Greg:
A record twenty-three Moth Boats turned out for the last of the spring regattas on the CMBA schedule at the Brigantine Yacht Club. As most in the east can appreciate, this spring has been wet and cold and as the date for the regatta approached it seemed that the pattern of washed out weekends would continue. However, God must love Moth Boats, for although the day started out grey and windless, the sun managed to make a belated appearance and the wind also filled in nicely from the northeast, building to perhaps 15 knots by day’s end. So, as Nancy Tidy put it: something for everyone; the lighter skippers and more fragile boats had their favorite conditions in the morning while the more robust boats/skippers romped in the afternoon. Nancy had to standby and spectate which annoyed her no end. She managed to fall down stairs in her house a few days prior to the regatta and broke some toes. A pity since this year’s BYC Moth regatta offered a separate women’s award in addition to awards for Modern, Classic, Vintage and Juniors.
The regatta weekend got underway Friday evening with another great pre-regatta BBQ party hosted by Judy and Joe Courter at their home in nearby Absecon. This has become a fixture for the regatta and is enjoyable perk for those who can arrive Friday!
Scott Sandell has already reported the results for the Modern boats, two of which sported the asymmetric chutes permitted this year for the tall rig Moths. His report can be found on the modern side of the mothboat.com website, so I will add only a few impressions. Interestingly, the two boats without chutes seemed, to be competitive until gear failure took its toll, at least in these early days of chute handling. Scott Sandell retained his hold on the modern class with his modified Mistral carrying a chute. Both Joe Bousquet and Bill Beaver experienced breakages that sidelined their yachts, leaving only Rod Mincher’s Aussie scow (without a chute) to battle Sandell after lunch. As the wind picked up, Rod became competitive, taking the last two heats for a well deserved second place overall.
With Nancy sidelined with injuries, the women’s division was contested by Susan Bousquet in TRYUMPH, a Mistral familiar to most readers, and Heather Beaver, sailing the wide bodied Stockholm Sprite design, ENERGIZER, recently acquired by Rod Mincher from Dave Ellis. Heather sailed well in the light air heats but decided that her unfamiliarity with a borrowed boat, that had the bad habit of falling into irons, made it prudent to remain ashore in the heavier going that featured during the heats following the lunch break. So, Susan cruised home the winner. Next year I predict it won’t be so easy!
The juniors were comprised of Erik Albaugh sailing our Shelley, SAY WHEN and Per Sandell sailing Bill Schill’s Fletcher-Cates, MAD DASH. Erik retained his title, due in part to problems on board the MAD DASH. One of these days, Per is going to finish that new boat and Erik had better be well practiced!
The Vintage division sadly was also a two boat contest. Jean Gruhler couldn’t sail his Ventnor with us and also SOUTHERN CROSS was absent this year. However, Merv Wescoat returned to the race course at the helm of his Connecticut Moth after several years of health related absences and it was good to see him racing again! Having said that, he beat me during the first race and gave me a stiff run for the money the rest of the day. At the end, my Dorr Willey boat, BLONDIE managed to retain FOX’s CUP for another year.
The Classic division had seventeen entrants this year. This number exceeded the fifteen boat total that had been the top turn out for all divisions in the previous 13 years we’ve hosted this regatta. I appreciate that Brigantine is a long way for many competitors to come, so it is very gratifying to see real growth and I hope it isn’t a fluke! The long distance sweepstakes go equally to Greg Duncan (Elizabeth City, NC) and J.A. Macfarlan (Barrington, RI). In addition to J. A., other sailors new to the event include Ed Salva, Bob Greenlee, Doug Wheaton, Craig Intinarelli, and Heather Beaver. The top three positions this year went to Mark Saunders, sailing his Mistral SPIDER, Walt Collins sailing his Collins designed, Mistral inspired Y2KBUG and Bob Patterson who bravely sailed the Mistral beast that Bill Boyle and I managed to complete just in time for the regatta! Now Bill and I have to build a boat for Bob, which just goes to prove that there’s no rest for the wicked. And true to form, after the regatta, the weather retreated to it’s grey depressing self and rained and blew during the remainder of my vacation week. This was not all bad as it gave the staff at the “Hotel George” plenty of time to tidy up after the last trailer load of Moth Boats departed!