Ponant Dinghy?

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cweed
Posts: 222
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:14 pm

Ponant Dinghy?

Post by cweed »

Anyone hazard a guess as to what this is?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/boats-kayaks- ... 1254237550
cweed
Posts: 222
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:14 pm

Re: Ponant Dinghy?

Post by cweed »

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Ed
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Re: Ponant Dinghy?

Post by Ed »

What a very interesting dinghy.....and not one that I have ever come across at all.

I rather like it.

Not much of a time to be buying dinghies though....too much potential

eib
Ed Bremner
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LASERTOURIST
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Re: Ponant Dinghy?

Post by LASERTOURIST »

Ponant is a (rather heavy) performance dinghy (more or less a french osprey) with an interesting history.

It was started at St Raphael (french riviera)in the late 50's and used the same sailplan as the 505 so that ex racing 505 sets of sails (rich 505 racers changed sails on a 3 months basis) could do for sailing school boats.
New ponants had a compulsory red jib and class emblem was a red buckling horse (ferrari style)
IT started in life as a double chine plywod dinghy but quickly evolved into a very solidly built glassfibre boat , absolutly bulletproof except for the wooden bits (most of them non structural except the transom), and ideal for a cruising dingy too.

Even the masts and booms were made of (somewhat bendy) carefullt molded woven fibreglass and resin.
The first 3500 ponants were made by Deschamps boatyard in St Raphaël before the mold went to Tortasso, Ponant service and then Duquennoy in Belguium where the class has quite a loyal following as of today, but Deschamps is till in buisness manufacturing rot proof flag masts for embassies , militatry baracks , town halls and showrooms, with the same prcess used for the dinghy masts

Most Deschamps Ponants had eiter a red or a white hull mated with grey , blue or offwhite decks and this exemplary is pre 1967 (they changed the mastgate with a shorted foredeck post 1967).
Some ponants where even converted in cruising dinghies with 2 berths under a little coachroof.

The only snag in this boat is it's weight (a sensible move is putting a bow fitting for the trailer winch hook) but still it is faster lighter and than a Laser 16 and can plane quite fast in a strong Mistral wind.

Refurbing a Ponant is quite a straightforward joinery job (coaming, strakes, centrevoarrd cover) except if the thick ply transom has rotted. CB and rudderblade are thick plywood and a sensible move is switching to solid wood covered with epoxy/glassroving if you masdter the technique as some ruderblades cracked under pressure with heavyhanded helmsmen trying to bear away in a strong gust
Early Ponants had a small rectangular window in the tiller and later a bigger trapezoidal one , alonf with a gorgeous specific rudderstock witth the titular litle horse silhouette cut into the aluminium flanges
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