Golif the first all plastic sailing yacht

The 23ft Golif was built from 1962 by the Jouët works at Sartrouville. Jouët claim she was the first production small offshore cruiser to be entirely built in GRP, and she caused a stir on her introduction at the first Paris Boatshow in January 1962.

The unusual name comes from a famously ruthless, daring, and reportedly amorous 17th century French pirate, Louis Adhémar Timothée Le Golif, also known as “Borgnefesse”. Since his nickname means something like "one-eyed-arse", you would probably have been wise to address him, at least until you got to know him well, as Captain Golif.

Golif was designed by Jouet with one eye on the American market, where the management believed they could sell a lot of boats. They had probably been helped considerably in their objective by the earlier successful transatlantic voyages of Jean Lacombe, in a plywood Jouet Cap-Horn. Apparently the companys market research suggested that the Americans favoured rather more interior comfort than the European market was used to, and that stiffness under sail and transportability by road would be important qualities for US buyers. Some of the Golifs characteristic features, such as its panoramic cabin window, shoal draft, relatively light displacement and high ballast ratio, stem directly from these market-related requirements.

Even today, Golifs looks seem rather quirky, though the underwater hull shape and the rig appear conventional. At the time, however, Golifs rig was considered rather tall and narrow, and the aluminium mast was in those days quite an innovation on a small cruising yacht. The odd pinched shape of the coach roof seems to have been intended to maximise the width of the side decks, but without sacrificing headroom in the places below where you might want to stand. Thus, with perfect French logic, there is low headroom over bunks and seats, where you sit or lie down, but there is plenty of headroom over the central passage and galley area, where you stand or walk. As the Jouët company said, this deck was designed from the inside!

Unusually for such a small boat, Golif had a decent chart table at which you could comfortably sit and work while facing the direction of travel, as you might in a much larger yacht. This was achieved by making the chart table swing down from the cabin deckhead right in the centre of the boat. Another innovation was a hinged and sliding hatch (visible in the colour photo of a Golif recently for sale in France)

Some versions of the Golif were delivered with an optional deeper keel for racing performance. These boats were excellent performers in offshore races and won many prizes, but it was a perfectly standard Golif that achieved the greatest fame for the class. In 1964, Jean Lacombe who had been Frances sole entrant in the 1960 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (OSTAR), returned to repeat the feat in a Golif, once again the smallest boat in the competition. This was the year of Eric Tabarlys first triumph, so Lacombes achievement was rather overshadowed by the acclaim and fanfares garnered by the winner. Nevertheless, Lacombes Golif took joint pride of place, alongside Tabarlys Pen Duick II at the centre of the 1965 Paris Boat show. (see photo)

There are varying estimates of the total number of Golifs built by Jouet and also by the Dubigeon yard in Normandy. The total number certainly comes to over 1000.

Jouët Golif
LOA: 6.50m
LWL: 5.92m
Beam: 2.22m
Draft: 0.96m
Displacement: 1200Kg
Ballast: 480Kg (cast iron)
Sail area: 23.2sqm

Many thanks to the French Golif owners website for all the b&w images and much of the information used in preparing this post. Colour photo of a Golif recently for sale in France from an advertisement on www.leboncoin.fr

A scanned copy of the original 1963 Jouet Golif sales brochure is available in .pdf format from Yacht Brochures.co.uk

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So how did all this crap get on the boat

The word for today is Anthropocene, water, water everywhere, and regarding the most destructive 
people in society...

What can I say but its a new year and way past time for a major boat purge.

Well for one there are those scrap bits of aluminum from an old self-steering project which fall dab center in the middle of the too little to use and too big to throw away zone, some odd lengths of 1" stainless tubing which might come in handy if I ever decide to build an arch, a bunch of Plexiglas offcuts that sorta/kinda might be just the thing for some project I cant quite remember, and then there all that no longer needful but too good to put in the trash...

All of that crap when lumped together adds up to a surprising amount of weight but its the clutter issue which is the real problem as all of this stuff I dont use creeps around the boat (I suspect all unneeded boat bits have legs) like a cancer. Appearing, as if by magic, in lockers they dont belong in obscuring the stuff youre actually looking for and suchlike.

That said, it certainly beats having to mow the lawn...

Listening to Ryan Bingham

So it goes...

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Something we all need to think more about

About that war on Christmas, "Its a Wonderful Life" holiday (isnt it?) and the perpetual fear machine goes on and on and on and...

The last couple of weeks Ive been witnessing the slow agonizing death of a boat that ran aground and it has been a somewhat thought-provoking experience.

I expect Ill write more about it later but the most obvious lesson is that, these days more than ever, in spite of such things as towing services, marine professionals, and government agencies that if you get into trouble on a boat youre really on your own...

The bottom line is that no one really cares and all of those in the aforementioned safety net dont care at all (well except for whatever money they can bleed from the situation) and if you need to save your boat it really is up to you to make it happen.

Listening to Big Little Lions

So it goes...

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Tricorn A very early all GRP cruising dinghy

The Tricorn dinghy was designed by Illingworth and Primrose in 1962. Since theirs was one of the most famous names in offshore racing yacht design at the time, she came with some impressive pedigree. The design brief appears to have been to create a low maintenance dinghy, capable of serious open water passage-making, that would be better and faster than Ian Proctors well proven and famous Wayfarer class.

Back then in the early 60s there were very few dinghies purpose-designed for construction in GRP. Almost certainly this was the first boat of any type designed by Illingworth and Primrose for this type of construction, and at the time the Wayfarer would only have been available in plywood, so although Angus Primrose had certainly designed dinghies before, the Tricorn brief must have come as a considerable new challenge. His approach, in common with most other designers who were learning to work with this little known material, was make the boat strong and not to spare on materials. When you examine the layup of a Tricorn, youll notice a predominance of woven rovings throughout, and lots of reinforcement in areas where a contemporary wooden or plywood dinghy might have had a tendency to develop stress cracks or other weakness.

Very unusually for such an early fibreglass boat, there is almost no wood, except for the tiller, rudder, and some backing pads for deck fittings. This may have been a bit too avant-garde for the times, since boat enthusiasts in those days would have expected quite a lot of visible wood trim, coamings, decks, floorboards, benches, hatches, etc. The all plastic Tricorn might have been regarded as just too space-age and factory produced, and this perception, as well as its price and the narrowness of its marketing concept, may have seriously limited sales. Eventually only 37 were built.

Not that there was anything wrong with the performance of the Tricorn, nor its ability to shelter its crew of 2 adults, plus maybe a child, for overnight camping stops. Contemporary boat tests make it clear that Tricorn had the edge over the Wayfarer in both departments, although nowadays, after 50 years of Wayfarer class development, the Tricorn would probably struggle to keep up on some points.

Almost certainly, however, Tricorn would still show a Wayfarer a clean pair of heels to windward, since with her centreplate fully down she draws 1.6m (5ft 3in) to the Wayfarers 1.17m (3ft 10in). She is also a few inches longer overall and carries around 1sqm more windward sail. Compared to the Wayfarer, Tricorn is noticeably less stable at rest, though she stiffens up when under way.

Tricorns domed foredeck and short cabin roof enclose a cuddy with sitting space for 4 adults or sleeping space for 2 (in quarter berths extending under the cockpit side benches). There would be just enough space left over in camping mode for a child of up to about 11 years old to stretch out. Theres a large watertight locker aft, and two capacious cockpit side lockers, probably not really totally watertight in the event of capsize, but which resist rain, spray, and even a fair amount of solid water landing in the cockpit.

4 years or so ago, I found and bought an old Tricorn. It was very scruffy, had a hole in the bottom, and lacked its original moulded forehatch cover as well as the original winch for lifting the centreplate. This 1963 example had at some time been used as a sailing school boat and was fitted with a horrible non-original rusty steel plate, weighing in at 50kg or more, double the original design spec. In addition, the mainsail had been reduced in area by cutting the foot off it to a depth of about 1m. These modifications must have made her extremely slow and dull to sail.

Salvo is now back in sailing order with a few minor changes to her original specification. I changed the overweight rusty centreplate to one that weighs about 20kg, about the same as the original design, but mine is home-made from a sandwich of steel, epoxy and plywood. I had to give up on finding an original plate lifting winch and fitted a simple tackle instead. I made a forehatch cover from plywood and clear polycarbonate, and lastly, I changed from a transom mainsheet track to centre sheeting for no better reason than I was scared the sheet might foul on my outboard motor and cause a capsize. The old roller reefing boom was replaced by one from a Fireball, to which I fixed some fittings for slab reefing.

I made a new rudder blade cut from the plywood centreboard from an old Miracle dinghy, but it snapped in half in a fearsome tiderace in Brittany, so I have gone back to the original which I might repropuce in aluminium plate.

There are still a lot of niggling problems to sort out. For instance the original self bailers let more water in to the watertight cockpit than they remove, so my feet are always wet. The in-mast jib halyard emerges from the mast foot in such a way that it is difficult to tension properly. Im considering making it external from a point just below the spreaders so that I can swig it up tight. Most importantly, because of the total lack of rowlocks, a rowing thwart, and a stowage space long enough for decent oars, its impossible to row the boat in the event of flat calm and engine failure. Emergency propulsion consists of a long paddle at the moment.

In spite of the age of the design, and these minor shortcomings, I like my Tricorn.  She is a fine, strong, and capable boat - with one hell of a pedigree!  

Tricorn Sailing Dinghy

Designed by Illingworth and Primrose, 1962

Built by Martin Goacher Ltd.

LOA:  16ft 6in (5m03)

LWL:  15ft (4m57)

Beam:  6ft 2in (1m87)

Draft:  9in (0m22) plate up, 5ft 3in (1m60) plate lowered.

Air draft:  24ft 6in (7m46)

Sail area:  139 sq ft (12.91sqm)

Weight in sailing trim: approx. 580lbs (263Kg)

Link: http://bursledonblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tricorn-dinghy.html

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