Thursday, December 27, 2012

Le Monotype d'Arcachon - 100 years

I've mentioned in a previous post that the modern Laser singlehander has turned 40 years old but, under the radar, there are local traditional small sailing craft that are celebrating their centenarys, their origins going back to the beginning of small boat racing. One of these, the French dinghy class Le Monotype d'Arcachon, marked their 100 years in 2012. Designed in 1912 by Joseph Gudeon as a trainer for the Bay of Arcachon, it appears upwards of forty of these 14 foot dinghies survive (see below) and continue to race today. Looking at the numbers on the sails, about 300 were built. These dinghies were solidly built with the weight quoted as 225 kg and used a balanced lug rig. A very pretty sailing dinghy.

A picture I lifted from the Bibout blog.


A French video of the centenary regatta. (As I mentioned before, I'm a typical American monoglot; I am hoping, if the video shares more history on the Monotype, then those with French language skills will share this by adding a comment to this post.)

Update: The fellow who blogs about Laser sailing in Dubai has kindly done a broad translation of the video. I have dragged his comment into the main post.
"Glad to help with the French. The man in in the interview, Mr. Lacoste, has a lovely accent from the southern part of France. He explains that they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the boats which have a long history in the Arcachon region. The boats today are recent ones - the original ones have all disappeared. About 500 were built and in most cases were kept by a sailing family for use by the children, while the parents sailed a Dragon or other boat. They are made only for recreation - not working boats. Today they have about 40 boats in the association, with about 20 showing up regularly for regattas. They come mainly from the Archacon area, but some from Bordeaux and further away".


Les cent ans des monotypes from televisionbassinarcachon on Vimeo.

I had previously mentioned Le Monotype d'Arcachon, in a post about the Pinasse Voile d'Arcachon, another traditional craft of the bassin du Arcachon.

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6 comments:

  1. Bursledon BloggerDecember 27, 2012 at 10:02 AM

    Lovely boats, the continental's do seem to have some nice single sail boats - Italy and Holland have strong fleets of International 12's (which I think you have profiled) - we have the Solent SCOW - I have to say the Arcachon boats are very pretty and that's a big old lug rig!!

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  2. TweezermanDecember 29, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    Yes, I made the same mistake - classifying them as International 12's when I first saw them in pictures. The real give-away is that the International 12's are clinker and these are smooth-skin. Best in the New Year, Mr. Bursledon. I enjoy your blog.

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  3. Keep ReachingDecember 30, 2012 at 12:43 AM

    Thanks for a great post.

    Glad to help with the French. The man in in the interview, Mr. Lacoste, has a lovely accent from the southern part of France. He explains that they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the boats which have a long history in the Arcachon region. The boats today are recent ones - the original ones have all disappeared. About 500 were built and in most cases were kept by a sailing family for use by the children, while the parents sailed a Dragon or other boat. They are made only for recreation - not working boats. Today they have about 40 boats in the association, with about 20 showing up regularly for regattas. They come mainly from the Archacon area, but some from Bordeaux and further away.

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  4. TweezermanJanuary 1, 2013 at 11:18 AM

    Thanks for translating. I've put your comments in the main post. Best of the new year in Dubai.

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  5. John SummersJanuary 2, 2013 at 6:40 PM

    If you change the standing lug for a gaff, she looks a bit like a North Haven Dinghy, which got started in the late 1880s and is still sailing.

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  6. TweezermanJanuary 13, 2013 at 5:44 AM

    I've never seen a North Haven Dinghy up close. Generally, at least initially, American dinghies were flatter floored than their European counterparts.

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