It says it's a moth.....

[FM-W17 designer]

Thanks Mike,
I know Richard of course. Spent a little time on his motorcat a couple of years ago, while out visiting family in Vancouver. Guess his Strike 18 is 'a friendly competitor' for my W17 .. but they are really different boats. i personally do not like using cat hulls as outriggers .. but prefer to design something that integrates better overall. But as Richard himself said to me, "my partner would prefer the protection of my Strike, but personally, I'd love to sail your boat". So we were able to still part friends .. haha. We think alike on many aspects it seems.
There's a couple of W17's building out in the North West, so keep your eyes open and take a ride if you can. Check out the WoodenBoat review (Jan 2017) ... the boat offers a new standard of efficiency that's unusual for such simple shapes ..., the result of a lifetime of 'tweaking' and 'back to basics' naval architecture OOPS ... sorry to get off subject.
Thanks for reminding me it was Ted Hicks who won that race. I do remember meeting him. Actually, that race was the final reason I came to Canada! I was just married and we had my parents car FULL to the windows with wedding gifts etc. But while racing, the car was stolen and because we had been trying to decide IF to go to Canada or not, we took that set-back as the signal to just, GO. If we had to start from scratch, why not in Canada. That's life.
I only saw the PATHE film clip a year ago. 1 second (1:20) after my Flying Moth is seen on the heels of Ted Hicks, there' s a shot of 2 young women watching the finish. The one whose face is partly hidden, was my new wife ! What an interesting co-incidence I thought .. to catch both on PATHE news.
Best
mike
http://www.smalltridesign.com

I've dnsized some Flying Moth pics and will attach them

[FM-W17 designer]

And here are some pics of the system for making the rolled decks fit so well, plus one of the two- place Flying Gnat of which only one was built and one of the Mark lll on the Saint Lawrence river in the 60's
mike

Perhaps someone can give Kevin Boyd a 'heads up' that this info is now posted (with photos on Page 2). I'd think that after rebuilding that old boat he'd be interested ... also that the Mark lll had a successful unstayed mast (OK dinghy style)

[Ed]

I havn't seen Kevin for a couple of weeks, but did email him, so he might of read it already.

Not sure if you got the link before, so here are some photos of FM21 before rebuild and during.

https://goo.gl/photos/hWdmCLAGuP1TKNwU6

Kevin would have the name of the guy he sold the FM to, who I am sure would be interested.

Very interesting to see how you got the rolled decks made. They were quite interesting to pull into place with clamps. It certainly took two of us to do it....and every clamp that Kevin and I owned between the two of us!

cheers

eib

[FM-W17 designer]

Thanks Ed
Great to see the old pics. Hard to believe I was involved building that some 62 years ago! Shows what a good plywood boat can survive .. ,and that was before epoxy too. She was bonded with Aerolite 300 and the plywood was BSS1088-AX100, the best we could buy at the time.
I did hear from Kevin but unfortunately he was not able to give me any info about the buyer other than he was from Southampton (so a full circle;) ... but I hope he gets to hear about the posts at least.
Just to be clear on the side decks ... the radius was selected to suit the bend of the 3mm ply we used, after laying a hot wet towel over the outside surface. Once bonded-on while in the frame I devised (as per the photos), the ends were planed off and the bulkheads mounted to form 'a cockpit box' that was laid upside down on the boat frame. Then the chines and gunwales were sprung around and the ply fitted. Once turned over, the only thing to add was the fore and aft deck. There were NO fastenings used to hold the curved deck ply, so it looked very neat and clean. Somewhere I have a pic of this stage, as we used to supply some boats 1/2 built like this.
I mention this, as there ARE fastenings showing in the old photos in the Google.gl link .., but they were not part of the original construction. It was not clear to me from the pics if the curved ply was being added or removed at the time. Certainly a LOT harder to replace and install new plywood after the boat is finished and harder to make a neat job .. that's what drove our chosen way of assembly.
cheers
mike

[FM-W17 designer]

Could not find the original, but here is a poor print of what I was looking for, showing the 'bare hulls' we used to offer in the mid 50's. The hull at the rear shows how the side decks looked after turning over the hull.
mike

[JimC]

Certainly a LOT harder to replace and install new plywood after the boat is finished and harder to make a neat job .. that's what drove our chosen way of assembly.

The Eleven Plus - where the side tanks are recurved underneath to meet the topsides rather than the floor - must have been built the same way. Rather hard on anyone seeking to replace the decks, but presumably you expected owners to maintain the varnish properly so decks didn't need replacing within a reasonable lifespan of the boat, reasonable not being more than about ten or twenty years!

[FM-W17 designer]

Hi Mike (Scott) If you see this, pls drop me a short line on my website questionnaire so that I have your email. I could be out in the NW sometime and we might be able to hookup. Tks mike
www.smalltridesign.com

[Nessa]

This is interesting. The rolled decks on The Peril are coming away from the hull, and this information on their constructive makes me think that the repair is one for an expert and not for me.