(Sorry, another Chrome translation.)
Last week I wrote about a wonderful dinghy from Germany. I’m quite surprised we didn’t get more comments.
This week, we’re in France, at Leggero Boats
(All photos courtesy Leggero Boats. The one shown above is the Leggero L8)
And here’s a video of her under sail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DcUhs8N6XOQ
Here are her specs:
LOA: 8 meters
Beam: 2.5 meters
Draft: 1.9 meters
– keel raised: .8 meters
Light displacement: 1,300 kg
Ballast: 450 kg
Her construction, from their website:
“This is the site of Alexandre Genoud who was entrusted with the responsibility of building the first Leggero L8 Fouras in his unit near La Rochelle. A site known for its many buildings in small series of wooden sailing ships composite .
Wood, renewable material par excellence, has been used since antiquity in the construction of boats, but has been relegated in the 60s to the rank of historical material.
However, the Leggero L8 is deliberately built of wood. The wood chosen for its lightness and strength . The wood selected for its beautyunmatched.
The hull shape is made of strip-planking (or wood lath) and then laminated for ease of maintenance and the guarantee of an excellent durability.
The wood? The soul of a structure and technology of today.”
I have admired the boats from Alexandre Genoud for some time. Each one beatiful but unique. This one is no exception. I love the construction method. I hope that designs like this will continue to attract people to wood boats and the possibility of building one themselves.
I a bit diffident about pontisg here since I am on the other side of the pond. I have been privileged to have met Iain a few times and had the very great pleasure of his trying out my build of his Stickleback design. I thought fellow enthusiasts of the breed might be interested in a few of the resultant snaps. I have built some of his smaller designs, a couple of Humble Bees, a MacGregor canoe and his smallest canoe, the Stickleback and have plans for the Wee Rob for later in the year to complete the set. I have also been fortunate in having a small hand in the prototype St Ayles Skiff build and include a snap of Iain on Oar three on the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project Launch Day. I had a discussion over a suitable collective noun for a rally of Oughtred boats (a gathering is being organised in the Netherlands for April 2010) with Gavin Atkin of Intheboatshed.net; his suggestion that summed it up for me was ‘ a reverence’. Incidentally the St Ayles Skiff has struck a chord over here – there are now 12 kits ordered, 3 of them on Loch Broom in the NW Highlands of Scotland.My favorite by far is the wee Stickleback, she is so easy to launch on a whim and ideal for the shallow stream at the bottom of the garden.[img]HumbleBee06-12-09006.jpg[/img][img]MacGregor10-06-07057.jpg[/img][img]Stickleback11-05-09291.jpg[/img][img]StAylesSkiff31-10-09589.jpg[/img]