La Hirondelle 52

 

Cesar scowls quizzically, as he runs a practiced eye over the latest boat to leave the yard. In Perigny, a suburb of sprawling La Rochelle. The transport crew are waiting to hoist the RM 1070+ onto a waiting flatbed trailer. Cesar is wanting to be sure that no detail has been missed, before they do.

RM come at the modern fast cruiser design conundrum from the cruiser end. 

As opposed to JPK (pictured above), Pogo and Django, who tackle it from the race boat end.

Interiors are spartan on the Pogos. Becoming minimalist with homely touches, aboard the JPK’s (above).

The RM’s feel one step more inviting. Aided by their spacious, off shore friendly galleys (U shaped, as opposed to linear) and office desk style navigation stations.

Where RM are unique is in their construction. For RM’s have plywood hulls. The sheets bound together with glass fibre tape.

In a modern progression of the Mirror Dinghy’s stitch-and-glue construction. Using the Gougeon brothers’ Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique (WEST). 

Ply bulkheads are offered up against templates.

With the hull ‘planking’ then laid over these. All joints made with epoxy fillets and glass tape. No mechanical fixings are used. The ply is then ‘embalmed’ in four coats of thin, penetrating WEST epoxy. Which seals it, from moisture ingress.

Once filled and faired, the hull is turned and primed.

Whilst the finer details, of the interior, continue to be worked on. Including the addition of reinforcing layers of glass fibre tape.

The decks and cockpit are a foam sandwich moulding. Their shape too complex for wooden construction. GRP also offering advantages, in its resistance to the inevitable knocks and spills, to which those surfaces are subject.

The deck head liner is formed of ply panels. Providing the insulation benefits of wood. And granting maintenance access to all deck furniture as well as the wiring loom.

Completed decks and hulls are firmly laminated together. The one blending into the other imperceptibly, once out of the paint shop. With a seaworthy and secure one and a half inch (four centimetre) toe rail, to keep the crew secure on deck.

Although there seems to be an RM in every French port and anchorage, they are a relatively low volume yard. Building twenty five boats a year.

Leaving them scope to offer layout customisation. Such as a tiller, so beneficial to single handed sailors, instead of the ubiquitous twin wheels, which are standard.

A thoughtfully designed and (more) ecologically friendly (than carbon or all GRP) range of craft. Built in accessible sizes (8.9m, 9.8m, 10.7m, 11.8m and 13.7m), in an age of forty to fifty footers.  Which keep sailing simple, fast and fun. . . . . with a uniquely French style.

Photo Credits

RM under sail courtesy of Parkestone Bay Yachts

JPK 39FC courtesy of JPK

RM 1070+ interior courtesy of Boat24.com

RM 1070+ cockpit layouts courtesy of RM Yachts

RM at anchor courtesy courtesy of RM Blog