A Piece of Furniture The Woodie Europe Dinghies

The designer of the Europe Dinghy, Belgian Alois Roland, originally built them in wood. When Rolands company went bankrupt, his assistant, Giuseppe Christalli continued building beautiful wood Europe dinghies. When the Europe Dinghy class went Olympic the wood boats were no longer competitive and the class became plastic and has remained one where the new boats are entirely made out of glass.

History of the Europe Dinghy from Classic Classes by Vanessa Bird.

My Dutch friend, René de la Rie, sent along photos of his stunning wooden Europe which is not a Roland or Christalli but a Tebberman. Tebberman was known primarily for his rudders and centerboards, and only built a few Europe Dinghies, but what lookers his Europe Dinghies were! Beautiful deep mahoganies were matched with contrasting lighter inlays to create masterpieces.

George A of Mid-Atlantic Musings also owns a woodie Europe, whilst not as stunning as a Tebberman this hull is very pretty. The lineage of Georges wooden Europe is also open to question. On his blog George A tries to identify the builder of his "woodie" Europe dinghy. George unveiled his woodie with a new Bosquet foredeck at this years Brigantine regatta.