Bright Future For Moth Class Yachts

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 14

Bright Future For Moth Class Yachts

TT Is very likely that a New Zealand-designed and built Moth class yacht (or yachts) will be taking part in the 1965 international Moth class championships only two years sifter the introduction of the boat to this country, considers Mr H. H. Wagstaff, of Wellington.

Mr Wagstaff, the designer of the first Moth in New Zealand and also designer of Chamois, which won the Leander trophy from 1960 to 1962, told “The Press” that the “Wagstaff Aussie Moths” (as they have been coined and a name he does not like), which sire based on the Australian Moths, vary only slightly from the class of yachts in the United States and Europe and it would be very easy to equip them for international competition. Next year’s international championships are to be held on the eastern seaboard of the United States, near Long Island Sound.

The Australian Moth, the model of Mr Wagstaff’s design, is a class of singlehanded racing boats with restrictions of lift in length and 80 sq. ft in sail area. Mr Wagstaff said that experiments in design and construction can be made with complete freedom—one of the reasons he likes the class—and it is similar in principles to the R class. Until last year there was no single-handed class allowing experiment and

development in New Zealand and one of the other reasons Mr Wagstaff chose the Australian Moth as the basis to build and design, was that it suited his requirements as a young family man. Also, international competition with Australia will be very easy to arrange and he thought it preferable to have a boat that could compete with highly-developed Moth class boats from across the Tasman rather than a boat that would be Isolated, from a competitive point of view.

Mr Wagstaff’s prototype, Puriri, proved, according to the designer, "efficient in her work as a racing machine, as well as a good knockabout boat used for fishing, rowing and general family use.” “These attributes,” said Mr Wagstaff, “plus the low cost (less than £5O for the complete boat and sail) led in recent months to more than 100 being built to Puriri’s design throughout New Zealand.” Of this total, at least 40 are in the Canterbury district. Mr Wagstaff said that the annual championships of the Australian Moth Class are to be held in Sydney between Christmas and New Year this summer and it is hoped that a team of six New Zealand boats will be able to make the trip to take part. A boat from Hamilton and one from Wellington are available to compete and Mr Wagstaff hopes

that someone from Christchurch may be interested also. Mr Wagstaff thinks the possibilities of Moths in time competing in the Olympic Gaines are remote. The International Yacht Racing Union recently called a competition for a design of a boat ultimately to replace the Finn Class as the Olympic single-hander and, according to Mr Wagstaff, the indications in the announcement of the competition were that the union was looking for something between the Moth and the Finn—say, about 13ft long. The competitian dosed in London yesterday, and Mr Wagstaff is looking forward to the result as he has made an entry.