France

FRA 24

Human testimony: The boat was designed by François Camatte, an internationally renowned naval architect from Cannes between the wars. He will be one of the most prolific French architects in terms of metric boats.The boat was built by the Cannes Shipyard Attilio Chiesa et Fils.The boat has been monitored, modified, optimized throughout the last 40 years by the Cannes naval architect Jacques Fauroux, technical director of the French challenge for the America's Cup in 1983 and multiple world sailing champion in Moth, IOR and metric classesTechnical or conceptual testimony:Testimony of an event or a past activity: FRANCE became famous following its victory in the 1937 Coupe de France in Ryde, Great Britain, a country which had held the Cup for 7 years. But he is also one of the founding pillars of the rebirth of the Régates Royales in 1978, in which he has participated every year without fail until today. In the 80s/90s he won numerous editions in the 8mR Class series with Jacques Fauroux at the helm. Other notable elements: Chronology: FRANCE was commissioned by Mr. F.Rey, an industrialist from Dijon. He remained the owner until after the war. Then Mr. Francis Bodin bought it to organize day charters in the bay of Cannes. In the 1960s it was bought part by part and year after year by a Swiss industrialist Gaston Schmalz who kept it and made it sail and race until his death in 2008; his three daughters will try to continue his work but for lack of real interest, they prefer to sell it to a Belgian industrialist who has secretly dreamed of it for a long time: Guy Reyniers. The latter will remove all the modern Harken fittings to replace it with bronze winches designed especially for FRANCE based on photos of an 8m American mR Class from the 1930s and with wooden pulleys completing the coherence of a classic hull equipped with a mast, a boom and a wooden pole.