One thing you can say about the French is that they know something about boats and sailing. Over the years the steady stream of innovation coming from France in sailboat design and construction techniques has been something of a silent wave... Silent because we tend to be English language centric so we never notice anything much past our borders.
For those lucky enough to read French there is a real cornucopia of books published by the Loisirs Nautiques Magazine.
"Construction en contreplaqué" by Jean-Pierre Villenave or "Le Composite Bois/Epoxy" by Jean-Yves Poirier are easily two of the best books I have ever come across in the boat building genre... and most certainly not the same old, same old!
It might interest some that the boat I featured a while back as a sweet (the Turbo 950) ride was one of Jean-Pierre Villenave's designs.
I'm lucky in that I am able to get by in French (plodding like a Spanish cow...) but I often wonder just what great designs and building techniques I'm missing out on because I don't speak or read German or Swedish...
Plans Change, Martinique version
1 week ago
