2022 Classic Moth Midwinters

Back again, at least for the moment. Been off keeping myself amused with various non-sailing, non-social larks during COVID-time. I'll try to post to Earwigoagin irregularly, particularly if it is easy; if stuff lands in my lap.

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.

Header Photo: Classic Moth E-City Nationals 2016

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.

Johnny Z's Classic Moth Mistral Build Reaches the Finish Line

John Z. put on a late summer push to get his Mistral Classic Moth build finished for the E-City Nationals in mid-September. I went over to his place to take some photos as he screwed in the last fittings.

John has installed a 16:1 cascading vang.

The carbon mast is free-standing with a forestay which provides positive rake control.

John used the Ronstan sheaveless blocks for his leads at the base of the mast. Simple and light. I pulled the strings a bit and they seemed to slide fine.

John doubled up the ply in the seat area to support him crashing around and sitting down heavy on the tacks. The carbon boom was a discarded carbon oar from a rowing shell.

John glassed some ears on the boom and then attached it with a through bolt on the mast. 2:1 on the outhaul is external.

John used foam deck pieces from the SUP crowd for his non-slip in the cockpit (comfortable for knees as well).

John Z., the builder, with his new Moth now in the daylight, putting on the eyestraps for the traveler.

John Z's Mistral, Bend-em-Up, Stitch and Tape, Boat Building Instructions

With the publication in Earwigoagin of the stitch and tape, Classic Moth, Mistral design offsets;

• Mistral Hull Panel Offsets
• and the Mistral Hull Section Offsets

I received an inquiry; "How do you actually assemble the hull? Again, I turned to master builder, John Z, and he supplied the following short PDF of photos and captions detailing at least the first assembly stages of a Mistral Classic Moth build project.

Mistral Y2K Section Offsets, Via John Z.

I mentioned when I published the offsets for the Mistral hull panels that you still needed some bulkheads to bend the panels around. John Z. immediately shot me, via email, the section dimensions he measured off his very fast Y2K Mistral. They are taken every 305mm to give an even 11 sections over the length of the hull. (Station 3353 being the transom, sitting on the aft end of the hull panels). John used every other section inserted in his panels when he bent them up to set up the hull shape. It must be noted that 3 bulkheads are left in the hull before decking and two of them don't exactly lie on station spacing given (the forward edge of the aft deck being the exception, it usually aligns with Station 2743.).

Classic Moth Plans: Mistral Hull Panel Offsetts

Despite being the tippiest Classic Moth design out there, more Mistral designs are built in the U.S than any other design - by a long shot. Although a competent Laser or Sunfish racer has no problem handling a Mistral (after an initial "let's get acquainted session" to get over the wobbliness) other, less experienced sailors, get sucked in by the simple stitch and glue, bend-em-up, building process. Sometimes they have been very surprised when they get on the water.

More information on the Mistral design can be found here.

The front end of a Mistral - this is Mike Parson's.

The back end of a Mistral - this is John Z's.

For those not to be dissuaded by my introductory warning and desire to build a Mistral, here are the Mistral panel offsets in both DXF and PDF formats.

(Note!: These offsets are only the beginning - you will need at least three bulkheads, a transom, and framing around the mast step to finish up the shape.)

The section dimensions of the fast Y2K Mistral can be found here.

A DXF drawing of the hull panel (you will need 2 identical panels to form a hull). Use the pop-out icon (top-right) to open in another tab to print or download.



A PDF file with the offsets. Use the pop-out icon (top-right) to open in another tab to print or download.



A short synopsis of Derek Chester's original instructions for the Mistral build. Again, use the pop-out icon (top-right) to open in another tab to print or download.

Boatbuilding: More Progress by John Z on his Classic Moth

Hull panel offsets for the Mistral can be found here.

---

In the ongoing coverage of John Z's Classic Moth build, last week I stopped over at his shop to gauge his progress and have a beer. The Classic Moth modified Mistral design is now upside down awaiting gunwhales and a layer of 4 oz. glass over the bottom.

This photo, though perhaps a tad distorted, shows how deeply Vee'd the Mistral design sections are around the midships.

Transom view with a pretty swirly pattern from the okoume plywood.

John, with the about-to-be-opened bottle of stout peeking up above the keel-line of his Moth.

A man and his workbench. John graciously took down a Marblehead RC sailboat he built many years ago so I could take a closer look.

A man and his workbench - take 2.

From the previous photo, you can see that John has some interesting stuff hanging from his walls. This is the box containing his F1 rubber-band indoor airplanes. These are extremely finicky to make, with a minimum weight of one gram. John has all the various tools to test balsa density and strength; tools to strip balsa into extremely narrow widths; tools to check rubber band elasticity; molds to make the tricky propellers, and the various techniques to apply the ultra-thin microfilm covering.  To make a F1 takes a methodical, painstaking craftsman.

John also has two half models of the America's Cup, IACC keelboats, the class that precedes the current foiling catamarans. Surprisingly, it was through his wife's connections and not his Naval Architect circle of friends that these two half-models now grace his shop.

John Z - Steady progress on his Classic Moth - Mod Mistral Build

Offsets for the Mistral hull panels can be found here.

---

I've been reporting on local Annapolis Classic Mothist, John Z's building of his modified Mistral. Well, at the beginning of this year John Z bought back his old cruising boat and has been spending time refitting his old love. Consequently, this summer, progress on his Classic Moth build has slowed but, despite the distractions of his cruising yacht, there has been progress - he has got the foredeck ply on and added structure where he thought he would need it.

Aft stringers before the aft-tank plywood goes down.

You can tell the V-shape of the Mistral, even in the back end, from this photo. Note the 1/2 ply formers to support the side-tanks.

There is no such thing as sloppy boat-building where John is concerned.

In all the times I've been over to John Z's boat-shop/basement we have never thrown darts - a good thing as I'm sure he doesn't want all these holes in the dry wall (when I throw, at least 1 in 8 end up completely outside the dart board).

John Z: Classic Moth Construction Progress, a Modified Mistral Emerges

Just up the road from me, Classic Mothist John Z is steadily making progress on on his modified Mistral Classic Moth. This Mistral is a bend-em-up tortured plywood construction using 3 mm. ply throughout. I decided to pop over to take some photos as John is about ready to slap some decks on this Moth. I wanted some pictures that highlighted the internal structure of a racing Classic Moth.

A racing Moth makes do with three bulkheads, one about 610mm (two feet) from the transom, another at the aft end of the daggerboard trunk (about 1520-1650 mm or 60-65" from the transom) and the final one at the forward end of the daggerboard trunk (this one is angled as called out for in the Mistral plans). You can see the inboard construction of the seat tanks - John likes building his out of flat plywood sections.

Two bow-on shots that show the mast structure. John is putting in a freestanding mast and has built a carbon mast tube that extends to the keelson. There is not much structure up forward in these boats.

Proud builder. John also builds the ultalight F1 rubber-band powered free-flight model airplanes, stored in the special box that hangs on the back wall in this photo (you may have spotted some other model plane parts scattered around his work room).

Lest you think these Classic Moths are so light to be throwaways after a couple of years - not so. Johns' current Mistral is fourteen years old, Joe Bousquet's National Champion is even older. You do seem to have to replace a deck or two every so often but the structure is adequate for continual racing abuse.

Fellow blogger George A. has been reporting on John's Mistral build with some regularity over the last year and it would be worth jumping over to George's blog and reading several posts.