When I was a lad and boats were made out of trees

When you work at a sailing school and earn enough money to buy yourself a bag of chips and a hangover you look for something sensible, reliable, practical and affordable to sail. Yeah right. And so it was back near the dawn of time that I spent a drunken evening in a dim smoke filled caravan at Rockley point sailing school in Poole (can you see the emerging thread that holds this blog together?) .

Imagine if you will a Hagrid like fellow, fuelled on a bottle of cheap red wine, with flares big enough to swallow a beach and he was raving about phobias, magnums, petrochecks, Harvey wallbangers, wombles and skols. Jim Baumann was his name – or Jimbo to his friends. Where are you now? He was, and I hope still is, a very unique and quite distinctive character and so I hope hasn’t bitten off more than he can chew.

And the next day when I saw my folks I proudly announced I’d bought a Moth, a petrocheck, I never saw it in writing so the spellings wrong but that’s how it sounded. Apparently it was conceived – because moths back then were the result of a long hard labour, in Czechoslovakia or maybe that’s where the big tree was found from which it was hewn. £200 quid or so. Deep V hull, more rocker than billy idol, a wooden unstayed mast borrowed from the Victory, and a lovely billowing white sail made out of some long dead Nazis parachute. She was fun and pretty and had varnish and she went quite well in light winds…. And I loved it.

In those days homebuilt Moths sometimes needed a little maintenance, and some seemed sponsored by Isopon. Posh for plastic padding. But my girl, she never needed fixing on a daily basis; Jimbo was always "refining" his Dragon from the ahead-of-his-time designer, Sean Cox.

No.. she was not one for daily gripes and niggles. She was saving herself to depart of this world in one gigantic epic flourish. I had always been puzzled how that unstayed mast stayed up there. And then one very windy day the mast ripped the poor girl open through foredeck to bow. And she was gone. Sad day, but she went how she went. With grace, and style.

So to Lymingtown I travelled, and met a great big black tail-wagging skinny-dog called Shelley. And John Claridge – he's a very nice man. Norman would have liked Shelley.

Norman -

My Mum and Dad always took cakes for Shelley when we visited the Johns Moth “Factory” in Lymington. The factory was renowned in Japan where it had assumed gigantic mythical proportions as a result of the fantastic boats that rolled off the production line. (All the best Ichino if you’re out there – “Now we go down boozer?”). And so John built me my very own new boat, a beautiful gaboon and sapele (am I right?) Magnum 3. State of the art and oh so narrow. 7.5 secs to 60 was quick too, then. And John gave me a sailing lesson at Rockley point – free. None of this £600 a day stuff! Those were the days. John did wonder though - out loud, waist deep in water, if I would ever get the hang of it. And may still do.

And then when I was all grown up I got a magnum 5, and I could sort of sail it. It was really, really narrow, and quite cool.

Thanks again John.

They were, and are, great boats.

Best

Rod

To be continued. ...

The Parkstone Yacht Club Moth Open

A Flying start to the Parkstone Yacht club Moth Open
or

A Heady Brew

– in case you’ve read the reports and thought it was about results…

Never was so much talent, distilled in so few, cast into the melting pot of Poole Harbour to form the most headiest, unsteadiest, glorious brew.

It all started on a cold dark night, when Norman the psychodog bounded through the air to greet Squadron leader May. Next cartoon man, they call him Booner, with a hangover and more wine. And still on the highway like a bat out of a hell, chap of the right stuff Wingman Rover Feltacious Gary Ireson the First. “There can only be one”. He was late, doing a ton with a trailer, kmh of course, and got pulled by a girl in a uniform on the A34. “Can I see in the back of your truck” she said, trying her luck. But he hadn’t got time to rhyme.

So when the posse finally met, the cook was inebriated. You remember how to prepare for an important event and then you forget at the last minute. In the early hours the night ended in with a Wii bit of tennis.

The cock crew and Rod roused the rabble “off blocks, on socks”. A few bacon butties later they were down the club. “ooh its right chilly” said Gary, as he’s hard.

Then apparently some serious sailing took place… Mikey Pascall and a great bunch of highly
skilled crews did a brilliant job of getting the mothies cleanly away.

So with hissing, ventilating foils we flew our way round. 21.4 kts and I still got lapped! The talent in attendance was legendary. Jason Belben was on blistering form and took most bullets. Adam May it look stylishly effortless but was hampered with a low powered sail. Gary and Booner were quick and shook some trees.

I never really got to see Mike Lennon as he was well ahead; really a speedster who’ll go faster still. Si was rapid but his magic wand left in Oz, the wizard was pressed and searching for Zen. With more quality bath-time tank-testing he’s got his form to come. Mr Tagg smoked it round when not totally on fire.

Alex K on 1st generation foils and a hull mimicking "Das Boot", kept pushing till the end, while Tommy "legend” Whicherman was bedding in his new axiom. And all after haring 24hrs across Europe to get to the event – Dix points. And me Maxi Rod? - Well I was revelling in it, knackered, hungover, cramped, slow off the line – yep that’s me towards the back, but I’ll live to fight another day. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – no gym for me - more pain less brain. Time to get off the pies and spend more time on the water.

So after a big day we all went out for a big curry and beer. Then crumpets at the crack of dawn and off we go again. Marginal winds and technical early foiling ruled the day. The pros and the young pretenders showed their metal. And three great races later it was all over.

Well that was the start of the Poole Parkstone Moth season. Interest in the class grows and we’ll be arranging a “try it and fly it” day for all you wise ones who are keen to have a go and thinking of joining this friendly, helpful, skilled and enthusiastic group of sailors.

A Big Cheers to you all, and a serious Thank You to the team at Parkstone Yacht Club for their encouragement and help to get the event off the ground.

The Foiling is indeed awesome.

All the best

Rod