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THE INTERNATIONAL
MOTH CLASS...
The International Moth holds the current world record for
the furthest south a sailing craft has ever ventured. A photo
of the Moth, designed by Hal Wagstaff and built by his brother
Gary in Wellington NZ, hangs even today in the Antartic base
at McMurdo Sound. The King of Siam once sailed the Thai Moth
he built and designed himself, in a Moth regatta in the UK.
It
all began in 1928 when the late Len Morris built a cat rigged
(single sail) flat bottomed scow to sail on Andersons' Inlet
at Inverloch, a seaside resort, 130km from Melbourne in Australia.
She was hard chined, was eleven foot long, and carried 80
sq ft in single mainsail. The craft was named "Olive"
after his wife. The constuction was timber with an internal
construction somewhat like Hargreave's box kite.
"Olive's" performance was so outstanding, that
a similar boat "Whoopee" was built. Len Morris then
sold "Olive", and built another boat called "Flutterby",
and with those three boats, the Inverloch Yacht Club was formed.
Restrictions for the class know as the Inverloch Eleven Foot
class were then drawn up.
At much the same time, 1930 in fact, the American Moth Class
was started by captain Van Sant of Atlantic city. The American
Moth, so it turned out, was of similar dimensions to the Australian
Inverloch class. News of the American boat came to Australia
in 1933 when it appeared in the American yachting magazine
"Rudder". The name for the American boat seemed
appropriate, so the name of the Inverloch Eleven Class was
changed to Moth Class.
In 1936 the Victorian Moth Class Association was formed,
but it was not until after WWII, that the NSW Moth Class Sailing
Association was formed with foundation members coming from
Seaforth Moth Club and Woolahra Sailing Club. During this
time Australian Moths were using pre-bent and wing masts in
the 1950s.
From
1956 to 1961 all other states formed Moth Associations and in 1962
the Australian Yachting Federation (AYF) recognised the Australian
Moth class as a national class, the FIRST small boat class in Australia
to be granted national status.
In 1966-67, The King of Siam was also involved in the building
of three Moths and sailed them on the pond at Chitrlada Palace.
The King raced for almost 20 years on his second moth called
'Super Mod' until his design and construction efforts were
cut short by the 'press of royal duties'.
Over much the same period as the Moth class was becoming
established in Australia, the International Moth spread from
the USA to England and Europe. Modications to align both the
Australian Moth and the overseas Moth were made over a period
of time culminating with the establishment of the International
Moth Class Assocation (IMCA) by the IYRU in 1972 bound by
the restrictions of the class (with metric measurement conversions)
operating today.
During the 1970's, a lot of the Moth sailors began constructing
skiff type hulls and soon added wing bars on the hull to keep
the boat more balanced. These skiffs soon were faster than
the old scow design, especially as the hull shapes narrowed
more and more as the years went on.
The Current International Moth Class
| Length
overall |
3.355 m |
| Beam |
2.250 m |
| Max.
luff length |
5.185 m |
| Max. mast length |
6.250 m |
| Hull
weight |
Unrestricted,
general weight range 10-20kgs but as little as 7kgs |
| Fully Rigged
Weight |
30kgs (including foils) |
| Sail
area |
8m |
| Restrictions |
Multihulls, trapezes, moveable
seats and sailboards are prohibited. |
| Optimum
skipper weight |
60-80kgs |
| World Moth web
site |
www.moth-sailing.org |
| Australian
Moth web site |
www.moth.asn.au |
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