The B Course

In poking around Tillerman's new blog I came across his post on the RS Aero Florida State Championship where he published the course diagram for the regatta; it is another version of the Harry Anderson course, this one having the tight reaches at the bottom of the course.

The normal Harry Anderson has the tight reaches at the top of the course. (Making it look like a backwards P, some sailors have affectionately referred to it as the Dolly Parton course.) I'm not sure what the advantages of having the tight reaches at the bottom, maybe more fleet separation? It does place the start line toward the bottom of the course for a longer first beat (I'm going to refer to this RS Aero course as the B course - for Big Booty.)

Tillerman also mentioned in a comment to this post that the RS Aero's have used a Z course.

"[The]Z course which has three reaches - first leg beat followed by a starboard reach to a gybe mark with then a port reach to a second gybe mark with another starboard reach to a leeward mark. Enables you to have somewhat tighter reaching angles than a triangle course."

From Propercourse

The Z course definitely bumps up the reaching legs as a percentage of the total course.

Back in 1991 I was a PRO for an Olympic Training Event (Europe's, 470's) at West River SC where we ran a Harry Anderson course on the breezy day. The second reach was a beam reach and that angle did seem ideal for the Europes, not so much for the 470's who had to take down their chutes for the leg.

That version we ran in 1991 has morphed into my version of the Harry Anderson, the D or Dammit course.

U.S Sailboat Show: The Singlehander Wars in the U.S. Updated

I made it over to the U.S Sailboat Show last weekend. I took some photos with my older waterproof camera (my newer one died) which I'll post at some point. If you want photos now, go over to fellow Classic Mothie, George A's blog where he has put up a slew of photos of the Show.

Just a quick comment on the singlehander wars in the U.S. market, as gleaned from talking to the manufacturers reps at the U.S. Sailboat Show. (I've put the dinghies up in the order I visited their stands.)

Melges 14 - (Previous posts here, here and here.) Around one hundred Melges 14's have been built with about half of them going overseas (interest is strong in Germany and Italy). Nearly all of the U.S Melges 14's are in the Midwest, the backyard of Melges Boatworks. There was no racing schedule this past year but the class did hold their first regatta at Lake Max, Culver, Indiana this past weekend. (Video from the class Facebook page.) My feeling, in talking with the Melges salesman, is they are angling the Melges 14 towards a more general purpose crowd, particularly with their large cockpit (though the 14 is certainly racy enough.) For a mid-winters, there is some thought at piggy-backing a Melges 14 regatta off a Melges 24 regatta in Florida.

RS Aero - (Previous posts here and here.) I hadn't realized that Zim Sailing had become the East Coast rep for RS Sailing (evidently this happened last year just after the Show) and the RS boats were featured  on the Zim Sailing stand at this year's show. The RS Aero is a clear leader in quantity, hundreds have been built (I forgot to ask for a specific number), there is a strong presence in Europe and the RS Aero can be found in ones and twos in most areas of the U.S. (but surprising, no activity yet in the Annapolis area). The big concentrations of RS Aero activity in the U.S. are the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast where there are some nasceant fleets and organized racing. For more detail on RS Aero activity, there is no better place on the InterWebs than to click over to Tillerman's blog.

There you have it; the RS Aero is gaining a foothold in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast, the Melges 14 is percolating in the Midwest. If you were taking a round-about tour of the U.S., you would more likely bump into an RS Aero than a Melges 14. (But a RS Aero or a Melges 14 sighting would still remain very rare, as it remains true today, nearly every yacht club in the U.S. has some number of Lasers kicking around the dinghy park.) Unlike the Laser, which exploded on the U.S dinghy scene in the 1970's, given the factors at work in 2016, I would expect these new singlehanders to chart a more gradual acceptance into the sailing scene.

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Addendum October 20, 2016: Tillerman left a comment indicating I am under-reporting the numbers and activity of RS Aero sailing in the U.S. I've moved his comment over to the main post.

"Thanks for the update on the RS Aero and the plug for my blog.

"I believe over a thousand RS Aeros have been sold worldwide, and the biggest countries by sales are UK, US and Germany in that order. About 150 have been sold in the US. In the first year, boats were sold in 39 countries on 4 continents - not sure of the latest numbers.

"You are correct that there are active RS Aero fleets in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. There are also fleets in southern California, Florida and Texas. The RS Aero scene in Texas is really heating up with 14 RS Aeros already registered for the Wurstfest Regatta next month. There were 4 RS Aero regattas in New England this year with 16 and 17 boats at a couple of them. And there were 35 RS Aeros at the US Nationals at the Columbia River Gorge this year.

"There will definitely be two RS Aero regattas on back-to-back weekends in Florida this winter, and early indications are that attendance will be in the 20s at least.

"The RS Aero has World Sailing international class status now and the first RS Aero Worlds will be at Carnac in France next year.

Seen at the 2015 Annapolis Sailboat Show: The Melges 14

Melges Performance Sailboats introduced their Melges 14 singlehander at this years Annapolis Sailboat Show. The 14 is one of the new generation hiking singlehanders; a racier, speedier alternative to the Laser and, at the Annapolis show, the Melges 14 was on display only six meters apart from one of the first entrants in this market segment, the RS Aero.

Visually the Melges 14 looks bigger than the RS Aero and the tale of the tape shows that it is bigger than the RS Aero. The Melges 14 is longer at 4 meters and wider at 1.57 meters. Given the American penchant for going bigger in everything, this may not be a bad marketing move for U.S. sales. The long, flat cockpit floor looks quite spacious compared to the narrow RS Aero cockpit and the tiny cockpit of the Laser. (If, in buying a faster singlehander with carbon rig and mylar sails, one of your odd requirements is also a design where you can daysail with your kids stuffed here and there - the Melges 14 is the one for you.)

A wider beam allows more hiking power so it is not surprising that in comparing sail areas between the Melges 14 and the RS Aero, the Melges 14 again comes out bigger. The Melges 14 big rig is 9.1 meters vs the RS Aero 8.9 meters and, in the mid-range rig, the Melges 14 is 7.8 vs the RS Aero 7.4. Usually more horsepower may give better light wind performance but I haven't yet seen any side by side performance comparisons published.

The ultra-lightweight RS Aero hull comes in at whopping 25 kg less than the Melges 14 which, at 54 kg. is lighter than the Laser by about 5 kg. One of the benefits of the smaller hull of the RS Aero is less surface area which translates into a lighter hull. The Melges salesman countered as he made the pitch for the heavier Melges 14 hull. "How light can you go before sacrificing durabiltiy?"

The RS Aero came out early in this market (not quite two years ago), is being marketed agressively and the factory in England is pumping a goodly number out every month. In contrast, the Melges 14 appears a little late. I asked the Melges salesman about this and being a good salesman, he remained nonplussed. Admitting there is "quite a bit of competition" in the new singlehanders, he pointed out that Melges has already built 40 of the 14's and they expected that the existing customer base of Melges products (from the 20, 24, 32, the myriad Melges scows) would initially provide a steady stream of buyers for the 14.

There you have it. The Melges 14 is a bigger, heavier (though lighter than the Laser), more powerful (with a very roomy cockpit!) entry in the hiking singlehander marketplace. I have no idea how it compares on the water with the RS Aero or the D Zero (which has yet to put in an appearance in North America  - Correction, there are three in North America - see bottom of post.). Price for a Melges 14? It seems to be moving target but somewhere around 9K U.S.

Also check out the Tillerman blog post on the Melges 14.

The Melges 14 has a mylar sail on a carbon mast and boom. (This is different from the RS Aero which has remained with the tried and true dacron sailcloth.). The Melges 14 also is round-bilged but one thing you can't do very easily at a boat show is turn the dinghy over and inspect the hull - so I can't comment on the hull shape.

This photo taken from a more bow-on angle definitely shows the very distinctive straight gunwhale line (seen also on the RS Aero - this provides flare at the gunhwale and more hiking power) starting just forward of the daggerboard case.

The wide flat cockpit and more beam means there are two hiking straps instead of the usual center one. The Melges 14 uses the typical Laser split mainsheet rig with a transom bridle. I forgot to ask the salesman how you controlled athwartship boom placement as there doesn't seem to be any control lines for the aft bridle, just a stopper ball on each side. Boom vang control is at the mast, the other cleats are for the cunningham and outhaul.

The mainsheet turning block uses a a nifty hose to hold it upright (versus those metal springs). The Melges 14 has a small raised shelf just forward of the daggerboard trunk, ending some 100-200 mm aft of the mast - probably a tricky engineering tweak to provide structural support to both the front of the daggerboard trunk and the mast. (I can see an aftermarket storage turtle being designed to fit this shelf - perfect for water bottles, spray jackets, sandwiches.) The cockpit also has the comfy non-skid foam that the SUP crowd invented.

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My other Melges 14 posts:

• Melges 14 - Vaporware?
• Melges Performance Sailing Replies.
• Other big guy singlehanders.

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Over at the Sailing Anarchy thread on the Melges 14, user Woodman is of the opinion the Melges 14 is similar to the English Supernova singlehander, which is considered a big-guy singlehander.

Also on the Sailing Anarchy thread, user Jeffers corrects me when I say there are no D-Zero's in North America. There are three D-Zero's now in North America.

The D or "Dammit" Course Revisited

Tillerman just posted about planing RS Aeros and courses designed for planing singlehanders. This brought to my mind the D course I modified* for just that and the unintended but humorous results when I sprang the D Course on the unsuspecting Classic Moth fleet at their 2013 Nationals (hence the moniker "Dammit" course).

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* Tillerman points out that what I've "designed" here is really a Harry Anderson course, a course that has been around for eons -  and he is right - but the D course is a Harry Anderson with modified reaching legs. (See Comments)

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I still think the D course has potential. For hiking, cat rigged singlehanders the fastest planing angles seem to be just below a close reach, or a course slightly lower than 90 degrees to the wind. I remember as a PRO back in the 1980's running a Chesapeake Bay Olympic training event and the Europe dinghies had something similar, though if my memory serves, they ran their close reach into an extra mark about 1/2 way between the windward and leeward marks. When the southerly came up, on that reach, the Europes really scooted.

The D course has a curly-cue rounding at the leeward mark. A starboard rounding might be better but I have found that racers are so attuned to going around marks-to-port that they get confused when you change this up.

I offer up the D course details in the following PDF. I'm always interested in what other racers or RC thinkers may come up with in designing planing courses for hiking singlehanders. I think one of the keys is to come up with the angle to the true wind your singlehander is sailing when it is planing the quickest. Data anyone?

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.

Annapolis Sailboat Show - Part 1 - I'm not making this up!

My annual blitzkrieg of the Annapolis Sailboat Show begins like most everyone else; park at the Navy Marine Corps stadium and take the shuttle buses (yellow school buses) the 1/2 mile into downtown Annapolis. It was getting on in the afternoon, Trade Day, and this weekend has been the rainiest of the year so their weren't many in the bus into town, just the diehards. Up towards the front, three sailors started a conversation about cruising sailboats. One had flown in from Milwaukee and owned a Sabre 28, one had come from Chicago and owned a Moody 43 and there was a third fellow in a green rain jacket who I never got his boat type, though I did catch that he had served as a jib-trimmer on an E-scow. Since I'm not a cruising type, I half-listened to the their banter; cruising and racing in an around Lake Michigan, the advantages of propane outboards, where can you go with the 6' draft of the Moody 43.........Getting close to the first downtown disembarkation stop, the guy in the green rain jacket pronounced loudly enough to jolt me out of my trance, "I read Tillerman's blog. It's about an old guy who's trying to improve his racing of the Laser." Wow! His fame is widening! Hmmmm....maybe in a couple of years, Tillerman can also have lines snaking out of a liquor store, waiting for his autograph on his favorite beer brand.

As an aside, the couple sitting just in front of me on the bus, asked the question of typical newbies; which stop was the main show entrance? I said it was the last stop. They then asked if there were a lot of sailboats to look at in the show and would they be able to see them all in one day. I replied that it depended on whether they were gawkers, like me, or buyers. If you were a buyer you would want more than one day at the show. It turns out they had flown in from Dubai, they were definitely buyers and they wanted a sailboat to ship back to Dubai. They were going to make one salesman a very happy camper. (Unlike me, who had more or less emptied his billfold to pay the parking fee.)

Header Photo: Tillerman to the Rescue! Ladies Day at Larchmont YC

Mr. Tillerman, I doff my baseball cap to your marvelous powers of observation and unsurpassed ability to sift through and discover relevant Internet material. In two hours you have deduced much more than I have in two months. I can only repost your comments in a main post so all my readers can follow along and appreciate a master at work on his computer, piecing the puzzle together.

"The burgee on that swimming platform does look remarkably like the burgee for Larchmont Yacht Club.

"And Manor Park in Larchmont is famous for its gazebos and striated rocks.

"If you look at Manor Park on Google Maps satellite view you can actually see two gazebos on striated rocks very much like those in the second picture. But I can't identify the exact spot with those specific striations.

"Could this be a more recent photo of the same spot?

"Note that the gazebo may have been rebuilt in 100 years and a stone wall added. But look at the pattern of striations in the rock.

"Check out this photo from the Larchmont Gazette.

"Not the same day but surely the same view? Look at the trees on the point in the distance, for example.

"This is a postcard from Horsehoe Harbor in Larchmont c.1900. There is a Horseshoe Harbor YC (which is probably why your correspondent from Larchmont YC said it wasn't LYC but he did know it?)

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, Horseshoe Harbor is in Manor Park.

"On the other hand check out this photo of Ladies Day at Larchmont YC in 1911.

"This looks like a better match to your scene than that postcard of Horseshoe Harbor. The trees on the point look similar in both pictures but this one is claerly a wider stretch of water more similar to your picture. Would also explain why the swim platform has an LYC burgee.

"Maybe your header photo was of Ladies Day at LYC?

"This NYT article from 1910 does say that the fleet was dressed for Ladies Day.

"And this NYT article from 1913 about Ladies Day at Larchmont that year says that more than 200 yachts dressed ship and that possibly the fleet was larger in "former years."

"So I am pretty sure both photos are looking across Larchmont Harbor. If you look on a map you will see that the views from the gazebo in Manor Park and from LYC are both towards the same point on the opposite side of the harbor, to the NE and E respectively.

"And there's a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that this could be Ladies Day. There were canoeing and swimming races on Ladies Day which explains a lot of the foreground in the header picture too.

These photos are from the Emerson collection of Rochester N.Y.. Other photos in the collection fix the time frame. There is no explanation why young Mr.Emerson was at Larchmont YC but he did, in 1917, marry the daughter of Fred A. Mabbett, the Commodore of Rochester Yacht Club. Perhaps Fred Mabbett had chartered a yacht on the East Coast.There are some yacht racing photos in this collection.

Below are all the photos in the spectator set, including a larger version of the header photo.

Tillerman's Photo Tips for Bloggers

Tillerman put out a request for photography tips for bloggers and got lots of great answers.

I can't add much that hasn't already been offered up as advice. I am mostly a consumer of photos; I use what photo's people send me or the photo's I can troll for online. I do own five digital cameras of various ages, makes and models; the most expensive one was around $300 in cost, but I usually don't remember to carry them. I have become reasonably adept at fixing photo's, my favorite software being an older version of Adobe's Photoshop Elements, their "Fix Everything" button does an amazing job.

I do have two tips:

1. Don't sweat the small stuff. This has already been mentioned many times. You don't need the latest, greatest camera. You don't need the greatest picture. If it does a good job of illustrating the point of the post - go ahead and use it



2. CROP your photos. Cropping a photo is just like another layer of zoom-in for your bag of photo tricks. It can bring immediacy and interest to, what was before, a blah photo. And you have lots of latitude. I crop my header photos to 1150 pixel width which just fits on the screen of my older laptop. Considering that most modern digital cameras are producing photos with something like 3000 to 4000 pixels in both directions, you can throw away a lot of your photo and still have something eminently serviceable to put on your blog.

Curse of the Tillerman and Wrapup of the Wordsmith Boat Name

The Curse: Tillerman mentioned that when he bestows kudos upon another blog, that blog eventually goes silent. I didn't pay it much mind at the time, but doggone it, when March rolled around, just as predicted, Earwigoagin fell silent. I'll detail the reason in a following post but, now for unfinished business; the final tally of the boat naming exercise called forth in the last post before Earwigoagin went on hiatus (I hate to name it a contest because it really wasn't). There was some real humdingers. I liked the weirdness of the Captcha - computer generated - names but, and this is only my personal preference, my two favorites were:

1. Bilious from Tillerman - which sounds sort of nautical (derived from "billowing" as in "billowing" sails) unless you know the definition of bilious.
2. Seaboob from O'Docker - which has the odd characteristic of sounding dumb and naughty and nautical, all at the same time.

Below is the table of all the boat names listed in alphabetical order, followed by their contributor. Tillerman leads the way in entries, as would be expected for, as a shark is drawn to blood, Tillerman pounces on all things related to word play. O'Docker, My2Fish and Baydog end up with about an equal number of multiple boat-names. And to fill it out there is a smattering of individual contributors. Thanks to all the entrants! If anyone out in the digital morass decides to name their boat "Elopygu", please let me know.

.	Aerious	Tillerman
.	Aileron	Tillerman
.	Automat	My2Fish
.	Avocado	My2Fish
.	Bazooka	Tillerman
.	Beastie	O'Docker
.	Beefily	My2Fish
.	Beguine	O'Docker
.	Bilious	Tillerman
.	Boobies	Tillerman
.	Bootees	Tillerman
.	Ciriole	Tillerman
.	Elopygu	O'Docker
.	Emotion	Baydog
.	Fatuous	Tillerman
.	Hideous	Tillerman
.	IBluByU	O'Docker
.	Iceboat	Tillerman
.	Karaoke	O'Docker
.	Leonara	IOWlen
.	Manatee	Tillerman
.	Meatier	Tillerman
.	MyInuit	Baydog
.	Nauseas	Tillerman
.	OBanana	My2Fish
.	Oceanic	Boat Insurance
.	OohLaLa	George A
.	OWoisme	O'Docker
.	QuePasa	O'Docker
.	Ravioli	Baydog
.	Scoobie	IOWlen
.	Seaboob	O'Docker
.	SoNauti	Baydog
.	Sunapee	Tillerman
.	Teatime	Tillerman
.	Ualimes	My2Fish
.	Ukulele	My2Fish
.	Vacuous	O'Docker
.	Wearier	Tillerman
.	Wipeout	Tillerman
.	YokoOno	My2Fish
.	Youtube	Tillerman

Tillerman and O'Docker have reminded me in the comments section that the following words were also submitted; Alabama, Arizona, Arugula, Indiana, and Romaine.

Tillerman's Latest Challenge; Two Core Principles

I don't know where Tillerman comes up with this stuff but he has thrown down the gauntlet to define sailing in two core principles, from which, everything else about sailing is derived.

Easy......

1. You will get WET!..... Not wet like in a shower wet, or a pool wet, but; usually a very, very cold wet, or a wet that will keep enveloping you like someone doing a cannonball in your face over and over again, or an icky baywater wet, or a saltwater wet that will leave you caked in crystals.
2. And you will GO SLOW!......No! you will never get to the Eastern shore in an hour, how about a good day if you're lucky, and sometimes, if you are forced to race, it may take you 3 hours to go two and half miles ...you could walk faster!.... (and there are those days you might not do even that speed).

And, if you LOVE SAILING, 1 and 2 are ALL GOOD! And if you think 1 or 2 are ridiculous you will make sure everybody onboard will know how painful and/or boring this sport of sailing is.

All, this I have learned from my good wife from all these years (actually she taught me this very early on when we were still dating).

And these two core principles for wooden boat owners submitted by Earwigoagin's European correspondent, Romain. (Romain owns a beautiful wooden International 12 foot dinghy, lapstrake constructed, with umpteen, gazillion strakes per side.)

"How about:

1) Winter will be too short to properly maintain your wooden boat.

2) Summer will be too short to sail it fully enough."

Top Insect Sailing Blog of 2011

Shucks Folks, I'm Speechless!

Tillerman once anointed me as the Internet #1 Sailing Dork.

And now, out of the blue, he went and did this.

When the Grand Poobah of sailing blogs; the prolific, witty, erudite, authoritative Tillerman gives you a thumbs up.......Wow!

I'm deeply honored. A Tip of the Hat to Tillerman, the older-than-I, but still young, coot of a Laser sailor.

Why a Classic Moth is Better than a Laser

Upon writing a post about Cooper River 2011, I was reminded that I had yet to write a post that I had intended for last year. The post was supposed to be in response to an incident at Cooper River 2010 (as I have mentioned before, this blog is all about timeliness!).

Last year at Cooper River, just before launching my Classic Moth for the day, I was rounding the corner of the clubhouse when I overheard a conversation between two Laser sailors. Both of them were looking over at our congregation of Classic Moths when one of them said;

"I understand why someone would sail a foiler Moth, but I can't understand why someone would sail one of these", as he nodded his head toward our fleet.

I didn't respond, just smiled to myself and kept going. It wasn't the time or place, I had to get ready for the day on the water. But the gauntlet had been thrown down. It just takes me a while to pick it up.

Tillerman has merrily gone down this path before with several posts on "Reasons why such-and-such class is better", the Sunfish/Laser being a target in his post Ten Reasons Why Sunfish are better than Lasers , and then with the Force Five/Laser with Seven Reasons Why Force Fives are Better than Lasers . (Tillerman even had a tongue-in-cheek, self flagellation post, Seven Reasons to Hate Laser Sailors, but that isn't germane to this post.)

I can come up with five strong reasons why I persist in sailing the Classic Moth and not return to the Laser Borg (though you will find me every once in a while racing a Laser.)

1. Classic Moths are so much Lighter

Every time I sail a Laser I dread carrying an enormously heavy Board Bag to the boat, wrestling an enormously heavy mast with sail attached into the mast tube, heaving a heavy Laser hull onto a dolly, and staggering backwards up the inclined float with the Laser on dolly. Admittedly this may be my age talking but, in reality, I have the Classic Moth to compare it too. The Classic Moth minimum hull weight is 75 lbs (34 kg), though most of my Classic Moths have weighed closer to 90 lbs (41 kg). This is still 40 lbs (18 kg) lighter than a Laser! My heavier Classic Moth aluminum mast weighs 10 lbs - 4.5kg ( (carbon masts are even less). I think a Laser mast is 18 lbs (8kg). My blades, which are wood, nothing special, feel to be 1/2 the weight of a Lasers. All this lightness of a Classic Moth makes the off the water chores of rigging and moving and loading boats that much more enjoyable than a Laser. And on the water, that lightness of the Classic Moth plays into reason #3 below.


2. My Classic Moth fits Me

The Laser has a flat deck, great for production but very uncomfortable for hiking. The Laser has a very raked rudder which develops a lot of helm fast with any bit of heel. The Laser now has "improved sail controls" but the cleats are still forward of the daggerboard, which is a long way to reach. The Laser has a marginal bailer which, upwind, still leaves the cockpit full of water in a breeze. With the Classic Moth, I can change all this.... or not. If I don't like a flat deck, I can build a different one, or if I like a flat deck, I can build a flat deck. And so on down the line. For the most part, in a Classic Moth, if I don't like it, I can change it. And fitting the boat to me makes it more enjoyable to sail.


3. The Classic Moth is more fun to sail

Anytime I get into a Laser, it feels like an aircraft carrier compared to a Classic Moth. The Classic Moth, with it's shorter length and lighter weight is just more lively on the water. I have a rudder which is tuned to be very balanced so it has a great feel upwind. Offwind, with it's lighter weight, the Classic Moth lights up in a breeze. There is no doubt that the Laser is considerably faster than the Classic Moth (except maybe in drifting conditions) but I just enjoy sailing the Classic Moth more. A friend of mine said there were two types of sailboat racers; those that were more interested in hard core racing, the intensity and the competition,and those that were more interested in racing boats that have certain appealing characteristics. Throughout my sailing career, I've straddled those two groups but, as I have aged, my interests have slid over from the hard-core racing into "I race in this class because I appreciate how it sails".


4. Classic Moths are Cheaper

My Maser I picked up for $500 (no rig) and I have another hull in my collection I picked up for $350. Complete Classic Moths with National Championship speed have been had for under $1000. Used Classic Moths going for more than $3000 are unheard of (but if you want to build your own, you'll probably spend around $3000 when all is said and done). Granted we have no professional builder, so it's a little harder to take your check book out and purchase one, but a little leg work will usually find some Classic Moth that will fit your bill.


5. The Classic Moth People

You stay with a class because you fit in with the people. The Classic Moth is diverse, the people are diverse. And laid back. Because I did the Laser thing in my twenties and I don't need that kind of intensity year round in my sailboat racing. I get tired of talking about that left shift I missed at the weather mark to drop me behind 25 Lasers. I've been missing those shifts for many years and I just as soon talk about that Vintage 1940's Moth you've restored or that Savannah Wedge design you pulled out of retirement, or your trip to Sweden, or tell me about the latest A-cat developments.

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Here's John Z's [Gen II Mistral Mothman] reasons why a Classic Moth is better than a Laser:

"I sail both a Laser and a Mistral Classic Moth and racing the Classic Moth is definitely more fun, mainly because Moths are much lighter so they accelerate more. When you're sailing you feel acceleration more than you feel velocity (F=ma). Classic Moths leap frog down the reach legs so we sail triangles a lot.

"Moths also have more controllable rigs. In 20+ knots I can flatten out the Moth sail, put the traveler down and keep blasting along. In a Laser, Radial included, I'm struggling - at 140 lbs.

"I still enjoy the Laser because we sail all summer at my club on Tuesday nights with 15+ boats on the line every week. We only race Moths five or six times a year and it takes some driving (NJ, NC, FL, MD).

"If you like to putter on boats and don't mind driving you should definitely consider the "more fun" boat ...

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Click here to have a look at the various designs of Classic Moth - including some you can build!

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Photos of some of my Classic Moths:

My Gen II Energizer (mod Stockholm Sprite -plywood) showing some blue masking tape remaining post-painting.

My Gen II Tweezer (strip planked - own design).

My Gen I Maser (Laser cut-down to fit Classic Moth rule).

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Why is a Laser faster than a Classic Moth?

Exclusive to Earwigoagin; The New Laser Sail

Laser forums have been abuzz recently about the "new Laser sail design", one that will be much more durable than the current model.

In a exclusive to Earwigoagin, we have obtained secret footage of the new Laser sail undergoing on-the-water tests. Sorry, I can't divulge the location, the skipper, or who was filming this.

Junk Rigged Laser from Ryan Barber on Vimeo.

England wins Gold in an Olympic Sailing Class yet to be announced

I've noticed that expat Tillerman's blog continues to dwell on, and about, the continued complete domination of the English sailing team in International competition (as if this is anything new..... is this two Olympiad cycles - or three? where we've seen the Union Jack flying high in almost every sailing discipline..... this obsession reminds me of a certain Man-U fan in Florida.... or a certain Fulham fan in London).

Britannia rules the waves! I give you this stirring video............

An apology to Tillerman from the blogmeister.........I admit my attempt at tongue in cheek humor may have been a bit over the top. Here are Tillerman's comments taking me to task for perhaps being a bit heavy handed..........

"Oh come on. I'm not that chauvinistic.

I've also done posts recently about the success of Kiwi and French sailors in major Olympic class regattas; my post about the attitudes of American Laser sailors was a repost of a comment - not my views; and my latest post about British Girls was just a blatant attempt to find an excuse to write about Pippa Middleton's bottom."

A salute to all those Frostbiters

Here, from the Mid-Atlantic. up to the Northern reaches of the East Coast of the United States, winter frostbiting wraps up usually by mid March. In recognition of those hardy souls (Tillerman, JohnZ, Dr. John) thrashing around in dinghies on Sundays, in water just above freezing, here is a video of the Laser frostbiting fleet in Newport RI (I think this may be Tillerman's frostbite fleet).

Frostbiting from Brooks Canaday on Vimeo.

All Paths Lead to Tillerman................

Today marks the second anniversary of this blog. I started Earwigoagin to deliver a response to one of Tillerman's writing assignments....... who would you invite, living or dead, to a dinner party?

I reprint my first post below. Definitely my dinner party is almost entirely populated with sailing technologists and tinkerers. After two years, I've added some more Classic Moth sailors. They're in charge of the beer.

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I've created this blog mainly as a response to another writing assignment from blogger Tillerman. www.propercourse.blogspot.com There may be other uses for this blog but for right now lets dig into Tillerman's assignment .... who would you invite to a very special dinner/party? For this party you can get to mix the living and the dead, the friends and the strangers.

Tillerman's a dinghy sailor, I am also a dinghy sailor. Where Tillerman immerses himself in the one-design Laser class, I am usually found in some class where people design or build their own equipment, whether it's hulls, sails, blades, etc.

So my dinner party would definitely have an abundance of what the English call "boffins", in this case those who like to experiment with sailboats, preferably small racing dinghies.

Large parties work best and hopefully all guests are voluble, completely free with their opinions and willing to listen. Wives/ girlfriends are always welcome and indeed are essential. Unfortunately, I don't know any female sailing boffins so my guest list is definitely sexist.

You must start with your COF (circle of friends) boffins which in this case would be Bill Beaver, John Z, George Saunders, Steve Clark, John Kells, Bob Ames, Bob Blomquist, Paul Miller with some left coast COF boffins such as Erich Chase, Del Olsen, Fran DeFaymoreau (4 Naval Architects in this group and everyone has built, in most cases, multiple racing dinghies). I would also add local acquaintance, Aussie Tony Arends. I'd also invite Classic Mothists, George Albaugh, Mike Parsons, Ed Salva, Greg Duncan and Bill Boyle (but he doesn't seem to do parties very well).

Now onto to the special guests;

Austin Farrar - UK deceased - Austin was the premier designer in the International 14 class in the 1950's, was the first one to put a wing mast on the C-class catamaran "Lady Helmsman" founded the sailmaking firm Seahorse sails and was involved in a myriad of experiments. To use that overused phrase; Austin was always an "out of the box" thinker.

Ben Lexcen - i.e. Bob Miller - Australia deceased - Top designer/sailor in the Australian 18 skiffs. Designed the Contender which won the IYRU singlehanded trials in the early 1960's. Designed the wing keeled Australia II that wrested the America's Cup from the Americans. From everything I read, Ben Lexcen was a larger than life character and you need some of those at a party.

Ian Howlett - UK - designed America's Cup 12 meters, IOR tonners, premier yacht designer. House designer for most of the Topper companies dinghy designs. Final kicker in my book is he races an 11' British Moth. What other big name designer gets his jollies from racing an 11' dinghy?

Bruce Kirby - CAN/US - Top designer in the International 14 in the 1960's and 70's. Designer of the Laser. Designer of the Canadian entry into the America's Cup. Designer of the successful Noank Sharpies shoal draft cruisers. I met him in the early 1980's and came away with the impression of a personable, self effacing fellow with loads of stories to tell.

Tom Shnackenberg - NZ - The boffin in charge of New Zealand's America's Cup dominance. Not sure how forthcoming he would be at a party like this but, if he opened up, the stories he could tell...

Eric Arens - US - Eric is actually in my COF but I rarely get to see him. I crewed for Eric in Int. 14's in the 1970's. Eric still sails Int 14's today as crew - age mid 60's! Eric has been commodore of both Severn Sailing Assoc and Richmond YC, is a senior US sailing judge and loves the give and take with interesting people at a party. He's retired now but was a PHD physicist at NASA Goodard Space Center.

Jeff Linton - US - Jeff is a pro, has won several World Championships, has won US Sailing's sailor of the year award, but also designed, built, and races a Classic Moth. Jeff and his wife, Amy, have a wealth of stories to tell. Jeff is very approachable which is not always a characteristic you find in professional sailors.

Chris Thompson - AUS - Chris has written an unpublished history of dinghy sailing, a superb tome of research and writing. Chris races the original Windsurfer and Lasers. I would need someone to keep Tillerman occupied!

Mystery guest - It's got to be one or two of the Frenchmen involved with the design or building of the Vendee Globe 60 footers. Not sure who? as I don't know the players. Someone with good English as this is a Anglo-centric party. Someone who can bring the wine maybe?? What glorious machines those Vendee Globe 60 footers are and the French need to be recognized for driving these designs to the pinnacle they represent in ocean racing.

Other's on the invite list are all sailing dinghy designers with pages of design accomplishments. (but I 'll spare the details);

Jo Richards - UK

Phil Morrison - UK

Paul Bieker - US

Chris Benedict - US deceased.

Natalie Gazing Trumps Navel Gazing, Naval Gazing and Natal Grazing.

For Tillerman............



Sorry!

Inside Joke.

Regular Programming will resume on the flip side.

Laser Master Worlds; Tillerman's lament

Tillerman returned from the Laser Master Worlds in a funk. With most races of the Laser Master Worlds at Hayling Island, UK held in very extreme conditions, Tillerman completed about half the races; a result that, for Type A-Tillerman, has him retreating into self recrimination and navel gazing.

Whoa... Tillerman, quit the self blame! Are we going to blame a grandfather for not handling the extreme conditions designed to test Olympic athletes (because of logistics, the Laser Master Worlds follows the Laser Open Worlds.....locations are chosen to test the Olympic guys, the grandfathers get to brutally experience the same waters a week or so later). Maybe the Grand Masters (those over 55) and the Great Grandmasters (those over 65) need to make a break from the Laser Worlds circus and schedule a Worlds event someplace warm with moderate winds (maybe Cabarete with racing in the morning). And while we're changing the location, how about scheduling just one race a day (let's aim for max 3 hours out on the race course).

Tillerman, if it is any consolation, I'm not sure that I, when I was sailing Lasers back in my 20's, would have done any better at Hayling Island.

Perhaps the Laser Grandfather Worlds should take a page from the Italian International 12 foot class "Dinghy Classico" wooden boat championship.

How to run a Grandfather championship....lets see; start with wine....lots of wine, food......lots of food, a green apertif, dancing.... oh, you want sailboat racing....... some sailboat racing in moderate winds followed by wine.... lots of wine, food....lots of food.......

Let's go to the videotape...........



Let's see, if we get a syndicate of four.... We buy one of these absurdly expensive wooden International 12's and every four years I would get to race this regatta. Wow! Who's in?

Laser Grand Master Jets the Gorge

Tillerman (we seem to be joined at the hip recently) posted last year about a Downwind Laser Race in the Columbia Gorge . The Laser Gorge Blowout; eighteen miles downwind in 'NOO-kyuh-luhr' conditions. Drop me in this race and I might be good for two miles and then I'd be upside down, crying uncle.

A YouTube video surfaced this week of top Northwest Laser Grand Master Mark Halman doing the 2010 Gorge Blowout and a helluva downwind sailing lesson this old fart demonstrated for the cameras. Finished fourth as well.

Any singlehander can tell you that things seem manageable up until you capsize; if you keep capsizing and keep capsizing, strength, concentration, and the will to continue blasting out of control...... all these athletic responses rapidly depart. To keep it together for 18 miles, in these conditions, in a roly-poly Laser, is a remarkable feat.... for anyone, at any age.



Tip of the hat to Mark Halman!

Music for Fridays; Jimmy Fallon, "Pants on the Ground"

I skipped last weeks "Music for Fridays"; my head was in the clouds as Tillerman just discovered that I was a Google #1 hit . I was still basking in all that unexpected Internet notoriety.

Well, it's taken a week. After getting congrats from my kids and a resigned shake of a head from my wife, life has just about returned to normal.

Continuing the "iconic parody" theme from the last post, here is a heretofore unknown Neil Young song performed for the very first time.