ABSOLUTE ELEGANCE

There are some too-rare boats that turn every head, and everything about them attracts your attention. The new Tofinou 9.7 is, without question, one of these.

You can assume a certain level of classic beauty in the genes of a Tofinou, but there is a defiantly current look to this model too. Although Tofinou has maintained its reputation for more than three decades, many competitor brands have risen to the challenge in recent times (see our pick on page 68). Is this the model that reasserts the status of the Ile de Ré yard? To answer that, we would, of course, need a much, much closer look.

Unveiled at the 2019 La Rochelle Show, this boat stood out among the more conventional hulls with their big volumes and clinical white polyester. Low on the water, painted vermilion red, with an anthracite grey or silver cockpit, a teak covered deck and the merest blister of a varnished mahogany coachroof, the latest Tofinou certainly turned the most heads on the pontoons. But from where did such a modern yet timeless looking design materialise?

Two owners of Tofinou 8s wanted rigorously onedesign boats to compete on equal terms in as many friendly match-races as their lives as young