Muscadet is first and foremost the story of a meeting between builders, the Aubin shipyard and an architect, Philippe Harlé. " This first boat designed by Philippe Harlé was so innovative that no one wanted to build it, the shipyards being used to classic boats" explains Franck Joly, treasurer of the Muscadet Owners Association (APM).
The great novelty of this boat is its construction in plywood which revolutionized the practice of Aubin yards. " They had to leave classic construction to make series. They produced 55 boats per year, or 5 per week ." After the Muscadet followed Cognac and Armagnac, but this small boat of 6.50 meters remains the emblematic boat of the yard and the architect. " 700 boats were produced, 650 of them in keelboat version and only 50 in dinghy version ." Built of wood, production ceased in 1979 because the material was no longer competitive with polyester. However, several years later we realize that this boat is extremely marine "It's a typical boat, with its shape and bilge." For the anecdote, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede said" that he had never known the limits of Muscadet."
This small sailboat made it possible to democratize cruising and cruising and it became the 1 er travel boat with a very small budget "It's a very well built, very durable boat." It was also chosen by the sailors to carry out the 1st mini-transats. It is thanks to them that he took so much space in the cruise since this boat had crossed all the seas of the globe despite its small size.
Today, there remain 450 Muscadets on the 700 built at the beginning "There are 150 in the world and 300 in France. The distribution is 60% in the Channel, 35% in the Atlantic and 5% in the Mediterranean."
"Sometimes I still find extraordinary things, nutmeg that have been dry for 15 years, in their juice, as if they were coming out of the Aubin shipyard, with original sails and masts for only 4 500 ?"
However, the Muscadet is a wooden boat that requires a lot of maintenance, which is why the owners can also part with it. These small spartan and sports boats are very good racing boats, but today, the gauge imposes certain rules "The sails are made of dacon and not kevlar. We don't want an arms race. For all that, we have very beautiful boats, with modern harken fittings, cut sails, very well groomed, beautiful paintings, beautiful varnishes..."
| Shipyard | Aubin |
| Architect | Philippe Harlé |
| Hull length | 6,4 m |
| Hull width | 2,26 m |
| Displacement | 1250 kg |
| Length of waterline | 5,5 m |
| Draught | 1,1 m |
| Cab | 1 |
| Sail downwind | 45,05 m2 |
| Close-hauled sail | 25 m2 |
Credit: flickr.com/photos/bobostudio/
