The French tend to be on a slightly different time-line on the sailboat design front. I won't go so far as to say they are out in front but I will say that they do go their own way and a few years from now you will be seeing a lot of new features and trends which are commonplace already on a lot of French designs.
Designers like Phillip Harlé, while sadly no longer with us, opened the doors for many NA's to as the saying goes.. "Do their thing", and boy do they do it.
A while back I wrote about the Souriceau micro cruiser design by Eric Henseval but looking at what he does in a ten meter (about 33 feet) design the LDM 33, shows a lot of the same thought processes and innovation. I'd really like to see what he would do with an 11.5 meter (38 feet) hull...
What is also interesting is these days a LOT of the most interesting designs coming out of France are in plywood, and as plywood, in my opinion, is one of the best materials for a home builder or one-off boat shop to build in and this is somewhat happy making!
Bruce+
12 hours ago
