In the spring of 1961, I received a phone call from Leslie Thompson. He had heard about the fact that Moths had raced in the 1960 Maury regatta for the first time in several years. After a discussion about what had happened, He invited me over to his house to see "LOOK AT ME" number 1959 which he had built for his nephews. "LOOK AT ME" was the first sharp stemmed moth I had ever seen, even though others had been racing in Florida and then New Jersey primarily for several years. It was molded glass with a ply deck. Mr. Thompson said it weighed about 90 pounds because he had made the hull thicker than he had planned at first. He wanted do anything he could to help the moth fleet re-grow in the area because of all the great memories he had from his youth in moths. Health problems made it impossible for him to again begin sailing moths, so he had built "LOOK AT ME" in the hope that his nephews and others would get excited about the new design he had created and build and race more boats. I told him I really like his boat and hoped he would succeed with his plan. He took me to another part of the garage and showed me the mold he had made to construct "LOOK AT ME". He also had pictures of a plaster and chicken wire plug that had been the first construction step. The basic hull design was close to a Dorr Willey in the stern sections, but the bow was extremely thinned to the vertical stem. He said, "You should build one of these. It's not that hard, and I will be glad to help you. Take the mold home with you, go get some fiberglass, and call me when you need help." It sounded so simple, and I really wanted to have a Moth of my own. I had dreams of one of those beautiful Dorr Willey's but our family budget made buying one out of the question. I couldn't resist. We lashed the mold on top of the Metropolitan and I headed home.

"I hope you know what you're doing. You have a perfectly good sailboat out there now, and you've never built a boat before. Are you sure you can build all the things you will need?" I said, "Don't worry, I'm sure," just like many 16 year olds do.

"Mr. Thompson said I could do it, and he would help. The man at the store told me how much to get of the cloth and resin and tape and mold release and acetone and brushes and sandpaper and stirrers and"

"OK, I get the picture!" Mom interrupted. "But I hope you haven't wasted your money trying top do something you have no experience with"

"I've used fiberglass to repair RED CAT before. So, I have experience."

"That's not quite the same thing, but good luck. "When will you start to build the boat?"

"Tomorrow"

"Not till after Church.....Oh, well, get some lunch. You need to mow the grass today"

After I cut the grass, I called Mr. Thompson and reviewed the whole molding process with him. I cleaned and re-waxed the mold which I had set up on sawhorses in the freshly cut back yard. Then I covered the mold with a plastic tarp.

It was a restless night. Between excitement and nervousness, all I could do was go over the planned steps in my mind.....over and over. After church in the morning, it was time.

Mold release in. Dry. Cloth in. Resin in. More Cloth. More resin. More Cloth. More resin. Tape for tunnel reinforcements. More resin, etc. About 6 hours later, it was time to clean up and begin waiting for the resin to cure on the last layers. I had lost a little which had kicked off while I was forming the tunnels, but I had been lucky and had enough to finish the molding in one session.

"It stinks to high heaven!" Mom had arrived in the back yard. "How come it's yellow?"

"It was the pigment I liked best from the one's he had at the fiberglass store"

" Now what?"

"We wait for it to cure. Then we pop it out of the mold" "It looks nice. Dinners ready, so you have to come in now"

The next afternoon, after school, STILETTO shed her cocoon. I was beside myself with the joy of success. She was beautiful. I trimmed the ragged edges at the ''wales. A short trip up the street on the dolly I had originally built for RED CAT took us to the water. I put the deckless hull in the water. I got in. It sure felt tippy, but as long as I stayed near the center, she bobbed like a cork. I started to paddle out into the river and found a few pinholes had begun to show droplets of water. It was only a minor problem. I paddled around for an hour or so, sitting in a small puddle of water wearing the biggest grin of my life. I knew I would have my Moth.

Three weeks later, the ply deck was on and varnished. We had found a derelict Moth for $75 that had a usable rig and fitted it to STILETTO. All the pin hole leaks had been located and fixed. STILETTO began her sailing career. She was the fastest Moth in the area for several years. I made three additional boats in the same mold for/with other mothists in the area and we raced at all the local regattas. Other boats were repaired or built, including the derelict that had furnished STILETTO's rig. It was painted white and sailed by my younger brother as MOBY DICK. The newspaper sports section headlined, "THE MOTHS ARE BACK."

Two dreams had become reality, Leslie Thompson's and mine.