The Surprise 25, often just called the Surprise, is a French trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

, that was designed by Michel Joubert of

Joubert Nivelt Design Joubert is a French language, French surname. It is a regional variant form of Jaubert, originating in the centre west and centre south of France.Albert Dauzat (Foreword by Marie-Thérèse Morlet), ''Noms et prénoms de France'', éditions Larousse ...

as a one-design racer and first built in 1977. The Surprise 25 was followed in production by the larger Grand Surprise in 1999.

Production

The design was built by

Archambault Boats Archambault Boats was a French boat builder based in Dangé-Saint-Romain. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of monohull fibreglass sailboats and often partnered with the BG Race shipyard in Saint-Malo to produce its larger b ...

Dangé-Saint-Romain Dangé-Saint-Romain () is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region formerly in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. Its inhabitants are called the « Dangéens » or « Dangéennes ». Demographics See als ...

and also by the

BG Race BG or bg may refer to: Organizations Businesses * Bergdorf Goodman, a department store on 5th Avenue, New York, US * Bord Gáis Energy, an Irish gas supplier * Bowman Gilfillan, a South African law firm * British Gas (disambiguation) (privatised ...

shipyard in

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

between 1977 and 2017, with 1,550 boats completed, but it is now out of production. Archambault, which had been founded in 1967, went out of business in 2015. The BG Race shipyard, founded in 2013, built many designs for Archambault and went out of business in 2017.

Design

The Surprise 25 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fibreglass. The hull is solid fibreglass and the deck is balsa-cored fibreglass. It has a 7/8 fractional

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

rig with

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

spars, a deck-stepped mast, wire standing rigging and a single set of swept spreaders. The hull has a

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, a slightly

reverse transom A transom is the vertical reinforcement which strengthens the stern of a boat. This flat termination of the stern is typically above the waterline. The term was used as far back as Middle English in the 1300s, having come from Latin ''transvers ...

with an inset, an internally mounted spade-type

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

with a "D"-handle extension. It was delivered with a choice of a fixed fin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, twin asymmetrical keels with bulb weights, or a

swing keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. It displaces and carries of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

ballast. The fin keel-equipped version of the boat has a draft of , the twin keel-equipped version of the boat has a draft of , while the swing keel-equipped version has a draft of with the keel extended and with it retracted, allowing ground transportation on a trailer. The boat is normally fitted with a small outboard motor of up to for docking and manoeuvring. The design has sleeping accommodation for four people, with a "V"-berth in the bow cabin and two straight settees in the main cabin. The main cabin headroom is . For sailing downwind the design may be equipped with a symmetrical

spinnaker A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually n ...

of . It has a hull speed of .

Operational history

The boat is supported by an active class club that organizes racing events, the ''Aspro Surprise'' (''Association Des Propriétaires Surprise'', English:''Surprise Owners Association'').

References

External links

Photo of a Surprise 25 with twin keels
{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Joubert-Nivelt Sailboat types built by Archambault Boats Sailboat types built by BG Race

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References

External links