I had a very early moth (before they put foils on them) which was still statically unstable. Inland waters with unpredictable winds meant you could go from strong wind to nothing almost instantly and with very little indication it was going to happen.
Very cool. The thing I really like about the early ones was that as an experimental class, you could get boats that were incredibly different to one another but still technically "moths". Much like early formula racing, there really was the latitude to tune the boat as well as your technique.
Not that I ever did with this one, it was about thirty years old and took all of my effort just to learn how to keep it upright. You also couldn't moor it anywhere because it would fall over if not moving which meant leaving it on its side at the jetti...
Yeah, and the "experimental class" thing was why I never really understood why they banned the tunnel hulls. It's too bad in a way, because in some conditions they might have been competitive with the unstable skiffs that dominated until the foils came along.
I'm in Australia, and we just sail off the beach, and the Scow shape was perfect for that.
There's an excellent discussion of the design at [1]. I have to say I'd love to try out a foiling Moth one day though.
I remember spending a lot of time in the water...