I used to like Moth sailors.
Certainly I respected those amazing sailors in the International Moth Class flying around on their foils.
And those dudes that sail Classic Moths seemed like a pretty cool bunch too.
But no more.
I have discovered their dreadful, dark, evil secret.
Thanks to Earwigoagin's exposé at Frankenboat the truth is out...
Moth sailors have been sawing up Laser hulls and turning them into Moths!!!
Ouch.
This is sooooooooo wrong!
22 comments:
As despicable as this sounds to you, I think the key here is to find abandoned or unused Laser hulls.
Better that the Bad Moth Sailors resurrect a boat from neglect than to have the boat ultimatly cut up and thrown in the trash.
Cut up and thrown in the trash? Who could be so cruel? Old Laser hulls just need some tender loving care, not such heartless treatment.
There is a God!
unrelated: Now knocked from the critic's list? I'm gonna go saw a Laser in half
Geeze, that damn robot that I hired to maintain my blogroll has been causing havoc again.
Better to be recycled than to delaminate?
If truth be told, all the Masers in the classic fleet are a good bit slower than the pace-setting Mistral design. The reasons seem to be that the solid glass hull, while great for dragging up on a beach, just cannot be made as light as 3mm ply. The flat laser hull also has a lot more wetted area than the conical development Mistral with its vee-d forward sections, significant rocker, and narrow waterline (the beam is close to the 5' max permitted under the classic rules.) The mistral and its various modifications (one by Jeff Linton) can easily be built to the 75 lb minimun weight of the classics but I don't think there's been a Maser built under 90 lbs, even with ply deck. All-in-all, the Maser typeform is a stable classic that makes a good trainer. The ripped out footwell can also be used as an open-topped beer ice chest, complete with a drain for the meltwater!
Who thought of this silly idea? Why take a good underpowered boat for average-sized people and expend all that effort to turn it into another underpowered boat for tiny people?
Who thought of this silly idea? Why take a good underpowered boat for average-sized people and expend all that effort to turn it into another underpowered boat for tiny people?
Litoralis, Where have you been?
Litoralis, Where have you been?
And do you know this Proper Course Dude?
I too love shellfish, and you left me wanting more months ago. Hopefully you'll find new inspiration soon. (to blog about, that is)
Joe Bousquet, I too always thought the Laser cockpit could also be used as an open-topped beer ice chest, and on at least one occasion
I used it for just that. But if you leave the rubber plug in, the icy water actually keeps the brewskies a little colder.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Be glad they are reincarnated as a sailboat, they could be making them into bathtubs or chairs.
The hull I used was one of four heavily used, abused, and repaired junior trainers from Ware River Yacht club that were headed for the dump. The deck was completely saturated (the hull probably weighed over 175 lbs.) The blades and spars were being kept to supplement the part of their fleet they were keeping.
At least that boat is sailing again in its reincarnated Maser life. I also got a cooler out of the deal...
Tillerguy is really not mad at Moth sailors. They are really one of the old old boats around. I sailed on an "old one" 70 years ago. Beat that someone. They do all kinds of cutting edge stuff like the blade runner. Often they are still screwing the boat together on the way to the starting line. Often it is a place where the boat builders and the designers and the racers meet.
When Tillerguy gets too old to run marathons he will probably start building Moths.
It is entirely possible that I may get the urge to build a Moth one day. But I will NOT start by sawing up a Laser.
Anyhow, it's terribly easy to deal with Moth sailors -- just turn on a lamp.
There's a joke there somewhere about how many Moth sailors does it take to change a light bulb...
To quote someone we all know ... "Meaningless question. The light bulb was eliminated to save weight."
Use a yellow bulb.
Just to make you feel better, I took a old crackedup Sunfish, removed the deck and stern. And the Mish was born. A very slow Moth that would turn on a dime. The dead hull is still in the backyard.
Vintage Mothist
I agree that it is a waste of energy to turn a slow boat into a slower one. I race against the chopped up lasers and they are so slow....Nor it is really respecting the philosophy of a pure development class to start with some mass produced hull and ....Moth sailor George B.
Classic Moth looked very nice. But I guess some people are creative when they are recycling Laser hulls into Moths. In that way, they are not wasting anything that is important. Anyway, thanks for sharing the expose.
I found laser #8021 in the trash outside a yacht club with 3 holes through the bottom and the mast tube torn out. Rather than see it go to the trash, I brought it home, patched the holes, made some blades, and put my moth rig on a pin on the deck. I think of it as a cruising moth....and it's sort of fun to sail.
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