A Windy Summer of Boat Repairs

A wet and breezy summer was interrupted by many boat repairs, and moving into house that still needs lots of work. But I did manage to do some sailing this year....

Yvonne's 'Bigfoot' was constructed in Switzerland and is a "one off" boat, with a hull based on an American catboat. She is built in solid timber with a carvel hull. Yvonne sails Bigfoot completely under sail and oar, without an engine, both on Lake Geneva, where she lives, and quite frequently off the coast of Brittany and Normandy, where she has relatives. Bigfoot has a boat tent and Yvonne sleeps frequently on board.

Our passage to the Ile de Sein was intended to take two days, with a night in a cove on the coast. The forecast for the second day was better than the day you see in this video. But during the first day, the weather got so bad, Bigfoot could no longer make ground to windward, and there is little shelter in the bay of Douarnenez. The summer of 2024 has been plagued by changeable weather, here in Brittany.

ENGLISH SUBTITLES
There should be a translation on the screen when Yvonne speaks in French. This is a new innovation - via the YouTube interface - and I'm still fiddling with it.

MUSIC
Lonely River - Roots and Recognition
A Celtic Blessing - Bonnie Grace
Footprints in the Sand - Roots and Recognition featuring Melanie Bell
all from Epidemic Sound
www.epidemicsound.com

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Stéphane Blanc - including the thumbnail. Merci Stéphane !
Mary Dooley
Mark Tinkler

INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
Read my book, 'The Dinghy Cruising Companion'
www.bloomsbury.com
And join the Dinghy Cruising Association:
www.dinghycruising.org.uk

AVEL DRO, my own boat.
Avel Dro is an Ilur designed by François Vivier, and built of clinker plywood by Les Charpentiers Reunis of Cancale in 1994. I bought her in France in 2003 to import her into the UK, and more recently returned her to France again. The design is based closely on the traditional inshore fishing boats of Brittany in the early years of the twentieth century – hence her simple boom-less lugsail rig and lack of a mainsheet horse, (sometimes controversial among my viewers). Although rare in Britain, Ilurs are relatively common in France. Modern Ilurs are slightly different from mine, as they have more built in buoyancy. The name Avel Dro is Breton, Avel = wind, Dro = to turn – so it means a whirlwind.
Length 4.44 m
Sail area 12.2 m²
Beam 1.70 m
Draught 0.25 / 0.86 m