Young Frenchwoman Capuchine Trochet is due to begin her crossing of the Atlantic from the Canary Islands today in a small boat built in Bangladesh using a composite material based on jute and recycled materials, and based on local fishing boats.
Mlle Trochet has a weblog about her adventure here and, if you’re into that kind of thing, there’s also a Facebook page.
If the name Tara Tari sounds a little familiar, it will be because a 26-year old Frenchman with no knowledge of navigation, Corentin de Chatel Perron, sailed her 8000 miles from Bangladesh to France via the Indian Ocean, through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal in 2010, and wrote a book about the adventure.
There’s a boat show YouTube video that gives some idea of the boat here.
I gather that he won the Moitessier Literary Award for 2011, but I hope Tara Tari’s present skipper is better prepared!
National Geographic has a spectacular shot of a fishing boat with a similar hull form here.
There will be naysayers, but construction methods aside, this is our humble dory, made grand.
Good luck and fair winds to this brave woman!
I thought you might think that… So did I. 🙂 G