Daniel Zadig Bombigher was born in 1942 to a Russian Gypsy family in France (as he says "I am French by accident"). At 17 Bombigher was a sailing skipper and by 24, he had designed and built his first sailboat. He sailed his own boats all over the world, and when he was not sailing, he lived and worked in France. Bombigher was a naval architect and an artist, and his wife, Ania, was also an artist. Together, they designed the Shpountz to embody the tradition of sailing schooners, always with an eye to the aesthetics. He died last year, but his legacy lives on in the hundreds of Bombigher designed boats that are now sailing the world.

The Shpountz design was introduced in 1976; the plans were released on July 4th to conincide with the U.S. bicentenial. The 1000-page construction manual, published in two volumes, sold 150,000 copies in France in 1977 alone. It is considered "the bible for architects, yards, amateur builders, owners, skippers, crew, or just dreamers." (Bombigher, 1977)

"The SHPOUNTZ 38-40 is a sailing ship designed specially for long voyages: the hull shape, the deck layout, the rig and sails chosen, and the internal layout make these boats real marine homes.

"STRONG... Thanks to the monoblock moulded wood hull on strong laminated frames and to undemastable rigs.

"COMFORTABLE... The hull is entirely drawn with radial diagonals. This makes a boat which is comfortable at sea and does not leave any wake, whether light or fully laden. The draught is small, providing easy access to estuaries, rivers and all those pretty little moorings (including cyclone holes). Their normal heel angle is 8° to 10°. All these qualities provide stability to the boat and make life aboard comfortable. By comfort I mean the possibility of living and living well on board, regardless of the weather or the state of the sea. Also, cooking, eating, sleeping and washing do not present any problems. For your information, on none of my boats is there a retaining belt for the cook, or even lee cloths.

Bombigher, http://www.classic-yacht-design.com

"EASY TO MANOEUVRE ... Thanks to the gaff schooner rig, manoeuvring is a refined art enabling the boats to be sailed with the tips of the fingers in all circumstances and at maximum efficiency with no effort, just like a big dinghy. Don't forget these are powerful schooners like little sailing traders, which do require a little bit of learning. Unlike industrial sloops there's no need for muscles or to be a sportsman, but only to have a little common sense.

"EASY TO MAINTAIN ... Thanks to epoxies and quality paints, yachts no longer need to be painted once a year as they used to, but only once every 5 years. The rest of the time maintenance simply consists of washing them regularly with sea water. All the fittings and materials used have been selected to require the least possible maintenance and to be sufficiently simple for everything to be able to be repaired with tools which are on board. Hence there is no need for rare and expensive specialists."

"STABILITY OF BEARING... Thanks to their long spaced-out sail plan, which is easy to balance, to a long keel sharply sloping aft which serves as a reaching keel, and to a centerboard forward which helps windward performance. Working this centerboard enables balance to be achieved: close hauled, it is right down, on a reach it is raised half way and on a broad reach completely raised. For manoeuvring in port the centerboard is lifted half way. This enables the SHPOUNTZ to sail with the tiller lashed or to simply be fitted with a small-boat automatic pilot.

Bombigher published his 1000 page construction manual with the plans for building a Shpountz 38-40. No detail was too small to include, and Roger Landry, the builder, followed faithfully Bombigher's every ssuggestion. Likewise, John has consulted the Bombigher "bible" each time a change was needed or an upgrade to Thaleia was planned.

Roger Landry