I've come up with a CMBA Moth design. I have been drawing and redrawing it in MaxSurf hull design software for two years now and it's time to put a stake in the ground and say it's done. I call it the Tweezer design and when George A. asks me why, I just say I like the way Tweezer rolls off my tongue.

To ask me my thoughts behind this design, I first would have to preface this with my thoughts on the two leading designs at the present time; the Mistral and the OH Wedge, two concepts on the opposite side of the design spectrum.

Duflos/ 'Mistral'
A narrow waterline, high rocker, low wetted surface design developed from the French Duflos design of the 60's. It has a reputation as a very tippy design but with practice most sailors eventually achieve at least an intermediate level. As would be expected it's best performance is in the lighter air and chop but in with a good helm the Mistral will win races in a breeze. With the high rocker, it is trim insensitive, i.e. one doesn't need to move forward or roll the boat up on it's ear to reduce wetted surface. It is best sailed flat, upwind and down. High rocker means it can carry weight well so it is a good choice for the heavier older crowd. High rocker unfortunately also limits the higher speed offwind potential.

OH Rodgers 'Wedge'
A design of the new millennium, drawn by Floridian OH Rogers with lots of input from the Florida Mothist trio of Linton, Rabbit, and Koch. It incorporates most of the modern dinghy design theory for planing shapes, flat rocker, flat full sections with aft chines. The Florida crowd admitted they wanted a design that they could sail with the same techniques they used in the Sunfish or Laser. With the flatter rocker, the Wedge is trim sensitive, i.e. one most move far forward to reduce wetted surface in light air and roll the hull up on it's gunwale offwind. With the Wedges wide waterline and flatter sections it struggles in a chop though it can win in light air,flat water as Jeff Linton did in this years Nationals. The Wedge should not be as tolerant of heavier weight and this is borne out as the Florida crowd is definitely some of the lighter weights in the class. Wedge looks to have the stability of a barge compared to the Mistral and as expected, it does plane earlier and faster than the Mistral.

Mincher 'Tweezer
The Tweezer is targeted somewhere between these two designs with it's lineage coming more from the Mistral side. It is a low wetted surface design with reduced rocker. It is not as narrow on the waterline as the Mistral and it has more rocker than the OH Wedge. It has fuller forward sections than the Mistral but not as full as the Wedge. As such it may not be as fast in the sweet spots of the Mistral (light air/chop) or the Wedge (breeze/especially offwind) but it should be competitive across the full spectrum. This hull design is not developable and would need to be built over a male mold (wood strip, cold molded, foam core).

I have the full sections in a .DWG file for those with access to a CAD program. Eventually George Albaugh will have a copy in his plan library which I am sure he will provide for his customary fee.