Moth prototype Sphinx-colibri

The Brits do not tend to like the French which is why some years ago we dug the English Canal to stop them coming over and laughing at our bad weather and crap food. But check this out. This is a collaborative French project to build a Moth, and she looks great. They hope to launch her soon and take her to the Worlds but here is a sneak preview of the project.


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I'm very pleased that you hear about our project.

I worked on this project with Tristan Pouliquen. Each of us has his own society specialised in naval Architecture and building:

Sabrosa (Olivier Gouard) and Diben (Tristan Pouliquen).

Just for a brief history of the project, in early 2007, we were both in contact with Nicolas Bessec (French IMCA president) and working on a Moth project. We met finally in July 2007 at the French Moth Meeting in
Noirmoutier, thanks to Nicolas.

Each of us has worked on different part of the project, Tristan had a Hull/deck moulds made of his design and I had Foils moulds of my design, so we decided to join forces to achieve a new Moth prototype. We have also benefited of a great support from the ISMANS (engineering shool) of which I’m a old student.

Tristan built the boat in the Sabrosa’s workshop with the great help of Anthony Rezzoug (Moth sailor and Professional boat builder). We brought the boat, partially finished, at the Paris boat show in December. Back to the yard, the foils had been built and we delivered the boat to Philippe Lejeune (www.foilsector.com) 15 days ago.

Philippe has not yet find a solution for the rig/sail, so we haven't tested the boat. Hope it will be OK.


Design brief Moth prototype Sphinx-colibri:

Tristan designed the hull in early 2007, the shape is not extreme (big aft rocker and quiet a lot more freeboard than the last generation). He built it in a female mold (owned by Franck Cahagnier) in Carbon/PVC sandwich with a great finish.

I worked with Gerard Bouteau (former designer at the Marc Lombard Design office) for the design of the foil also in early 2007. We made an intensive work on the Hydrodynamics and chose to go for a Karman style blending to join the 2 parts Foils. There's a small recess on the Extrados of the foils on which the rudder/centerboard foot is bolted with 2 M5.

Builder: Diben Sarl
Hull/deck design: Tristan Pouliquen
Foils: Sabrosa Sarl and Gerard Bouteau
Shipyard: Sabrosa - 44 avenue FA Bartholdi - 72000 Le mans - France


We are very new in this class, and very impressed by the spirit of it. Nicolas Bessec has done a huge work in France to promote the boat and David Balkwill was perfect too.

Hope we can meet very soon, may be at the Moth World.

Best regards,

Olivier Gouard
Ingénieur architecte naval
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