Monotype de Nogent-Joinville

Bertrand Warion sent along some photos he took of the "Voiles des Boucles de la Marne" (rough translation - sailboats of the Loops of the Marne, a reference to the rough S shape of the Marne River on the southeastern suburbs of Paris). The "Voiles des Boucles de la Marne" was a small gathering, this past May, of traditional French small sailboats that were sailed on the rivers around Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of interest was the plywood reproduction of the 1903 French 5.5 meter sailing dinghy, "Le Monotype de Nogent-Joinville".

The Monotype de Nogent-Joinville was drawn up by Ernest Binet, following the detailed input of Albert Glandaz and was a product of a push by Parisian sailors, as they entered the twentieth century, to develop small one-design sailboats for racing (the French word "monotype", in this case, can be translated to mean one-design).

The Monotype de Nogent-Joinville at the dock. Behind her is the Monotype de Chatou, the scow type which had appeared on the French rivers several years earlier in 1901.

Bertrand Warion

The Monotype de Nogent-Joinville has a deep vee hull. For river sailing, the wetted surface is much reduced compared to the flat Monotype de Chatou but the Monotype de Chatou would remain more popular, with around 140 being built compared to around 20 for the Monotype de Nogent-Joinville.

Bertrand Warion

Historian Louis Pillon put together the lines of the Monotoype de Nogent-Joinville from a magazine article of that period. The Monotype de Nogent-Joinville was a sloop, had a low slung gunter rig, the main had three full length battens. It is a rig that the French designers copied, according to Louis Pillon, from the English designer Linton Hope. This reproduction was built by volunteers at Sequana, the French nautical historical society, under the direction of Bertrand Chazarenc.

Louis Pillon

Out sailing; the Monotype de Nogent-Joinville drifting ahead of Louis Pillon's Monotype de Chatou. According to Bertrand, the Monotype de Chatou has bamboo spars!

Bertrand Warion

Another photo from the dock. In the foreground, with the cool wishbone-type split tiller, is Bertand Warion's Sharpie 9m², a flat-bottomed, canoe-like French singlehander that was designed in 1937.

Bertrand Warion

A contemporary postcard, early 1900's, with a Monotype de Nogent-Joinville sharing the river with various Sunday leisure rowboats.

I have gleaned all of the history from Louis Pillon's articles which I found online.