Can you help a YM reader identify his new boat?

YM reader Paul Coult recently sent YM this picture of his new boat.

Says Paul, “It’s a 24ft fin keeler I have just purchased, the previous owner tells me it might be called a Samurai and was built in La Rochelle in France around about 1972, but apart from that I have no information.”

Can you help?

UPDATE: Mystery Solved?

Yachting World editor Andrew Bray suggested the Listang, a French cruiser-racer which won the Quarter Ton Cup in 1969 and came third in the Half Ton cup the following year. But while it is very similar, the bow isn’t right.

A little sleuthing work (and help from the Scuttlebutt forum) led us to the Samourai 69

It certainly looks right! Any readers out there who know the history behind the boat – why not email yachting_monthly@ipcmedia.com