Click here for information about CRAB (Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating).
It somewhat pains me to admit this, but I've done more keelboat sailing over this past summer than dinghy sailing. I've been volunteering at CRAB (Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating - my long time sailing friend, Dick White, is sailing director there) and I've been kicking around the Bay with various groups in CRAB's keelboats, the Freedom 21's, which were designed specifically for handicap sailing.
The blogmeister had to make a singlehanded delivery of a Freedom 21 from the home-port of Sandy Point State Park down to Annapolis (the Freedom 21's were sailing in Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta off Annapolis that Saturday). I took my trusty pocket waterproof camera and shot a very short video of the 6-7 mile jaunt (including selfie).
I was delivering the Freedom 21 down to Annapolis for the annual Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta, where, as it turns out, US Sailing had decided to feature this years regatta, and CRAB, in this well done video.
The local Chesapeake Bay sailing rag, Spinsheet Magazine, captured the elusive blogmeister crewing at a previous Wounded Warriors Regatta.
Some of us have read Dennis Connor's "No Excuse to Lose" but, then again, some of us still have a problem dotting the i's and crossing the t's when it comes to implementing Dennis's recipe to win sailboat races. Fricke Martschink, forging his own way to greatness, pauses to refuel during a break in the racing at the Classic Moth Midwinters. Video from Amy Linton. Classic Moth is a modified Skol.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been unearthing some old video clips on my hard drive. This is one where, for the first time, I narrated the video as I shot it. Unfortunately you have to put up with the blogmeister's mumble-mouth delivery which demonstrates that I, thankfully, could have never had a career as a TV newsreader. (Even I have a hard time deciphering what I was trying to say - at one point it sounds like I said "outspoken cockpit" when describing an open cockpit design - Sheesh!)
There is one historical mistake in the video. Skip Etchells did his Connecticut design in the late 1940's, not the late 1950's.
I've had some video clips hanging around my computer for at least two years. I've just got round to collating some of the clips into a video short of the blogmeister going on a very light air drift in his Classic Moth around Rhode River (one of the rivers just south of Annapolis). Nothing exciting at all about this day-sail but since all kinds of dreck gets posted on YouTube, I'll occasionally keep adding mine.
For a professed sailing center, Annapolis has been behind the eight ball in running a classic yacht race (Annapolis does have the "Good Old Boat" regatta in the fall for all the classic plastic classes - but this isn't quite the same). Well, this year saw the inaugural running of the Elf Classic Yacht Race featuring the historically significant, restored 1888 topsail cutter "Elf" and the replica Sandbaggers. The race was also open to more modern "Classic Yachts" such as a 50' S&S design and Capt. Earl's smaller version of the "Bluenose" schooner. The course was the always popular Bay crossing, Annapolis to St. Michaels.
I was able to catch the start of the race on Saturday morning. It was a traditional start as was common practice in the late 1800's. At 9 am, the start gun was fired from the upper deck of the Eastport Yacht Club. Skippers hopped into their dinghies/inflatables and rowed like mad to their yachts. Only when the skippers arrived and climbed on deck, could the anchors be weighed, sails hoisted and racing commence.
A short video of "Elf" starting the Race named after her.................
For more info on Elf, refer to Thomas Armstrong's excellent posts on Elf from his blog "70.8%".
I do have a question for the bloggosphere? What in the world is the figurehead for Elf?... a sea monster? a sea pig with fangs?..... see the following pics...........
San Francisco has been running their Classic Yacht event, the Master Mariners Regatta, for years. A short video of some of the Classics spotted at this years Master Mariners regatta..........
The US Intercollegiate Nationals (Womens, Team Racing, Doublehanded) is taking place at Cascade Locks on the Columbia River, Oregon. One can get the feel of the skills, practice and athleticism of the current intercollegiate sailor in the following video featuring roll tack after roll tack after roll tack. Video taken at the Navy 2010 Trux Umsted Regatta.
Chris Hale of the U.S built a Bunyip IX scow hull several years ago and a slideshow was made of his photographs. This video dovetails nicely with Ray Hilton's plans and building instructions.
This past October, I did another weekend stint of Race Committee for the Naval Academy's Women's Fall Regatta. Warm weather, lightish winds and skilled women dinghy sailors going at it. Watching intercollegiate regattas over the past three years, there is one conundrum that has percolated up in my brain.
How is it that junior sailors, who seem to be very rules averse, (see my post about the cheating at the Laser Radial ACC's ) become magically transformed as intercollegiate sailors. For the most part intercollegiate sailors know the rules, acknowledge infractions on the water, and do their penalties. During the Women's Fall Regatta, out of 30 or so races there were only four or five protests filed.
Two instances from the weekend stand out in my mind.
I watched a St. Mary's sailor, who after finishing, was earnestly discussing an incident from the previous race with a fellow competitor. The discussion was calm and her hands were active in painting the boats positions. This rules discussion was treated as learning experience with the expectation that this wouldn't happen again.
At the finish boat, in one race we had a strong flood that had closed the starboard lane into the finish down to about 4 feet; below that you had to tack onto port to cross the line. This created one of those sailing black holes you see every once in a while. Those who tacked onto port were blanketed by starboard tackers and then slowed to a standstill by the flood. More boats piled into this zone, confronted by port tackers completely stopped, and more starboard tackers ended up below the safe zone and were now tacking. It was a mess. But there was no yelling and the poor port tackers were doing their damndest to flop back onto starboard to avoid fouling right of way boats. If I had been involved in that scrum, I would have stood up in my boat and railed against the race committee, the weather gods, the flooding tide and so on. But, thankfully, these women were much more mature.
So how is a junior sailor, who is now competing with dubious morals, molded into a responsible, mature intercollegiate competitor?
Is it?
Peer Pressure - There seems to be an expectation among intercollegiate competitors that if you foul, you will do your turns.
Coaching - Certainly in college racing with no throw outs, the college coach wants consistent good finishes. A DSQ for a silly foul where the sailor neglected to do penalty turns is a definite no-no. It adds a ton of points to the teams overall score.
Lack of parental involvement - There are parents watching the college racing but the key is - they are watching... they are not coaching, they are not haranguing the race committee, or the coaches, or their kids.
This is not to say that once intercollegiate sailors return to regular sailing they don't attempt to pull a fast one every so often on us oldsters.
A week later, the Naval Academy ran the coed Trux Umstead Regatta in lots of breeze. Here is a video of the 420's and Flying Juniors approaching and rounding the offset mark.
One of the events I missed this summer, to my immense disappointment; I didn't do my annual camping/boating trip to Sugar Island during the American Canoe Association Encampment. Though I've retired from International Canoe racing, Sugar Island is my yearly chance to reconnect to the IC guys still hammering around in these pure, balls to the wall, sailing machines. My post on my 2009 Sugar Island campsite is over here (for some reason that video has my co-workers cracking up).
I filmed the 2009 Round Sugar Island Race (traditionally only raced once during the week but, in 2009, the IC sailors enjoyed it so much they ran it a second time). The course is twice around Sugar Island. After the first lap, you reverse direction. Start and finish is off New York Bay. I caught the action from Hurricane Point which, in the prevailing westerly's, has the most wind and a tricky cross chop bouncing off the shore.
The class has changed it's rules since I raced. The new rules International Canoe is much thinner (30") and much lighter than the ones I raced. In the video, Bill Beaver is racing "Lust Puppet", an IC I owned during the 1990's.
Round Sugar Island, 2009............
I ran into Paul Miller, another retired IC sailor this past week and he directed me to another International Canoe video, this one of the 2010 North American's in San Francisco (capsize city!).
Shot by Gail Yando, significant other of Del Olsen (Del, USA 243, who I must reluctantly report is my age, and still racing these beasts hard in a breeze).
Did you notice Erich Chase's partial wardrobe malfunction at about 7:38 into the video?
Doryman posted a comment to my Brigantine post wondering where was I in the photos. Humble of demeanor, I left out photos of me racing at Brigantine, but, since you asked, I was the one sailing a Laser. Um.....Actually there was three of us sailing Lasers in the Classic Moth regatta at Brigantine.
Laser's in a Classic Moth regatta? How can that be?
Well here is a photo of me and my "Laser".
That's not a Laser!
At one time she most certainly was a Laser, but now #105 is transformed, a rare Classic Moth emerging from the Laser chrysalis into a sailing craft we call a Maser. For the tale that can be told is about several intrepid Classic Mothist's, in true tinkering, Frankenboat tradition, have been happily sawing up old Laser hulls and then piecing them back together into Classic Moths (Masers). The trick is in figuring how to take a 13'4" (4.064 meters) Laser hull and squeeze it down to the Classic Moth length of 11' (3.35 meters).
The genre was started by two Norfolk, Virginia Mothists, Randy Starks and Al Whitener. Initially they just lopped 2 feet fron the Laser transom; a sailable solution but unfortunately ending up with too much wetted surface to stay with other Classic Moths. Undaunted, these two embarked on building several more Masers. each version getting better.
Here are the barebones steps to make a Classic Moth from a Laser (tip of the hat to both Randy and Al for their innovations).
Look for an old abandoned Laser hull, either in the weeds or upside down baking in the sun, a Laser that hasn't been moved in years, preferably a Laser where the owner has lost everything but the hull. Buy hull.
Cut deck off hull.
Cut raked bow off hull.
Cut a chevron shaped wedge out of center of hull (eliminating daggerboard trunk) to shorten hull.
Glass aft hull and front hull back together.
To add more rocker to hull, slit keel line to about 3 feet from transom and push more rocker in. Glass keel line together.
Pinch up bow and glass together. Make sure hull is no longer than 11'.
Add 1/8 inch plywood bulkheads and decks (saving about 40 to 45 lbs on the Laser weight.
Add Classic Moth rig.
Go sailing
Here are two Masers sitting on the lawn at the Elizabeth City Nationals. In the foreground is one of the Starks/Whitener versions. In the background is one built by Joe Bousquet.
Classic Moth #105 is the last Maser built by Randy Starks. Look hard and you can definitely tell it retains the original Laser transom.
A true Maser aficionado looking for a primo Maser conversion, one worthy of top dollar (at least $400 for the hull) should look for the following............
Maser must retain the original Laser transom with serial number. Extra points if the hull still has the original Laser bailer well (and bailer).
Must exhibit some lumpy unfairness along the topsides where the split hulls were joined.
Bottom line, a top of the line, show quality Maser must have some Laser lineage visually preserved. (I would also add a so-so paint job to what I consider a proper Maser..... to highlight the tinkering history of this particular model; but that is just my preference).
A shot of Joe Bousquet's Maser under sail.
And a YouTube video of your humble scribe narrating another modification project on his Maser.
King Tillerman has another blogwriting assignment.... what will the future of saling look llke in 2025 or thereabouts. One disadvantage of getting around to the topic very, very late in the cycle is that most everyone else has covered what I wanted to say.... but I'll say it again anyway. First a little history.
Back in 1974, when I had long hair, when sunburn was a good thing, and when I also had the vim and vigor of a dinghy sailor in his early twenty's, I crewed in the International 14 Nationals, held at Association Island on Lake Ontario. For those old enough to remember, Association Island was the national sailing center of the USYRU (now US Sailing) for about 4 years in the 1970's. Many major regattas in the 1970's were held out of this rather primitive camp grounds. As we were winding up the International 14 Nationals, what class was filtering in for their first World Championship but the nascent Windsurfer. Already, the sailing media had anointed this odd looking sailing contraption, this surfboard with a sail, as the sailing craft of the future. I was excited to see first hand what this phenomenon was all about. My skipper, Eric Arens, and I happened to sit down with Windsurfer wunderkind, Matt Schweitzer (son of Hoyle Schweitzer, one of the inventors of the sport) at breakfast. Matt, thirteen years of age, blond mop of hair, Californian surfer dude through and through. We eagerly plied the Windsurfer champion with questions..... Are tactics different with a Windsurfer?.....What about the rules? Each question was met with a cheerful admission that he knew nothing about tactics, windshifts or rules, it was just fun to go fast and, somewhere during the race, he found himself in front. And the other favorite to win the Worlds, Robbie Naish, was another, even younger, surfer dude clone! We walked away from breakfast chuckling and also shaking our heads. Was this where the sport of sailboat racing was going?
Well, thirty plus years on, the windsurfer has evolved, not as a course racing machine, but a wonderful sailing machine in a different realm........
And the most popular racing dinghies and scows of the 1970's are for the most part, the most popular racing dinghies and scows of 2010. The rigs are tweaked, the hulls are stiffer, they may have adopted an assymetric spinnaker, but most of us are racing dinghies/scows as we were racing in 1970.
So we have continuity and innovation. Where do I see the trends in small boat sailing by 2025...
Multihulls will become even more popular. At my old club, West River SC, A-cats, Nacra 20's and F-16's now make up a sizeable portion of the racing fleets. Stability, speed, and the fun factor are all working in the multihulls favor.
And for those of us well into Geezerdom by 2025 and still wanting to bash around in small boats, I see an increase in popularity of those kayak/trimaran hybrids....the ones you sit in and steer with your feet, like the Hobie Adventure Island kayak.....
Some of the Baby Boom Geezers will spend retiremnet building boats and attending small boat festivals such as the Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival in St. Michaels MD. I expect these festivals to increase in popularity.
I have also been famously wrong in many of my predictions.
I've retired Tweezer, my beautiful Gen2 Classic Moth. She's gone back to Bill Boyle, one of her original build team. It's tough to let go of a boat you designed, built and then raced since 2004...... but it's time.
I designed Tweezer with flatter rocker and a potential higher speed without realizing that most Classic Moth racing on the East Coast is shorter course, with lighter air, large shifts and variations in wind speed. Tweezer did fine in a breeze, winning a regatta now and then but always struggled when the wind was down. Part of it was wetted surface, part of it was some of the extra volume up front that seemed to plow when going offwind. Tweezer was also slightly heavy which I could have attacked by redecking her, but she was too beautiful for that.
Tweezer hull lines;
And my!...my!...my!... was she a beautiful little sailing craft. Strip planked out of Atlantic Cedar, both hull and side decks. I'm not known as Mr. Maintenance, but with Tweezer I kept the varnish up. Every time I went on a road trip, I would get someone wandering over at a gas station, rest stop, supermarket to admire and talk boats. They may have just finished some wood kayaks, own some oddball catamaran, or crew on a tall ship, but Tweezer attracted boat nuts of all persuasions to come over and chat.
I'm proud of the design. Tweezer was remarkably vice free, would tack like a dream and kept the bow up reasonably well when going downwind in breeze and waves. As a narrow waterline design she had her quirks and could dump you for inattention, but thats what a Gen 2 Classic Moth is all about.
No regrets at all about the Tweezer project. All great memories in the designing building and sailing of the Tweezer. Again, I would like to offer up my thanks to Bill Boyle and George Albaugh who ensured that Tweezer got built.
Andy Slavinskas did some beautiful 3D CAD rendering of the Tweezer lines. His perspectives are shown below.
I've been enjoying Tillerman on his great post about his travails in the current Newport RI Laser frostbite season . Frostbiting in small sailing dinghies is something I did in my twenties but now, at this stage in life, I cannot drag up any great enthusiasm for ice cream headaches, complete numbness in hands and feet, and having to pee, all the while encased in a waterproof suit that takes 20 minutes to put on or off. I must be approaching "old codgerism" where it is easier to relate tales of "when I used to chip ice out of the bilge and then brave multiple capsizes in gale force winds and frigid waters" than it is to actually go out and do it.
One of my substitute activities during the winter is ice skating. I jury rigged a head cam during an ice skating session at McMullen Ice Arena. My test market (did I say friends?) say it is my most boring video ever. One wag says it looks like I'm stalking the skate guards. Will this stop me from foisting this on my blog readers? No way!
Team Annapolis arrived Friday to rig boats and have a practice sail, only to have a cold front roll through with torrential rains and gale force South winds. The boats stayed on the trailer while a large group had a late lunch in an Italian restaurant in downtown Gulfport; watching the horizontal rain and waves from Boca Ciega Bay crashing on the shore. Saturday's forecast was for 15-25 mph on the backside of the front and it didn't disappoint. The RC and some competitors put their game face on and ventured out, but it was too much. Racing was cancelled. Sunday dawned with a manageable 8-12 but cold; felt like November in Annapolis. Seven short races were quickly dispatched to make the series. Mike Parsons continued his string from 2010 to take the Midwinters. John Zseleczky took second and Mark Saunders third. Fourteen Classic Moths registered with 10 making it out on Sunday. Tip of the hat to local Mothboat Floridians for shelter, parties and brauts, burgers, beer........ Rod Koch, Jeff and Amy Linton, Merv and Barbara Wescoat, and the Gulfport YC Race Committee team.
A YouTube clip from Saturdays aborted attempt to get some racing in.
As a young buck, thrashing around on some very high powered dinghies, I didn't give much mind to traditional boats. Pretty, yes, but why would someone bash around on those slow pokes when one can scream from one capsize to the next. With age has come some softening. Some of this is my love of history, and some is my love of variety; there is just so much beige plastic decks and white production hulls that one can absorb before the brain screams; ENOUGH! Today I'm much more apt to run over to a skipper of a Luders 16 than I am in chasing down the crew of an Australian 18. This doesn't mean I would run out to buy either one of those boats; but perhaps in my dotage I've begun to appreciate the beauty of traditional yachts and the people who build and sail them.
Which brings me to the St. Michaels Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival. I added to the end of this post that Bob Blomquist and I have gone to the Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival the past two years, but unfortunately, I couldn't make it this year. Bob is a boat builder with many different home built craft under his belt. He has built probably the fastest Bolger Light schooner which he has brought to the Festival in previous years.
(Click on pictures to get higher resolution).
But this year he decided to bring a restored Penguin. They have a sailing race at the Festival, a one lapper and there are usually over 60 sailing craft at the start line. It's a zoo but a fun zoo. Well this year Bob and his 11 1/2 foot Penguin Won!!!..... beat all those larger traditional boats in about ten knots.
Bob in his restored lime green Penguin.
First leg of the sailing race;
Bob won on the upwind legs and though most of the festival participants aren't racing sailors, by most rights he shouldn't have beaten the larger craft with more sail area. And that is the Achilles heel of traditional craft. With their barn door rudders and shallow centerboards, they just don't go upwind as well as the more modern sailing craft. And there are plenty of dinghies that are faster than the pokey Penguin.
Here is a picture of the 2008 MASCF sailing race where a Classic Moth (all varnished I may add), all 11' to the far right in this picture, a small racing dinghy also vanquished the entire fleet in the MASCF sailing race.
And from YouTube, the 2008 Mid Atlantic Small Craft Festival. Bob Blomquist and hs Bolger Light Schooner are featured at the end of the video.......
(change to 480p for higher resolution video)
I'm planning to attend MASCF this year. These festivals really do capture the joy of boating.
I know of several sailboat classes that have been reborn after going bust, but I know of only one where the class is being revived despite most of the existing boats (built pre WWII) being safely ensconced in museums.
John Summers has developed a stitch and glue plywood 16X30 sailing canoe; the 16X30 being the premier American racing sailing canoe that existed up till 1933 when Brits Uffa Fox and Roger DeQuincey thoroughly trounced the Americans on their home waters and the resultant new class rules produced the modern International Canoe class (the International Canoe just recently revised their rules again).
Weather mark rounding on Sunday;
#79 and #2000 were 1, 2 in the fast Gen 2 class.
#55 and #112 were 1, 2 in the Vintage class which, at this weather mark, rounded ahead of the supposedly faster Gen 1 Mothboats (#30 being the first Gen 1 round in this video).
Merv Wescoat, the oldest competitor (80 something?), in 115 is knocking on the door at the front of the fleet.
I like the "good ole boy" radio banter in the background. (I love Elizabeth City... let me tell you about their barbecue .... a special flavor not to be found anywhere North....mmm...mmm!)
Thanks again to Amy Parker
Your humble blogmeister finished 6th. My starts and first beats were OK. I was just slow offwind in the light stuff, usually losing at least two boats on the reaches and maybe another one or two on the run. The light stuff has never been my forte in my Tweezer. If I reworked ice hockey's plus/minus statistic for sailboat racing, where for every boat you passed during the regatta you'd get a plus 1 and, conversely, for every boat that passed you, you'd get a minus 1, I figured I'd be at a minus 28 for this regatta.... Ouch! Oh well, when you're racing Classic Moths, at the end of the day, it's all good.
Mike Parson's been knocking at the top spot for a while now. He's won everything in the Mid-Atlantic this year and was the deserved winner of the 2009 Nationals. My travel partner, John Z, finished second, up from third last year. Joe Bousquet , Moth foiler blogger extraordinaire finished third.
In the Gen1 class for slower hulls; Lewis Hay was first, Frickie Marschink second and Gary Gowans third in a Sidewinder design.
In the Vintage class, Randall Swan in a Connecticut won, George Albaugh second in a Dorr-Willy, and Walt Collins third in Ara-Too.
Merv Wescoat took the Founders trophy as the oldest competitor (and one of the flashiest, sailing his Maser in Florida Gators colors).
Here is some video of on shore action at the Nationals;
Three local Classic Moth sailors have built foiler Moths; two of them use their foilers to blast back and forth on the Chesapeake Bay and have no intention of racing. However Classic Moth sailor and Moth blogger, Joe Bousquet has actively embraced racing his foiler, shipping his home built Hungry Beaver design to the Moth Worlds in England last year and just recently, The Gorge Worlds on the Columbia River. This interview with Joe is rather long but he does a nice job of humorously relating how he may be tilting at windmills; how difficult it is for an amateur to compete in a class that is now filled with professionals, in a craft where speed is king, and the design, execution, and preparation, particularly in the foils and their controls, reaps big rewards. At about 3:05 into the video, Joe give a tip of the hat to the Classic Moth.
Here is a YouTube of Jeff Linton's first go on Joe Bosquet's foiler Moth.
Bald but my eyebrows are growing at a prolific rate. Sailed Windmills and Y-Flyers in the 1960's. Founded Miami University (OH) sailing team. Sailed International 14's and Lasers in the 1970's. Sailed International Canoes in the 1980's to mid 1990's. Sailed Classic Moths since 2002. Enjoy boatbuilding though I'm very, very slow at it (the Internet doesn't help matters). Name in real life: Rod Mincher
After choosing this username (Tweezer is the name of my Classic Moth), further research on the Internet turned up that Tweezerman is a corporate name for a line of pedicure products. Let me emphasize that I do not work for, nor endorse these products.
