John Mosowitz Story

I split my time lately between the Windmill, a Prindle 19 catamaran both of which I refurbished over the last winter. I was at the St. Pete regatta this past January. I didn't sail in it but helped my buddies tune their boats. I did hang a bit with the Moth boys that sailed the classics. It was good to see Walt as we haven't seen each other since the North Americans that were held in Virginia a back in, I believe 1976 which was the last Moth regatta I sailed except for Brigantine in 1991. I sailed a Causey Sprite in '76 and a Fletcher fiberglass Swiss in 1991. On Wednesday nights I crew on a Little Harbor 50 off of Cape Cod. I sail the Windmill and Cat on the lakes in New Hampshire.

My Moth sailing started in New Jersey during the time between the late 60's and mid 70's. Raced the South Jersey circuit and Nationals. Won the State and Central Jersey titles more than once. In fact, I believe they are still using the perpetual trophy, ( the large silver bowl) I have had several Moths from a fiberglass Cates #2162, Fletcher Shelly #3036, Fletcher fiberglass Swiss #4006 and #3050. The latter Swiss is in my yard but I have tried to modify it which turned out to be a failure. I remember at one point we had 11 Moths in the back yard. Probably one design that was the most unusual was the "Hagey." It almost looked like a small Thistle. I wish I had pictures as I don't have any record of it. My last design I raced was a Causey Sprite. I am thinking it was number 4076, my sister had 4077. It has been a long time ago I may have these two numbers wrong, I could look them up if you would like. When the class died we donated them to the Stockton Sailing program. Several years later we tried to get them back but they were gone.

We sailed the Causey sprites with the "Australian" rig and found that it worked much better. By the early 70's nobody was using the smaller rig. For a period we tried to increase the sail area to 85 sq. ft by adding it to the leech as we didn't want to change the rig to the taller mast. It didn't work well as the sail gave the boat more healing power than forward motion.

This winter I plan to build a version of the Mistral hull. I must confess that I am going toward the Modern version as my sail came in today. I bought the sail from Scott, it is the one he used last year. It is funny I am doing this project backwards. Who buys the sail first? I am looking forward to get back into the Moth again. I have taken the Windmill as far as I can legally. It is fun boat, nice handling and great for the lakes up here, but..... now that I have basically "tricked" it out as far as I am allowed it will start to get a bit boring. It is time to PLAY!!!