US Worlds/Class History
International Moth Worlds Return to the States.
By Joe Bousquet.
After a 33 year absence, the Moth Worlds have again come home. While the history of the class involves both Australian and American roots, there is little argument that the International Moth Class Association originated in the United States in 1935. Competition for first, the International Antonia Trophy, and now, the Carling Trophy had been held annually in the United States beginning in the 1930s. The first world championship race to be held outside of the US was in 1960 when the competition moved to Europe. Subsequent regattas were alternately held on the continent and in the States. Australia first hosted the event in 1969, followed by New Zealand in 1970. In the 1970s the US participation in the class began declining. The world championship regatta was last held in the here in 1976, at Ware River, Virginia. In the late 70s, the IMCA-US was effectively defunct and mothies from Europe and from Down Under assumed the role of hosts for the World Championship regattas.
As the only competitor at this year’s World Championship regatta that also participated in the 1976 Ware River Worlds, Nige asked me to write a piece about my recollection of the regatta. I was a 21 year old college student on the sailing team at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and had been knocking around in moths for about three years, first in my Stockholm Sprite “First Try” and later in my Mistral “Try-Too.” I had heard stories about the worlds held in Florida (1967) and in Cape May, NJ (1965) but those were the transition days of the class when the new “tall rig,” aka the Australian rig, was replacing the low rigs of the older designs. I only had experience with the modern boats. Most of my buddies were into high performance sailing (5o5s and catamarans) and the moth naturally fed our hunger for speed and acceleration. We were building boats right and left and had a pretty active fleet in the Tidewater area, usually with a dozen starters for weekend events. When the opportunity presented itself to compete in a World Championship at a venue practically in our own backyard we leaped at the chance.
I wasn’t involved with the class organization at the time so don’t know a lot about how the Ware River Yacht Club venue was chosen. We did have an annual summer regatta there and the club did have a history of hosting some major events. The location is on the Ware River, a tidal estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. The Ware is about two miles wide off the club house and the river opens up into a wider arm of the Chesapeake known as Mobjack Bay. The WRYC is a small club that caters to dinghy sailors, with competitors often camping on the club property during weekend regattas. There is no lift or slips or keel boats, just a paved boat ramp that allows access to the water. The river is shallow off the club with the need to wade out about 100 yards at low tide to gain a three foot depth. The river has a sandy bottom with a negligible tidal current (the range is only about two feet.) In the summer the water is very warm and the standard garb was t-shirts and shorts. Wetsuits were seldom worn,
Thinking back to the year of 1976, (and doing some internet research) I recall that ’76 was the year of the bicentennial of American independence. You remember your world history – In Congress July 4th, 1776, “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal…” Yes, 200 years earlier, the Virginian Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the document that called for the separation of the American colonies from British rule. The Bicentennial was a big event in the States. There was a huge celebration in New York harbor with tall ships from all over the world. The bicentennial was also the impetus for all sorts of groups to jump aboard. The “Bikecentennial” organization sponsored group bike rides across the continent (the route that Susan and I took for our 25th Anniversary Tour in 2004 is the old Bikecentennial route.) 1976 also saw the summer Olympics held in North America, albeit in Montreal, Canada and not in the States.
Looking at the list of medal winners for that year’s Olympic regatta at Kingston brings back memories of the sailing icons of my youth: from the US, John Kolius (Soling) and Dennis Conner (Tempest), from the UK, Rodney Patterson (FD) and Reg White (Tornado), and from Australia, Ian Brown (470) and John Bertrand (Finn.) I also note that there were no women’s events at the 1976 Olympics, but that Ellen MacArthur was born on July 8, 1976. The summer of 1976 was also notable for an extreme heat wave in the northern hemisphere. The UK’s Met Office has said that “The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year, was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727." At Ware River, too, I remember the worlds having nice summertime conditions. Many of the races were light to moderate air affairs, although I do recall one race where the sea breeze came in with a vengence, turning a beat into a run and shuffling the order of the fleet. I don’t recall the RC abandoning the race, but rather we all just reacting to the new breeze.
I can’t find a list of the competitors for that regatta, but I do know that Ted Causey (US) won in his fiberglass poacher, Peter Moor (AUS) was second in a ply boat he borrowed from Ted, and John Claridge (UK) was third in his pink Magnum 2. I finished seventh. (one place lower than the number of trophies.) We had about forty competitors, but about half the fleet was from the South Jersey area sailing relatively older boats. My impression was that, except for the top international competitors, the top ten places around the course were often occupied by guys from the Tidewater area moth fleet. Ted, Richard Wallio, Dave Dussia, Kenny Elliott, Tommy Lutton and I were familiar with the venue, our boats and each other, and seemed to revel in the racing. The other aspect of the regtta that comes to mind is the relatively small number of production boats. Except for some of the folks from Jersey who were sailing older designs, all the boats were homebuilt. There was also a large variety in the number of designs: The folks from the Tidewater area had built Poachers, Sprites, Mistrals and had modified older designs from BOW marine. The winter after the Ware River worlds, Richard, Tommy and I built a number of Magnum2s out of a mold that was taken off Claridge’s boat (Ted had bought John’s boat from him after the worlds to save him the cost of shipping it home.) Three of those glass magnums were shipped to Hayling Island in ’77 where Tommy, Richard and I represented the US. In ‘77 I finished the highest of us three, 16th out of about 80, again one place out of the prizes.
After the ’76 worlds, the number of active US mothies began to drop dramatically. When Richard, Tommy and I came back from Halying Island in August of ‘77, I recall only one regattta of significance, the ’77 Moth North Americans, held in September in Elizabeth City, NC. We three had sold our magnums in England after the regatta there to save shipping costs home so we were in our older boats for the ’77 NAs. I’m not sure why the class died that following winter. Richard joined the Navy, I began teaching, and the other movers and shakers in the class just seem to fade away.
Only in the past three years with the appearance of the foilers has the US Moth Class been reborn. Even though there were some narrow boats and foilers in the US prior to 2008, it was at the Weymouth Worlds last year that the US class association was reactivated. I was one of five US competitors at Weymouth (along with Nige, Bora, George and Peter). Andy Mills (CAN) was a defacto member of our team, having sailed with the Pacific NW fleet. We all welcome you to this tears worlds. We suspect that the US class numbers will continue to grow. Thanks for coming !
