"Minim", Laurent Giles Barchetta (Sopranino) JOG Racer Lying Essex
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Designer's Comments*****In contrast, the equally famous SOPRANINO, designed and built in 1946, was of radically light displacement, with a displacement length ratio of just 150 (compared to 425 of the VERTUE class). What was most remarkable for this 18' cutter was that although built primarily for Junior Offshore racing, commonly 150 or 200 miles, her most significant voyage was of 10,000 miles from Falmouth to New York via Venezuela. The construction system was chosen for basic simplicity but still maintaining a remarkably high strength to weight ratio. This of course was long before the introduction of plastics and epoxies in yacht construction. It was clinker built with 3/8" mahogany planks, with English oak ribs at 4" centres. A system of ply-wood bulkheads and longitudinal panels such as berth fronts and lockers created a rigid overall structure. This was the forerunner of modern light-weight timber construction. **** Owner's CommentsThe design to which this boat is built has an interesting history. She was designed by Laurent Giles based on the ideas of a man called Patrick Ellam. The latter wanted to make offshore passages in affordable boats but felt that the then current smaller boat was a scaled down version of larger vessels, heavy and slow. He experimented by sailing across Channel on numerous occasions in a sailing canoe similar to a 10 square meter racing canoe. He satisfied himself that this light fast craft was quite seaworthy but left a bit to be desired in the way of comfort. At that time, the late forties, Laurent Giles was the foremost British designer of offshore racing yachts. Ellam took his ideas to Giles who agreed to put them into a design. Basically Ellam wanted a light hull, two full size berths, a navigation space, a galley, and a simple bucket heads. The boat must be self righting from a complete inversion, the cockpit was to be self draining a small enough to be filled by a wave and not endanger the boat, the rig was capable of withstanding an inversion. The result was a boat called "Sopranino". The little boat set the sailing world alight when she made her first passage to Santander with the ocean racing fleet in rough conditions arriving only hours after the last racer. Quite a few sailors wanted to build this little design and so was formed the Junior Offshore Group whose aim was to sail offshore races across Channel and around the coast.
Not everyone will choose to use the trapeze! Patrick Ellam wanted to push the boundaries a bit further and with the young Colin Mudie, now a well known designer and author, sailed across the Atlantic to the West Indies and finally New York. At this time I was leaving school and I would have given anything to own such a boat but the idea faded over the years until I found a copy of of Ellam and Mudies book in a second-hand bookshop in the mid nineties. I have built boats since my school days and the idea of building a "Sopranino" took root. The drawings were still available and so I opted to build the slightly modified version called a Barchetta. I have built a carbon fibre reinforced mast and boom as I found the aluminium spar to be too heavy. I converted the flat plate fin into a suitable foil shape. The construction is very tough and she is in first class order. The asking price does not reflect her condition. Why do I want to sell her? I am entering the seventh decade of my life and I find sailing such a small boat is becoming physically more difficult and I have the other option of a trimaran to sail. |
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