The world's oldest foiling moth

dateline Friday, September 6th,  Norfolk, VA.

    This afternoon at 1630 hours, a ply moth of the Shelley design, built by Bill McCutcheon on the Isle of Wight in the 1960s, has achieved full flight with a classic moth rig. The venue was Willoughby Bay in Norfolk, Virginia (USA.)  Conditions as recorded on a nearby weather station situated in the harbor were 11-13 knots. When the wind peaked the boat easily lifted and sustained flight for about a half a mile broad reaching. The pilot was Joe Bousquet who used the foils from his international moth Try-Foil, a five year old Hungry Beaver design. The plywood Shelley, on the other hand, was the first of McCutcheon's boats imported to the United States. It had fallen into extreme disrepair and was resurrected in 2001 by Bousquet as "Aftermath" and was subsequently sailed for over ten years by Susan Bousquet in races sponsored by the Classic Moth Boat Association.

No video nor GPS readings were available, but may be forthcoming during future flights. Below is a snapshot of the wind conditions during the afternoon hours when Aftermath was foil-borne.