Moth Firsts
The International Moth has fostered a number of remarkable achievements. For example, in 1966-67, The King of Thailand was 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'. In 1957 Patricia Duane became the first woman to win the moth world championship in her Cates-Florida design and in 1968 Marie Claude Fauroux became the first woman skipper to win a World dinghy racing title from a IYRU sanctioned international class - in her Duflos designed moth. The International Moth was selected as an official training class for the Japanese Olympic sailing team, to hone their balance skills.
Perhaps most spectacularly, recent years have seen the International Moth literally take flight with the advent of lifting hydrofoils on daggerboard and rudder, which lift the entire hull and skipper above the water surface, dramatically reducing drag and increasing speed. Top speeds achieved are above 30 knots, the highest 10 second average of 30.7 knots (56.9 km/h) was recorded on 2 May 2010. This high speed is reflected in the International Moth's RYA Portsmouth Yardstick of 600, the fastest (as of 2012) of any sailing dinghy or multihull.
Read more about this topic: Moth (dinghy)
Famous quotes containing the word moth:
“But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)