Moth Boat

Hi Sailors Just wondering if any of you heard of a Moth boat. My Wifes Aunt said she used to build them in New Jersey, in the 1940's. I researched them and they were built in the 1930's. As soon as I saw them they looked almost like a Sunfish, I was wondering if the Sunfish was originally taken from the Moth boat, and how good of a boat were they?

The Field Guide to Sailboats lists the International Moth as a Sunfish style boat, but shorter at 11 ft. It's name seems to derive from added "wings" that allow easier hiking out, and add up to three more feet in overall width.
Hope this helps!

moth's are now super crazy carbon boats with hydgrofoils, etc. it's an experimental class that's went from a board boat to a hydro-skiff-rocket. wings, 11 feet or so by 7'8", i think. look up moth class association and you'll find more than enough.

go to Youtube.com, type in Moth. You'll get tons of moth video.

If you want to see just how fast and exciting extreme International Moth's can be , then check out this on-board video footage.
Cheers ,
Len

www.int-moth.org.uk/VideoSP.htm ( then click "Foilmasters 1" )

They are really cool. But get one weed on those foils and you are slogging. Pretty hard to clear the board on those. Sailing one is on my to-do list along with the orma 60 tri's.

Thanks Guy's I appreciate all the returns, These boats sound interesting. I will check them out.

The international moth is an open class. You can build any kind of boat, as long as it abides by the class rules- including being a monohul, 11 feet or less, and no more than 7'4" in beam. The fastest moths, the ones that get all the publicity, are the new hydrofoilers. They are extremely difficult to sail, but can hit speeds of 25 knots in 20 knot winds. However, nonfoiling "lowriders" as they are called, still compete in races, almost always beating the foilers in light air. "fat" classic moths also continue to race, and these are the ones that resemble sunfish. I am currently fixing up a foiling moth, which, unfortunately may replace my sunfish in a couple of seasons.


Below is picture of my pink moth. It needs some work and I may not be able to get it back on the water for another season or so, but I always have my Sunfish!

nikobrogna said:

The international moth is an open class. You can build any kind of boat, as long as it abides by the class rules- including being a monohul, 11 feet or less, and no more than 7'4" in beam. The fastest moths, the ones that get all the publicity, are the new hydrofoilers. They are extremely difficult to sail, but can hit speeds of 25 knots in 20 knot winds. However, nonfoiling "lowriders" as they are called, still compete in races, almost always beating the foilers in light air. "fat" classic moths also continue to race, and these are the ones that resemble sunfish. I am currently fixing up a foiling moth, which, unfortunately may replace my sunfish in a couple of seasons.


Below is picture of my pink moth. It needs some work and I may not be able to get it back on the water for another season or so, but I always have my Sunfish!

Click to expand...

How did you get hold of that one? I am SO jealous!

Hi Nikobrogna Thanks for the Picture of your Moth. Really looks like a challange to sail. Is it much harder than Hobie 16 , or simular to sail?

Nick,

If that is your moth, what can I do to help you get it on the water. I want to sail a moth big time. We could make an arrangement.....maybe you sail my DN sometime. Let me know if there is any opportunity.

Tim

Hey guys,
glad to see some interest in the Moth, though this is a sunfish forum.
Wavedancer, I found the boat on another forum (Dinghy Anarchy). It came with sail , hull, and foils, but no spars or racks (the racks are the carbon or aluminum tubing extensions, between which tramps are attached, used for hiking out). I have to obtain a mast (they use a big windsurfer mast), and tubing for the racks. I think that old sunfish spars, (the booms) might work for racks. I also have to take the deck off of the boat, and fix a leak that I suspect comes from the board trunk. I must also sand the inside and out, and seal the whole boat with a coat of epoxy, then paint.

Hey guys,
glad to see some interest in the Moth, though this is a sunfish forum. I think that there is a growing fleet of moths here on the east coast. Most of these moths are in Australia, Britain, and the UK.
Wavedancer, I found the boat on another forum (Dinghy Anarchy). It came with sail , hull, and foils, but no spars or racks (the racks are the carbon or aluminum tubing extensions, between which tramps are attached, used for hiking out). I have to obtain a mast (they use a big windsurfer mast, about 530-550 cm), and tubing for the racks. I think that old sunfish spars, (the booms) might work for racks. I also have to take the deck off of the boat, and fix a leak that I suspect comes from the board trunk. I must also sand the inside and out, and seal the whole boat with a coat of epoxy, then paint. Windwalker, I would have to say that a moth is one of the farthest things from a hobie 16 that you can sail. Both are fast, but that is where the simmilarities end. I have yet to sail the moth on foils, but can tell you that a narrow moth is hard to handle, even as a "lowrider." It is a very fast, very narrow, very unstable boat, with little whetted surface area, and a lot of sail. A hobie 16, like all cats, has an extremely high initial stability. the moth, on the other hand, will not float upright on its own. It obtains its only "stability" from your weight and positioning acting against the wind on the sail.
As for your question Tim, yes it is my Moth, but it may be a season or two before it is up on foils again. I don't know how you might be able to help, but you are welcome to come check the boat out, and maybe take it for a sail, when I am done. Just keep your eyes open for old sunfish spars, and big windsurfing masts.
Thanks,
-Nick

Classic Moths are sailed along the East Coast. Cooper River in South Jersey is hosting a regatta on 6/9. Last year I think they had about 10 on line.

Here's the site -

www.mothboat.com

I learned how to sail in moths during the 60's in Margate, NJ. It so happens that the roots of the class in the US were in nearby Atlantic City, NJ.
The best short history of the US class is found in WoodenBoat Nov/Dec 1980
at page 104. (I can fax a copy. Contact me at [email protected]) By the
date of the article, the class (technically a "development class" like the
International 14) had died out. The artical reproduces a 1933 design by
William Crosby, editor of Rudder magazine, that kind of looks like a sunfish
hull shape. By the time I was sailing, none of even the older style moths
even looked close to a Sunfish hull. Because of nature of the class there
was a wide variety of hull styles. Popular in my youth was the "Florida" type which were deeply vee'd 3mm plywood or fibreglass hulls that would not
float level on a still pond. The former woman's olympic single handler the Europe dinghy was really a moth frozen into a one design. This design
period is now know as the "classic moth" and can be explored by a google of that term. The classic moth symbol is an "M" with a circle around it. The modern moth, including the radical "foilers", have the insect on the sail.
From what I know from the history of the sunfish, the connection between
the sunfish/sailfish roots and the moth are tenuous if not non-existant. Experiment with plywood hulls are bound to produce similar designs, and I think that is the extent of the relationship. Bill McLaughlin 77721
PS - see also www.mothboat.com