Category: Small boats

Photos from the Festival du Bois Salé

These photos of what looks like some very relaxed late summer sailing were taken by the outstanding boat designer François Vivier at the recent (and splendidly-named Festival du Bois Salé) organised by the Le Défi du Traict, which is based around the Traict de Merquel.

The event is a rally of traditional boats and craft derived from traditional types, and seems to involve a fair amount of activity in Vivier’s sail-and-oar boat designs. The event seems to take place each September and I only wish it was nearer!

Le Défi du Traict was originally formed in 1997 to enter a competition sponsored by the magazine Chasse Marée to build a replica of 1796-style yole recovered from a ship that foundered in Bantry Bay – and it looks to me as though that yole appears in one of the photos.

A 13ft stick-up sharpie afloat and sailing

Stick-up sharpie

This is one for everyone who has spent time reading Howard Irving Chappelle’s American Small Sailing Craft or Ruel Parker’s The Sharpie Book.

Perhaps particularly if you’re accustomed to British sailing boat types, you will have wondered about the funny little sharpies with strange added masts at a funny angle.

Finally I’m glad to say I’ve found photos of one online, and a sailing report – and the news seems to be that while it all looks very odd, the little boat performs as you’d expect a 13ft sharpie to do. We live and learn – that spar that’s not quite a bowsprit and not quite a mast really is no joke and the boat works. See photos here and here.

Well done the builder (a chap known only as ‘Timsboats’) for having faith and choosing to build a boat that’s outside of the ordinary…

The Englishman’s eye: Matthew Atkin photographs Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco

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It’s been a while since we published a set of photos from a harbour stroll – so I was delighted when my photography enthusiast brother Matthew Atkin sent these over from Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.

He’s a runner and photographer rather than a boater, so can’t say too much about the boats themselves – but that doesn’t prevent him from taking a fine set of photos. Thanks Matt!

Of course explanatory comments – see the comments link below – would be most welcome.

As usual these days, click on one of the images to see this set on a carousel. There are links in the carousel that allow you to see still larger copies of these shots, which are sized at a healthy 1300 pixels.