Greg, the report and commentary:

Brigantine Moth Regatta Report

The 9th annual Brigantine Moth Boat Regatta took place on Saturday the 19th of June at the Brigantine Yacht Club. The fifteen boats which assembled for the races spanned almost the entire evolutionary history of the Moth Boat, with the oldest boat, Herb Fithian's QUEEN BEE dating to about 1932 and the latest boat, Bill Beaver's ultra narrow BAMBI MEETS BUMPER, having been constructed just last year. Likewise, the ages of the skippers participating at this event ranged from 12 years old (Per Sandell) to 79 years old (Chuck Higgins).

The boats were divided into three categories: CMBA Vintage Moths, CMBA Classic Moths and the rather vaguely defined "U.S. Modern Moths".

The Vintage division, for boats before 1950, was comprised of Chuck Higgins sailing my Dorr Willey Moth BLONDIE and Herb Fithian sailing his Skaneatlas built QUEEN BEE. These two boats raced for the honor of being the first winner of the newly restored FOX'S Cup, a silver pitcher won at Brigantine in 1935 by Russ Post in his Moth Boat FOX.

The Classic division had 8 boats contesting the South Jersey Championship. Walt Collins arrived from Chesapeake with John McGauy's Shelley PHENOMENON. This boat had been in storage for a number of years, but Walt had her looking (and sailing) very smart. Up from Elizabeth City, Erky Gregory brought his trusty OL' YELLOW, while Greg Duncan sailed CAROLINA CHOO CHOO. Ed Steelman, also from North Carolina (but with New Jersey roots) borrowed BUCKSHOT from Merv Wescoat, while I sailed YELLOW PERIL, Merv's famous yellow Cates. Joe Courter, also representing BYC, sailed his Cates Moth TABASCO. Susan Bousquet came up from Norfolk with AFTERMATH. Per Sandell, from Sag Harbor, New York rounded out the classic entry in my old Titan Moth, THE RED SLED.

The modern boats are being organized by Scott Sandell and for the most part follow the rules of the IMCA, with high aspect rigs and hiking wings permitted. Currently, the modern class is comprised of surviving IMCA type boats from the early 1970s, plus several new boats built over the last couple of years, and an Australian scow recently imported. The five boats attending the BYC regatta raced for the "U.S. Modern Moth National Championship". The skippers/boats in the modern group were as follows: Scott Sandell, from Sag Harbor, up on Long Island, sailed his tall-rigged Mistral, HOLLAND TUNNEL. Rod Mincher and Bill Beaver came from Annapolis, MD. Rod sailed his Aussie scow TIRE PROBLEMS while Bill sailed BAMBI MEETS BUMPER, an extremely narrow boat of his own design. Chris Hart, also from Maryland, sailed his Swiss Moth, while Norfolk man, Joe Bousquet attempted to become the first sailor to simultaneously lay claim to both the modern and classic National championships in TURBO-TRIUMPH, his well known Mistral, this time equipped with fiberglass tube hiking wings and a borrowed tall rig in place of the more usual low aspect spars and sail.

Sailors and boats started arriving Friday night in time for a delicious outdoor dinner get-together over at Joe Courter's house in Absecon. Continuing the tradition he started last year, Joe provided his guests with top notch entertainment, this time in the form of an ultralight plane swooping low over the marsh in front of his house. Saturday, the racing got underway around 10:30 or so with light to moderate, shifty Northeast winds. After six races the results were as follows:

Vintage Division; Chuck Higgins 1st, Herb Fithian 2nd.

Classic division; Walt Collins 1st, Erky Gregory 2nd, Greg Duncan 3rd, Joe Courter 4th, Susan Bousquet 5th, George Albaugh 6th, Ed Steelman 7th and Per Sandell 8th.

Modern Moths; Joe Bousquet 1st, Scott Sandell 2nd, Chris Hart 3rd, Bill Beaver 4th, and Rod Mincher 5th.

After the racing we enjoyed a BBQ at the club and then packed up the boats. Some sailors undoubtedly went to the casinos, but a few came back to my house were Bill Beaver gave a very well presented demonstration of the art and science of vacuum bagging foam cored blades. Per Sandell doesn't know it, but the demo mini-centerboard built at the demonstration will soon become the BYC Junior Moth award, of which he is the first winner! (So don't tell him--it's a surprise...). Perhaps next year I'll talk Joe B. and Walt C. into giving a lecture/demo on building a Mistral hull! Scott Sandell predicts that soon we'll be wearing those "Hi, my name is..." tags at my after the races seminars. Speaking of Scott, he had T-shirts made up for the Modern Moth Nationals. He tells me that a few of these very limited addition (they're going like hot cakes--he only has a million left) T-shirts in XL are still available at $18.00 inc. postage. Check with Scott

Wanna see some pictures?? Click Here!

George Albaugh

Note from Scott Sandell

I just want to point out that Chris Hart was really fast at Brigantine in his very beat Swiss Moth, which is heavier than most Modern Moths, and sports a low aspect rig. He won one Modern Moth race! It was really fun to see him drive that thing over Modern Moth guys in their super cutting edge, radical machines!

Cheers