Gulfport YC dinghy lawn.
Greg Duncan rigging his glass Europe.
Jamey Rabbit with no. 134, his new modified Mistral design. Jamey had teething problems on Saturday but came back strong on Sunday, posting 1st's and 2nd's. Jamey started this project back in 2015, seven years to completion, which is getting into my extended time frame for boat projects. In the photo below, you can definitely see he pinched in the topsides up forward. (Compare to the standard Mistral shape of Joe Bosquet, no. 48, in the background.)
Jamey Rabbit rigging. His new Classic Moth has carbon bits and bobs all over the place. The aft deck looks like you could launch drones off it. Jamey documented his Classic Moth build over at his Blackberry Boatworks blog.
John Z motoring upwind. John would finish 2nd to Jeff in Gen II.
Mark Saunders in his modified wood-redecked Europe giving Jamey Rabbit a run for his money. Mark would win the Gen 1 division.
Mark Saunders in his Europe upwind. From this angle looks very similar to my Maser. I've been looking at film photography recently and somehow I rendered this photo in Photoshop very much in the ethos of Japanese street photographer, Daido Moriyama; very contrasty with bright highlights and darker darks.
A start. Jeff Linton, no.102, has already got a nice jump on the fleet.
Mike Parsons catching up with Rod Koch (the other Rod). Rod, along with Jeff is a past Sunfish champion. Rod raced a modified Europe back around the 2010 time frame.
Joe Bousquet holding a slim lead over Jeff Linton at the reach mark.
Mark Saunders in his Gen 1 Europe holding off the faster Gen II Mistrals of Mike Parsons and Joe Bousquet.
Yep, I'll soon post some pix which Lennie P. took on the Saturday of the event before the camera died. Been busy.
ReplyDeleteTweezerman: my post re: 2022 Mid-Winters is now up on Mid-Atlanticmusings.
ReplyDeleteGPA
In the late 1940's my godfather John Higgins built the first two New Zealand Scow Moths.
ReplyDeleteOne was for my father and the other was for John's brother Skip. I am pretty sure that all three of them had just returned from Europe having fought in Italy. (Can be verified by John's family.)
They tossed a coin and my father's moth got sail number 2 and Skip number 1.
I still have the complete yacht and the rudder, mast and boom are douglas - all brass fittings except that I replaced the stays with stainless wire. I particularly like the brass
I am pretty certain that the mast and boom are of douglas fir and are beautifully made.
The cotton sail is the original with the moth symbol and the number 2 in red.
Unlike the photos in this blog, the bow is reminiscent of the leading edge of a wing rather than sharp.
Flotsam has only been sailed once since 1950.
If you post a follow up comment I should see it via email.
David Haysom
Auckland, NZ