A Classic Moth Mistral Build in Russia

From a Russian forum thread on the Classic Moth (whew! Google does a horrific job of translating Russian to English) comes a photo of forms set up to do a Mistral build.

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Update - January 8, 2015

Sergei provides some background on this Classic Moth build.....

"The Moth is being built in Moscow region by Serg-IF(nickname on boat forum) according to your boat plans. It is planned that Moth will strike the water of Oka-river this spring. As for me I plan to build my Moth this spring. Hope that Ill have enough time for that. Also there is one more guy from Tsimlyansk (it is on Don river) who interested in your Mistral. It could be he will start building. He have a huge experience in boatbuilding and sailing.

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Boatbuilding More Progress by John Z on his Classic Moth

Hull panel offsets for the Mistral can be found here.

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In the ongoing coverage of John Zs 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 Veed 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 Americas Cup, IACC keelboats, the class that precedes the current foiling catamarans. Surprisingly, it was through his wifes connections and not his Naval Architect circle of friends that these two half-models now grace his shop.

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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 "lets 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 Parsons.

The back end of a Mistral - this is John Zs.

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 Chesters original instructions for the Mistral build. Again, use the pop-out icon (top-right) to open in another tab to print or download.

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Boatbuilding Update on the Nantais Classic Moth

Plans de Moth Classique

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David Simms of British Columbia, Canada, sends along an update on his build of the French Moth Classique Nantais design. My first post on Daves boatbuilding can be found here.

"Ive attached a couple of pictures of the Nantais, in its present state... All of the frames are made of laminated 1 cm x 1 cm, straight-grained Douglas Fir. Im amazed at how light, and STRONG, they are. Presently, the fairing has been nearly completed and the frames have been sealed with epoxy. There are fewer than a dozen screws in all of the deck framing. I have rough cut the plywood for the deck and Ive also sealed the inside face of the decking with epoxy. 

[Second picture] A bit of humour, here. Im struggling to move the boat into one of my sheds, for winter storage. This little struggle has convinced me that my original thoughts of building a boat that could be transported on top of a car were somewhat unrealistic. Given that Im not related to Charles Atlas, Ill soon be looking for a trailer."

Lines drawing of the Nantais Moth. Typical of Moth design for France and the U.S in the 1940s. (The Dorr-Willey, Ventnor, and the Abbots representing similar U.S. designs, Click here to view a post on the 1940 Moth designs.), the hull has a scow type stem married to deep V sections.

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Classic Moth Tweezer D Before the Start

In the course of a discussion of sails among the local Classic Moth fleet, I went back and pulled out a photo of the blogmeister just chillin before a start at the 2006 E-City Nationals. This is my all varnished Tweezer D design. My outfit here is kinda conservative. As some readers may remember, I have always had an affinity for natty looking sailing gear.

I cant remember who took the photo. This may be one of Elisabeth or Ingrid Albaughs photos.

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Header Photo 2011 Classic Moth Midwinters

From left to right; Derek Dudinsky in a Mousetrap/Mistral, Bob Patterson in a Duflos, Greg Duncan in his modified Mistral.

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Aussie 6 Footer as a Classic Singlehander

A couple of years ago it occurred to me that, if you reworked the massive rig downwards, the Aussie Historical 6-Footer skiff, would make a crazy, traditional singlehander. To that end I sketched out a cut-down sail plan which I present here.

As always, use the pop-out icon on the top-right hand to open the drawing in another tab.



Australian Historical Skiff

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Classic Moths in the Mist

At this years Classic Moth Nationals we had a marine layer settle in Saturday night, giving us fog on Sunday morning, a rare event for Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The fog started to creep out towards Pamilco Sound around 9 a.m. and racing commenced, on time, in sunshine.

I took a couple of photos.

The fog didnt stop the sailors kibitzing about Mothboats.

Two transoms in the mist. The Laser transom of the Maser and the wide Europe Dinghy style transom of the Mousetrap Mistral.

The view from the Pughs pier.

The original post of the 2015 Classic Moth Nationals can be found here.

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A Classic Classic Moth News Short

Voiliers Classiques Moth, Dériveur Classique Moth.

Plans de Moth Classique

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A Moth European Championship sailed in Algiers, Algeria (at that time a département - administrative region - of France - see Tillermans comment). Looks like the late 1950s, early 1960s. We can see the transom-bowed French Fragniere Moth design as well as the scow bowed Nantais design. (The British Queen Mother makes a short appearance at the beginning of the video.)




Further French Moth stuff here.

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Two More Classic Moth Sections in DXF

I keep doodling around with Classic Moth designs. Below are two; a round bilged design loosely based on my Maser and another modified Cates design. These are DXF files which can be imported into various drafting or 3D programs. Hover your mouse pointer over the right corner of the drawing and click on the arrow icon (top right corner of drawing). The drawing will open in another tab on your browser and you can download from there.

Dimensions in both drawings are in meters.

The round-bilged design is a middle of the road design and would fit quite nicely in our wider, flatter, Gen 1 division. Sections are placed (starting at the bow, again all dimensions are in meters) at:

.304	.608	.912	1.216	1.520	1.824	2.128	2.432	2.736	3.040	3.353

The Cates design was the dominant U.S Moth of the 1960s. As Ive been listening to the history of the class, there were many builders that added their own touches to the Cates, pushing the design in various different ways. In this vintage tradition of modifying the Cates, here is one of mine. Ive added a flat rocker panel to bump up the displacement to accommodate  the increased girth of senior skippers. Also, on this version of the Cates, the original Veed transom gives way to a shallow curve. Again, section placement is given in meters.

.030	.100	.250	.550	1.100	1.650	2.200	2.750	3.340

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Classic Moth plans post.

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Header Photo Classic Moths Upwind 2014 Nationals

The previous header photo showed three Gen2 Mistrals going upwind at the 2014 U.S. Classic Moth Nationals. From left to right; Jamey Rabbit, Joe Bosquet, and Mike Parsons. Photo was taken by Hope Mallott of Elizabeth City. My post on the 2014 Nationals can be found here.

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Header Photo Curvaceous French Classic Moth

Mariposa Moth Classique, Plans de Moth Classique

Mark Morell Photo

The previous header photo featured a French Classic Moth Mariposa (Spanish for butterfly) sailing in tandem with a Nantais Vintage Moth (blue sail) at the French annual Classic Moth rally and regatta which was held yearly during the early 2000s. The strong sheer gives Mariposa a traditional look which suggests a traditional round bottom shape.

Nope. The header photo above is an optical illusion as other photos reveal that Mariposa is actually a multi-chine plywood shape (a three-planker) with the bow sections developed and pulled up.

Mariposa has a flat rocker panel that starts just in front of the daggerboard case and a topside chine that curves up to meet the gunwhale about 600mm from the bow. The developed bow suggests this Moth was built using the stitch and glue method.

The French Classic Mothists weigh their Moths like the Americans - on a bathroom scale. The scratched up bottom shows that Mariposa is not a coddled racing dinghy - and gets plenty of use.

An in-the-water shot of Mariposa shows the topside chine clearly disappearing into the gunwhale.
This Moth design is visually appealing - Mariposa may not be much of a racer but thats OK.

The designer is the tall gentleman on the left. I have no idea who he is. Maybe some reader could help out on identification?

Update, August 14: Dominique Banse to the rescue with the designer indentification. Thanks Dominique!

"There is an article about this Moth in the French magazine “Chasse-Marée” number 147 from November 2001. The owner builder’s name is Bertrand Warion. The boat is built with 5mm plywood and weights 76 kg."

Update September 29, 2015: Designer Bertrand Warion adds a comment to this post updating us on the latest with Mariposa.

"Hello ,I am Bertrand Warion who designed Mariposa and usual reader of your blog.

The boat is still in good condition with great modifications, large cuts to flatten the bottom rocker and new cockpit plan, more "modern" but quite unconfortable for me. [I am] thinking to ameliorate that point.

I did not sail Mariposa [for] 5 years (leaving job, town) and [now] mainly designing and building others boats but i will recondition the boat soon.

Here are some new Mariposa pics.

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There are a few enterprising readers of this post who could put together their own version of Mariposa, at least in model form. Earwigoagin is always open to publicizing such design experimentation.

Through the early 2000s the French Classic Mothists held an annual get together. I think it was originally held at one of the clubs on the Seine but then moved over to a small lake about 100 km. south of Paris, sponsored by Cercle de la Voile du Centre, Etang du Puits, (Google translation - the pond of the well), just off the Route dArgent. Though well attended, in a mystery still not explained, the annual French Classic Moth gathering and regatta just stopped. [Mystery somewhat explained - see below] .

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The mystery of the French Classic Moth get-together got somewhat clearer when reader Dominique Banse emailed an article from a 2001 issue of Chasse-Marée, the French classic/traditional boating magazine. It turns out that all these photos were taken at a Classic Moth design competition that was sponsored by Chasse-Marée and held at Suc dErdre, just north of Nantes (and not at Etang du Puits as I wrote initially). There was a turn out of 20 Moths Classique, both new designs and old, as well as several IMCA narrow skiffs. There is still no explanation why the Classic Moths in France could not keep the annual event going after 2001.

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 I recently rediscovered on the Web, photos from Marc Morell (who took all the photos used in this post) documenting the Suc dErdre. The diversity of French Classic Moths is just astounding! Ill feed more of these photos into later posts on Earwigoagin.

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Header Photo Classic International 14

The previous header photo was of a classic International 14, circa late 1960s. (One clue is the crew isnt using a trapeze which didnt get voted in until 1969.)  This is a Canadian 14 as it has the Canadian registration numbers on the bow. Design? Im guessing Proctor V or VII given the bow rocker profile. (Yes, you could say Im somewhat of a International 14 history geek, though, to be honest, I grew up with these boats.)

More classic International 14 material can be found on my companion blog.

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Header Photo South Gippsland Y C Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

The previous header photo was of  Australian sailing dinghies gathered on the beach for the 2015 South Gippsland Y.C. Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta. In the foreground we can see, from left to right, a Mirror, and two scow Moths. The 2016 Regatta was held this past January but I havent received a report yet. When I do, hopefully I can post some photos.

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Offsets For A Three Plank Modified Fragniére Classic Moth

Plans de voiliers classiques Moth, Plans de dériveur classique Moth.

Sometimes I cant help myself. Ill sit down at the computer and push the lines of an existing Moth design in another direction. This is one of those creations. I took the Fragnière design, the French design with the transom bow, and made it a three planker. (Three planker means if you look at the 1/2 model, the design consists of three plywood planks - never mind that the bottom rocker plank is actually one contiguous panel when whole.)

Why? Because I can. I would expect this design to be somewhat quicker offwind but slower upwind in a chop and light air. No plans to build this anytime soon as I have enough projects all ready.

Here is the PDF file of the offsets. Click on the pop-out icon on the top right (hover your mouse pointer over the top right corner to find it) to get this into another tab where you can print or download the file.



Another modified Fragnière (it looks like the transom bow doesnt match the plans). A 2001 build in France. I like the purple hull color.

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Erratum: This is actually the French Bilbon design which was patterned after the French Caravelle dinghy and not the Fragnière.

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Offsets for my other modified French Moth design, the Zippy can be found by clicking here.

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Australian 2015 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

Andrew Chapman sends along some photos of the 2015 Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta, hosted by South Gippsland Y.C, out of Inverloch, Victoria, birthplace of the Australian scow Moth. Regatta was in late January.

A Classic 16-foot skiff.

One of the starts. Left to right is the pram-bowed Mirror, Heron, two Sabres, an Oughtred Classic Shearwater dinghy, and a scow Moth.

A varnished Heron being rigged on the beach.

The Uffa Fox Jollyboat has a small fleet in Melbourne Australia. Popular in the 1960s, the 19 foot Jollyboat was eclipsed by the similar sized Flying Dutchman, with its Olympic Status.

The two Jack Holt small doublehander designs; the Mirror Dinghy, at 10 10" was the first stitch and glue kit dinghy and the earlier design, the 11 3" Heron, was also designed for home boatbuilding in plywood. Both originally had gunter rigs as seen here.

This scow Moth Maggie was just recently built by Ray Eades over two weeks and is a modified Imperium design. Mark Rimington is the owner and skipper.

Beautiful decks on this new scow. Rather than aluminum wings this scow was built with shorter wooden winglets.

South Gippsland Y.C. is on Anderson Inlet, where a small protected bay meets the Bass Strait. As Maggie sails toward the sandbar break, one can see the nastiness at the entrance to the Inlet when the breeze is on.

The Ian Oughtred Shearwater Classic Dinghy.

Fitted around the on-the-water racing shedule, the dinghies are exhibited at a seaside park for the locals to come and peruse (and vote on their favorite).

On the left is  the Rainbow Scow, a popular class in southern Australia up to about 1970.

This scow Moth is of the 1970s 1980s vintage, with aluminum wings.

The VeeJay has a bigger brother, the double plank 14 Skate dinghy. This one looks as if it is being pieced together on the beach, after a long layoff.

Here is a single plank VeeJay racing against the Heron. (The Heron being a good weight carrier,  as we see here with three sailors stuffed into this rather small dinghy - plus one more! - I was informed there was also a small child tucked out of sight.)

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South Gippsland Y C Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

As we speak, South Gippsland Y.C is hosting Australias Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta. Click here to view a short video with the highlights from 2014s Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta.

Or, Click here if you want to watch the full length, 25 minute, version of the 2014 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta.

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Classic Moth New Builds From Mid Atlantic Musings

Editors Note: This is a repost from George As Mid-Atlantic Musings article about new Mothboat builds.

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Two blogs have just popped up featuring new Classic Moth boat building projects in the U.S. (Click on the links below):

• Jamey Rabbit is building a modified Mistral.
• Bill Boyle is at it again, building a new Europe Dinghy in wood strip construction.

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Secret Classic wooden boat plans runabout

Real Classic wooden boat plans runabout

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Header Photo Classic Moth Midwinters and Report from 2015

The previous header photo was of the 2011 Classic Moth Midwinters, held at Gulfport Y.C Florida, the last one I attended.

The 2015 Midwinters were held again at Gulfport Y.C, over the crossover February/March weekend. Ten Classics attended but unfortunately, this year, no-one from the Florida fleet raced. Saturdays racing was called off with the threat of thunderstorms but Sunday offered up warm temperatures and a pleasant racing breeze. Mark Saunders arrived with a makeover on his venerable Mistral; he added a "Linton rocking" rig and a new North sail to secure victory in Gen II class. The three Mistals finished at the top of the heap in Gen II with a Skol, a Duflos, and a modified, Lane Reeves Mistral following. In the Gen I class, long time class stalwart, George Albaugh in his Olympic Europe, finished comfortably ahead of three other Olympic Europe dinghies.

Much thanks to Amy Linton, who bore the brunt of the organizing this excellent regatta.

A mix of photos from Amy Linton and John Zseleczky.

One of the starts. #79 is Mike Parsons in his Mistral. #2721 is Frickie Martschink in his Skol, and #4067 is Lewis Hayes, hugging the RC boat.

Erik Albaugh in his Lane Reeves, mod-Mistral. Lane Reeves, when he bent up this Mistral, ended up with a finer bow and a flat transom.

Frickie Martschink - he of the post Lunch of Champions - had good speed in his Skol.

Winner of the Gen II class, Mark Saunders in his Mistral.

Famous designer, Charlie Morgan showed up to look at the fleet. It appears he cut his teeth on the Moth when he was a "youngin". Here is talking to Tom Price of the Chesapeake fleet. Charlies son is standing next to Charlie.

Two of the four Classic Moths from the Chesapeake fleet who attended. On the left is John Zs Mistral (he finished 2nd in Gen II) and on the right is Tom Prices Duflos.

Rod Koch, George Albaugh and Erik Albaugh debate one of the finer design points of the Lane Reeves mod-Mistral. George and Erik made up the other portion of the Chesapeake contingent.

Click here for other posts on the Classic Moth Midwinters.

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