Piaf
Description
The Piaf is a charming French daysailer/dinghy from the classic era of lightweight, family-oriented sailboats—designed by Philippe Staempfli and first built in 1965. It's a compact, unsinkable (self-bailing) fiberglass centerboard (or daggerboard in early versions) monohull that's perfect for relaxed lake or coastal sailing, picnics, fishing with a small outboard (up to 4 hp), or gentle family outings. Think of it as a French cousin to boats like the Zef or Caravelle—simple, forgiving, and fun in light-to-moderate winds, though it shows its limits in stronger breezes compared to sportier dinghies. Production started with Staem-Marine (early daggerboard models with more wood elements), then shifted to the more popular fiberglass version by Spair Marine from around 1970 onward, running until about 1980. It's ultralight and high-performing for its size, with good initial stability but lower capsize recovery once over—best sailed with care and preferably two people (up to three max).
Construction Details
| Designer | Philippe Staempfli |
|---|---|
| Builder | Spair Marine (Fra) |
| Length | 12.300 ft |
| LOA | 12.300 ft |
| LWL | 10.990 ft |
| Beam | 5.410 ft |
| Displacement | 276 lb |
| Max Draft | 3.050 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.560 ft |
| Year Built | 1965 |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
Piaf - JIBSAIL
| Luff | 10.5 ft - (3200 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 5.58 ft - (1701 mm) |
| Leech | 9.842 ft - (3000 mm) |
| Area | * 27.1 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.
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