Hello..
While monitoring LeBon Coin (french E bay, only it's fixed prices , no auction) i chanced upon this beast
https://www.leboncoin.fr/nautisme/10929 ... tm?ca=12_s
Mailed the guy (only for the sake of curiosity) got him on the phone...He is no sailor just a contractor who had to bring down an old shoe factory whose former owner , back before WW2 , was remebered as a boating enthusiast.
He stopped his guys from burning the craft (no boom, no sail a stange mast with this intriguing triangular plank-spreader?-)and instead took the trouble of installing it on the trailor and puting an ad . somebody from La Rochelle museum even came and was interested, but only on a donation basis (the price however is much lower than the 1000€ on the tag)...
The hull is oddly mandolin shaped , with not one but two centreboards, a lead keel and a row-boat type of steering (hand or fot operated??) some wires and ropes left, no buider plate, no sail , just a 22 number somewhere. dimensions unknown but fairly big and heavy (took four guys to put il on the trailor)...date of build somewhere between the 20's and 30's.
Any ideas, has some sort of design plans of something like this ever surfaced in an old boating magazine??
Mustn't be fast or trendsetting or groundbreaking anyway...another guy trying to re-invent the wheel...but still a very curious design.
The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
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- Posts: 368
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:54 pm
- Location: France
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- Posts: 368
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:54 pm
- Location: France
Re: The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
Just one more thing: Built out of solid wood , not ply
Re: The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
It looks wonderful, can someone buy it and then work out whether it sails better forwards or backwards!
PeterV
Finn K197 & GBR564
Warsash
Finn K197 & GBR564
Warsash
Re: The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
Duck punt?
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- Posts: 368
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:54 pm
- Location: France
Re: The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
Obviously it is quite bizarre, but what is the rationale behind the design is what i can't grasp. Maybe some early aviation /seaplane or p gimmicks went into this thing (if it's really 20's or 30's vintage it's quite possible, as aviation was all the rage then) .
Maybe some ideas from powerboating too (the guy i spoke with said he found alongside a rather tattered Claude Kirié mahogany powerboat racer, built much like a canadian canoe, only just wider and with a transom, a design that went all along from the 30's to the 50's, until ply, fiberglass and hard chine hulls took over so maybe the builder had some background in powerboating....
The triangle in the mast suggests some knowledge of how to stiffen a thin tapered wood mast, so it's more sophisticated than just a schoolboy cobbling something with planks, nails, broomstick and old bedsheets ...and same for the tiller arangement as nobody had yet made modern style tiller extensions and Manfred Curry was advocating for the strange triangular tiller back then.
Wide bow and shallow veed bottom on bow suggest at least some sort of hope of hydroplaning but why the narrow stern ?
Hope somebody will take the trouble of restoring and sailing it....as some aussies did when rebuilding the crazy tubular Stipa Caproni Aircraft...and flying it!
Maybe some ideas from powerboating too (the guy i spoke with said he found alongside a rather tattered Claude Kirié mahogany powerboat racer, built much like a canadian canoe, only just wider and with a transom, a design that went all along from the 30's to the 50's, until ply, fiberglass and hard chine hulls took over so maybe the builder had some background in powerboating....
The triangle in the mast suggests some knowledge of how to stiffen a thin tapered wood mast, so it's more sophisticated than just a schoolboy cobbling something with planks, nails, broomstick and old bedsheets ...and same for the tiller arangement as nobody had yet made modern style tiller extensions and Manfred Curry was advocating for the strange triangular tiller back then.
Wide bow and shallow veed bottom on bow suggest at least some sort of hope of hydroplaning but why the narrow stern ?
Hope somebody will take the trouble of restoring and sailing it....as some aussies did when rebuilding the crazy tubular Stipa Caproni Aircraft...and flying it!
Re: The WTF , one off ? and weird wotizit
Perhaps he was attempting to cross a IC with a 2 hander standard dinghy