The subject of the imported dinghies is one that is worthy of a major research project, yet sadly there seems little interest currently in the UK for any work in this area. The 420 is now seen by many youth sailors as 'uncool' when compared with boats such as the 29er.
Meanwhile, the 470 is in danger of being put into a cateogory of 'Olympic Class' in the way that the FD was towards the end of it's 5 Ring Circus career.
This is a sad state of affairs, as there are a number of innovative boats that came across the Channel, yet most have fallen by the wayside in the face of the multitudinous ranks of competing UK boats.
The text below is reproduced with the best of thanks to GillesXXXXXX, who kindly put together the following comments that help illustrate the dilemma facing continental builders looking at the UK market.
It is a fact that there has been a heyday of innovative dinghies produced and sometimes mass produced in the mid 70's early 80's period in France, while british boats seemed somewhat conservative at the time (entreprises and GP 14 seemed to be the bread and butter of most clubs when as a boy i cameto england in the early 70'sand to my eye they seemed quite outdated).
The most important boatyards (all now extinct after bankruptcies , mergers...etc)
Lanaverre (star product the 420 about 35000 produced) but also 505, 490 and then Jet (against Morin's star 470), Kid (for 2 teen agers , much in the style of l'Equipe), Europe , 390, optimists, and of course finns and a small number of FD's (and a host of cabin dayboats like the 590) and the later X4 (laser bad imitation)...
Voiles et Voiliers published two long and well documented articles (one about the conception of the 420 in Socoa; and the other one about Lucien Lanaverre's , some 6 months before his death).
This webpage is more turned to the cabin 590 but gives a biography of christian Maury and Lucien Lanaverre
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/590/fhistoric/lanaverre.htm#1960
http://www.wanaboat.com/lanaverre.m.html a brief sumary on a boating ad website
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(bateau) 420 on Wikipedia
http://uniqua.free.fr/ class website (there are also class websites for Jets and 490 (belgium)
and possibly the oldest 420 still "alive and kicking" recently discovered near Lorient and undergoing a not too difficult restoration (the guy was lucky enough to buy it in very good condition for 700 euros http://www.voilesportive.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4309
Jean Morin of Pessac(star product the 470 15 000 made ) but also 4M and 4M30 (counterattack against the 420) Minisolitair...Morin was initially a furniture maker and their boats were well finished
La Prairie (Star product was the calm and sturdy little 12 ftZef cruiser , some 15000 produced) but there was also a rival for the 420/445 , called the surf (first single skin, then double bottom roughly 400 made) Flibustier (a 15ft) later replaced by the 16' Strale (of italian design and endorsed by the old Caneton class when 505 class went independant, and another olympic hopeful against fireball and 470), apache
(a 2 teen agers boat but not half as good as the Kid ) and a smaller version of the zef called Zef junior) they also tried diversification in small cruisers like Oceanix and others but did'nt go very far with Dufour , Beneteau and Jeanneau and even Jouet better equiped to fight in this domain
http://site.voila.fr/oceanix/historique/historiq.htm
This is a good historical account of La prairie , although more centered on their cabin boats.
It is said that they milled out motre then 3000 boats /year intheir heyday and that their ex plant is now hosting 10 different buisnesses..with room to spare
Gouteron of LaBaule first produced plywood dinghies and cabin boats with an original technique of round hullls out of flat plywood panels (Simoun , simoun junior and Ghibli)
Later when they coonverted to GRP with their trademark being double bottom boats
Their 445 was their star product sufficiently different from the 420 to earn a good market chunk (had a big Spinnaker and very good planing abilities PLUS the self bailing)
They also made the 485 a bigger version , in the league of the 470 / Jet/ Strale and a 2 kids boat called the mowgli (not as good as lanaverre's Kid but better than La Prairies Apache)
The only trouble is that between the two skins under the mast , there were plywood stringers and restorers are at pain with that , because of very difficult repairs in that almost inaccessible zone 445 /485 owners have a dedicated website
http://445et485.free.fr/bateaux.php
When Gouteron went bust , there was a continuation by Bremaud, but unwittingly Bremaud started up making the X4 (french copy of the laser, also endorsed by the FFV for amateur bulding...and forgot to make proper gluing of the mast chimney...most brand new Bremauds X4 broke down with the deck torn apart like a bum's old shoe (It happened to me in a hard weather race in La rochelle , on a chatered boat, the club didn't claim the deposit, they had 10 boats finished the same way on the parking lot...needless to say , the warranty problems totalled Bremaud along with the boats.
The 445 mold then went to infamous Boatique who tried to market a wisbone version (wizz style, called 445 delta, a huge flop)..the story could be subtitled how to ruin a good design with bad production standards and crackpot ideas...
Dupuy Chautard (fennec fox and Duo) was a smaller concern (it has been discussed on CVRDA forum)
Deschamps of St Raphaêl (next to Toulon) produced the very sturdy Ponant (still an active class in france belgium, Italy and Germany) http://www.chez.com/btz/pageacc.html
It is very similar to british Wayfarer (though uses the 505 sailplan with a compulsory red jib) and is much favoured by dinghy cruisers
This one has been equipped with a small cabin , but it is not a botched "telephone booth" and covered quite a mileage http://www.nauticaltrek.com/randos_en_ponant.htm
SPAIR Marine produced the GRP version of Herbulot's caravelle (not as good as the original hard chiine plywood version by Stephan of Concarneau) and a 12 ft similar to La prairies Zef, called the Piaf (not the singer but the colloquial for sparrow..).
http://www.ascaravelle.com/
Some Boatyards tried to produce the very popular Vaurien (originally plywood, mostly by Stephan, Besnard, Roussineau and a swiss maker) in GRP, but foam cored sandwich was not well mastered and the early plastic Vauriens by AMC were a disaster, better ones were made by Bihoré Marine , but the heyday of the Vaurien had passed by early seventies, and finally , as the class was active in Spain most of the production went to Roga (also a 470 maker of note).
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/asvaurienfrance/
This is for the most notable makers, but Matra (remember the Formula One cars, the Bagghera and Murena and the fist marks of Renaul Espace) had extensive experience of big grp molding (somewhat like Lotus of GB) and tried their hand in dinghy making (Their Capricorne , despite incorpotating many clever ideas from other dinghy makers didn't sell much).
Tiki and SuperTiki , along with a kid's boat called...mini Tiki were made somewhere around Lyon but it was a small production, and recently a superTiki (with big stabilizing bulges that were it's hallmark ) appeared on Ebay in germany
http://cgi.ebay.de/Segeljolle-Supertiki_W0QQitemZ290195381178QQihZ019QQcategoryZ132152QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Of course there are many lost classes too : Touring (made as a 3 in trainer for TCF, Touring Club de France) Major and Minor by Silvant, with a program comparable to Laser 16 and Laser 13, Major was hard chne ply and minor was GRP, Demon (a training single hander with box like stabilizing bulges made for UCPA sailing centres, more successful with plywood cruisers by Philippe Harlé-Muscadertt - cognac - armagnac) , Typhon (by pierre Gutelle (different from britis Typhoon by Proctor) , R9M (a siglehander looking like a reduced finn, but never as successful as the OK, Mousse (a plywood contender of the Vaurien , but also made in GRP by Matonnat , along with a GRP version of the Snipe and a rather refined version of the early hard chine Caneton (before the Strale and 505, Caneton was a restricted , not one design class) Haddock (another 12 ft cruiser, similar to ZEFand Piaf ,with aluminium cetreboard and rudder and many clever molding features , designed by Philippe Harlé, that never went further than some 40 boats produced...though it wa indeed a good boat in it's slot.
The 'DUO'.
Often mistaken for the 445, the DUO is a rare beast indeed. We are indebted to Conrad Barnard for the following pictures, taken of his new Duo when it was launched at Maldon in 1969.
Key points of note were mainly in the sail plan. The high aspect rig is clearly visable, as is the large overlap on the genoa. The Duo was initially intended as a trainer/entry level boat for the FD.
The sails on Conrad's boat are from the East coast loft of Gayle Heard. At that time they were an important sailmaker, getting good results in the Fireball fleet. The vertical cut panelling was tried by many lofts but the lack of stability in the cloth meant that most discarded the idea.
Gayle Heard were also instrumental in producing a new trapeze harness, one that actually supported the wearer and was comfortable.
Note the orange Gayle Heard Trapeze harness. At the time this was a major 'leap' forward in crew comfort and support!
All Duo pictures with grateful thanks to Christian Barnard