FIVE QUESTIONS: François Vivier Pen-Hir design


Ilur design


Which other designer(s) have inspired or perhaps influenced your own work? At the very beginning, in the early 1980s, my designs were inspired by traditional boats of my region, Brittany in France. Tis is the case with several early designs, including Aber, Ilur and later Ebihen 15/16, which were rigged with a stand- ing lug sail. The aim was to give home builders the ability to make boats using modern techniques—strip planked or clinker plywood hulls—with a look and feel close to traditional construction, with ribs, seat risers, etc. However, these designs are all fitted with a centerboard, which I consider essential for good windward ability. Later, I became open to European


and North America traditions, and in particular Nordic-inspired designs. And I proposed many possible rigs, such as spritsails, gaff and even lateen. The building process has evolved into more modern and simpler forms. Te best-known feature of my designs


is the “sail-and-oar” concept. (In the historical past, there were no motors and most small boats were propelled by both sail and oars. This needs a lot of seamanship which is a major part of our heritage.) I have also drawn some cabin sailers, inspired either by working boats or traditional yachts, such as the Toulinguet. My aim is mostly to design boats that


have a link to our maritime memory— sport boats that provide much pleasure at sea, but also have cultural dimensions.


Which of your designs is your personal favorite, and why? Ilur, a 15-foot sail- and-oar dinghy, is both my favorite and my best seller, with about 1,200 plans sold and many examples sailing all over the world. A good example is Avel Dro,


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


the personal boat of Roger Barnes, au- thor of the book The Dinghy Cruising Companion. Apart from small boats, sailing din-


ghies or cabin boats under 30 feet, I have also drawn plans for many replicas of Breton traditional boats. Ar Gentilez is one of my preferred designs, with her lugger rig.


What’s new or on the drawing board presently? It is not so easy to add new small-craſt designs, beyond the 50 plans already marketed through my website. I have new projects only for a few, and also improvements to make on several older designs. I have drawn along the years many boats for traditional con- struction, and my intent for the future is to propose such designs, which will be intended for professional builders or highly skilled home builders. I am presently working on the plan of a 30- foot cutter, Breton-crabber inspired, for a U.S. customer.


What boats are in your personal col- lection, and which ones do you use the most? I started sailing when I was 10, more than 60 years ago, and I have owned several boats. The first one was a 27-foot traditional cutter, on the lines of a Breton crabber. Ten I built Youk- ou-Lili in the 1980s, my design as are the others that followed, such as a sail-and- oar dinghy inspired from both Norwe- gian Oselvars and American Swampscott dories. In 2000, I ordered a Stir-Ven, a raid boat design that is extremely fast with its gaff sloop rig, allowing camping onboard. Since 2009, I’ve owned Pen-Hir, a 25'


gaff sloop cabin boat. I have also a small sail-and-oar dinghy, of the semi-dory type, Mesker, built traditionally by Skol


ar Mor, the main wooden boatbuilding school in France, of which I am the president. It is impossible to summarize all the navigations I have done along the coasts of France, England, Ireland, Norway and Spain.


Are you noticing any themes in terms of the direction of small-boat design with regard to: Purpose, propulsion, materials or techniques? Have global challenges of the past year influenced your view of trends? Tere is a huge di- versity of small boats inspired by various traditions, and these boats, with a few exceptions, are not intended for mass industrial production. Tat is why most of my designs are made with home build- ing in mind. From the beginning, I have tried to make construction affordable for inexperienced builders, not requiring a specific skill. Epoxy systems have been popular for quite some time, and are a good help. Twenty years ago, I started using CNC cutting for plywood parts. Today, it is more and more easy to find a local company able to do the cutting and that is why I sell the CNC files, in complement to the plans, for customers who have one of my partner companies in your area. Another trend is the use of 3D soſt-


ware like Rhinoceros, which helps simplify ways to build a boat, and there is always room for good new ideas and improvements. (For example, the “clinker-kit” version of my Ilur design allows a build-time savings of at least 100 hours.) Newer software programs allow production of extremely compre- hensive building instructions, offering perspective views of each small step of the building process.•SCA•


Visit: www.vivierboats.com/en/ 39


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