Moxie For Ever !

A phone call from Multihulls World in the spring of 2003 went something like: “Philippe, we’ve committed to Moxie and VSD in the Ruta de la Sal race and we thought it would be good for the journalist who’s so enthusiastic about these old glories to come aboard...”. So, some twelve hundred and fifty miles in the car later, overwhelmed, I found a trimaran like new, just as Phil Weld had left her. The legendary silhouette grabbed me, purer than Rogue Wave’s, her proportions were miraculous. The grace of the half-wing front arm reveals a complex fuselage-architecture, as strong as it is light. The aft arm conceals its powerful musculature by crossing the central hull, with great finesse. The ultra-tight lines of the under water hull, a legacy of the architect’s kayaking past, are expressed by rounded V-shaped sections. This design guarantees an exceptionally smooth passage through the sea and explains Moxie’s dexterity upwind (among other points of sail!). On the starting line of the Denia-Ibiza race, Phil Weld’s wheel was in my hands, the crew was grinding the original winches, everything was in its rightful place aboard this Ostar-winning trimaran. From the very first boatlengths, something instantaneous was exchanged between these 50 feet of molded wood and me. With nearly 300 boats of all shapes and sizes in front of us, under mainsail and genoa, the trimaran started off immediately in just a few knots of breeze. By nightfall, Moxie was in the lead! I was later to have several opportuni- ties to sail on Moxie - Craig even entrusted me with his ...