Moth merry-go-round

[Woods Designs]

Michael lives about 10 miles from me as I write this, but on Whidbey Island, so a ferry ride away. I am currently living on my boat in Port Townsend in pouring rain. PT is the wood boat centre for the west coast, if not USA, but apart from a couple of 505s and one off Beiker designs I haven't seen any racing dinghies here. Although one of the top IC10 sailmakers is only 30 miles away I have yet to see a 10canoe.

A couple of days ago I was at West Coast Sailing in Portland buying a Rooster pro aquafleece (excellent BTW). I was expecting a one man band working from his garden shed, but it is a huge warehouse full of people selling Oppies, Lasers and new RS's. Apparently 30 Aeros have been sold this year. So there is hope for the USA.

I didn't know about Jack Holts daughter, but I was nursed as a child by his niece.

My brother sails at QMSC so I usually manage to race dinghies there (in a RS400 in Nov, in a F15 last May), if not in the Blackwater, Swanage or Plymouth (my other haunts). I'll be back in the UK all of May.

Meantime I am finalising the design of a 14ft plywood singlehander Zest. A very simple build, in fact we hope to build one in the two day Edensaw Boatbuilding Challenge later this year. Probably rigged with a 420 "square top" mainsail for cheapness.http://www.intensitysails.com/pohemasafor4.html (only GBP120)

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/ ... -/436-zest

On Wednesday I go to a meeting to discuss the "hardware store racing dinghy" class, which at long last, looks as though it has got past the talking stage. We all plan to build boats that cost under USD600 (GBP450) for materials. If I can find a cheap used mast then I can just do it with my Zest, even with a new sail.

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailbo ... 42343.html

Maybe this is the time to say my other "classic" dinghies were Poole AB 50 and Mirror 9622

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

[davidh]

Hi Richard,

as one who lives on the Isle of Wight, I know what a bummer the ferry ride can be (though in truth we like it as it keeps many of the unwashed hordes away).

Mike Scott is very interesting - he's an ex-Merlin man who is currently restoring a beautiful 14. I hope to tap into his sailing scene further as having now completed the all 'new' history of the Merlin Rocket, the history of the 5o5 is now underway. How far that will get is something of a question mark, the class in the UK seem to be locked into being a small elite that are only interested in catering for the needs of a small elite - the Class that gave the UK dinghy scene so much is no longer what it was. Should the 505 book run into difficulties then I've already had one approach about writing a Merlin style book (a large, glossy, coffee table style work) for the 14s - if not them, then the Moths!!

But the fiveO scene in the US, both East and west coasts seems to be far more resilient than it is here so my plan is that IF (accepting the size of the IF) the book does go ahead, I'll do a trip to the US and get the story there too - for the key thing in any book of an International Class is to respect the fact that it is NOT the story of the boat in the UK, but in all the areas where it was sailed.

Any snippets you may have - on 505s or 14 (or Moths for that matter) will not go to waste here!!

Rgds

Dougal

[davidh]

Wah....have just found some copy that I'd archived on the Peter Milne Moths (I really ought to have a better index system) - but anyway, Peter really did make things move for them out there.

Please keep the drive going for the Oxford venue, it could be quite a gathering!

Cheers

D