Romain Berard; On his own

Romain Berard, Earwigoagin's erstwhile European correspondent, has started up his own blog, Dinghy 12 Pieds International (now also featured on my blogroll). This is a good thing. While I've tried to balance small boat coverage on my blog, there is no doubt I retain an Anglo slant. Romain will do a much better job in covering French traditional classes and French sailing history and he is writing posts in both French and English (so you don't have to cut and paste in Google Translate). Highly recommended you check his blog out on a weekly basis.

Header Photo: International 12

Header Photo is from Earwigoagin's European correspondent, Romain Berard, and features two traditional International 12's (design circa 1914) drifting on some lake that, for the moment, I don't have the name (will have to wait for Romain to add a comment). My last post on the International 12 and Romain can be found over here.

It took a couple of days (my European correspondent must still be on his month long August vacation) but Romain comes through (see comments). It is "Lac des Settons", and from Google satellite, a very pretty lake indeed, set smack dab in the middle of France amongst the farms. Pinpoint maps from Google at the following URL:

https://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr&ll=47.182538,4.07258&spn=0.047194,0.077162&sll=47.191841,4.06477&sspn=0.023593,0.038581&oq=les+settons&t=m&z=14

Earwigoagin: Ten Years On

Yesterday, November 17, 2018, marked the ten year anniversary of Earwigoagin. I started this blog with a post responding to Tillerman's writing challenge, a take on "Who's Coming to Dinner". Over the past year this blog has been sputtering a bit, posting has become somewhat erratic but I still have material in mind so I haven't decided to wrap up this gig yet. I would like to thank some of the readers who have contributed to Earwigoagin over the years and with whom I have had interesting email conversations; from France, Bertrand Warion and earlier in this blog's life, Romain Berard; from New Zealand, Neil Kennedy; from Australia, Andrew Chapman and Chris Cleary; from Whidbey Island, transplanted Englishman, Michael Scott, and from up-some-river in the Pacific Northwest, traditional boatbuilder Michael Bogoger. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting at the moment but I'll get around to adding to this list. TOH to my local friends, Tom Price and John Zseleczky who have taken an interest in this blog and offered up their two cents whenever I meet up with them. (And a special nod to Pete Teeling who seems to have this blog memorized, dragging up old posts whenever we cross paths.)

Early on I discovered that if you switched out the header photo every now and then, you could write a post on that photo. If you do an image search on Earwigoagin's Header Photos you get a good snapshot of this blog.

Blogging is, for the most part, an anonymous activity, but I have taken enormous satisfaction that some readers have enjoyed this blog and, also that some readers have been able to take away useful information. Thank you!

• Some of my posts that track the ups and downs of blogging.
• Some of my posts with personal anecdotes.

Almost forgot. I would also like to thank Tillerman for ranking Earwigoagin as his best sailing blog of 2011.

Romain's yacht

I've been promising Earwigoagin's European correspondent, Romain Berard, to do another post on his yacht for over a year now. You see, Romain owns a wooden International 12 and has supplied me with several photos, one of them now gracing the header of this blog. The International 12 is one of my favorite classes; certainly if I was based in Italy, where it is very popular, I would own one. I've posted several times before on the International 12 at the following links:

1. Brief overview of the International 12 here.
2. Other pics of Romain's yacht.
3. Old farts should sail Old boats

Last fall I talked to Louis Sander of Ronstan at the U.S Sailboat Show. He is based in Italy and the conversation turned to the International 12, which, it turns out, is known simply in Italy as the "Dinghy" class. Louis said it is very popular in Italy (I notice online that they get fleets of 70 for big regattas in Italy) and, according to Louis, is based around Portofino/Tigullio, with the other most active fleets around Lake Como, and in the Veneto and Lazio regions.

Next year the International 12 will be 100 years old; without question it is the most popular vintage dinghy going. It is built in wood and glass and retains the original lug rig, though the racing types have completely modern blocks, lines, and Dacron sails.

A pic I lifted online, taken by Pascale Guittonneau of an International 12 sailing in a French vintage regatta. Very pretty lapstrake hull (clinker to those from England) with a very round hull shape. Sailing these craft can be tricky. Romain sent me a video of his boat sailing downwind in a breeze - rock and rolling all the way.



A YouTube video. The title screen, a disclaimer roughly translated from Italian by Google....

"The video was shot while I was making a photo shoot and it is not representative 'of the event, or of my work. These are only images to share with friends "dinghisti." Camera images are attached to the dinghy of Nicola Rainusso."

Bloggers Note: For those who have raced singlehanders, the onboard video at 3:25 into this YouTube is amusing. Apparently the skipper, in attempting to gybe around the reach mark, lost control, rounded up head-to-wind (as usually happens) and ran into the poor fellow who was following behind.

 

Header Photo: International 12's Heading for the Rocks

The previous header photo is of two, 1914 design, International 12's, sailing toward shore, where the leeward 12 will, very shortly, have to call for water. I'll await for Romain Berard to fill me in on the details.

Follow Up; Nantais Moth

Moth Classique

Plans de Moth Classique

Referring to the post of the Nantais Moth Classique under construction in British Columbia, I got a nice email from Romain Berard (who I assume is French but I forgot to ask).

"If you read French, you can buy this book: http://www.chasse-maree.com/Les-livres/Construction/Restauration-Construction/Construis-toi-meme/Fiche-produit-detaillee.html

This is a new reprint of a series of do-it-yourself books written during WW2 on how to build various small boats. Included are the plans and detailed explanations to make a Sharpie (both 9 and 11 m2 versions), a dinghy Herbulot, a Caneton, the Nantais Moth Classique, the Mousse and also the beautiful Aile keelboat."

I have the book. In it the author speaks about shortage of materials (it seems he can help the would be builder to get a voucher for some) and a note mentions an American bombing over Nantes.

In the bill of material required for the moth, 9m2 of cotton is mentionned for the sail.

Thanks Romain. Here is the link to the book (link didn't show up as clickable above).Undoubtedly an interesting book for historical yachting nuts like me, particularly if you have some French language background. Romain also sent me some photos of his current ride; one of my favorite traditional dinghies featured in several posts on this blog, the International 12. He says the wooden International 12's are very expensive. Sometimes you pay for beauty!