CHALLENGE NAVIGUER LEGER
boat for coastal cruising. After an experimental event in 2014, the first Challenge was scheduled for June 2015. The plan was simple. Some 20 small boats would sail for three days, on a 100-mile course among the islands and rivers of CharenteMaritime. The event would test navigational skills under both sail and oar, and allow different types of boats to be compared on an equal footing. Every vessel would be autonomous. There would be no support boats to carry baggage, no nights ashore in hotels. Crews would camp ashore in backpacking tents or sleep aboard their boats under canvas. « Trois jours, cent milles et un océan de liberté » The application process was remarkably complex. I filled in a sheaf of forms, submitted a nautical CV, a medical certificate, evidence of insurance, and a list of safety equipment carried aboard – an unusually large amount of bureaucracy, even for a French maritime event. The organisers were clearly having difficulty configuring the event to comply with French safety regulations.
Just after I had arrived in La Rochelle, I received yet another email message, announcing the last-minute cancellation of the Challenge. The notion of a coastal competition for 20 autonomous cruising dinghies had proved too challenging for the French state in the end. I dashed off a quick response, saying that I intended to follow the course of the Challenge anyway – and if French officialdom wanted to interfere with a peaceful British vessel: well, I’d like to see them try. Checking my emails later I found a multitude of messages from many of the other entrants, saying they intended to come too. The event was programmed to begin at Marans in the heart of the Marais Poitevin, the marshes to the north of La Rochelle. The times for the sea lock of the Marans canal meant I’d needto lock in the following evening. My navigational planning completed, I relaxed, poured a glass of wine and lounged against the cushions of my dinghy, the laid-back ambience of the little port soaking into me. But skippers of cruising boats should never allow themselves to become too relaxed, even
Right, from top: Pierre Mucherie on his modified Chester Yawl Atipik; François Girault on his dory Louis et Poupette; Emmanuel Conrath, proprietor of Arwen Marine, on the prototype Skerry Raid; Emmanuel Mailly under the boat tent of his Ilur Tournepierre; Roger Barnes plotting a pre-dawn departure aboard his French-built Ilur Avel Dro CLASSIC SAILOR
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