We're Sinking!
36,898
Published 2024-07-11
PUFFINS TREK
This admirable enterprise on the North Breton coast organised the trip out to the Ile Vierge. Puffin's Trek hire out cruising dinghies and create organised dinghy tours. They invited me to go and give a talk about dinghy cruising in Avel Dro, even in my execrable French.
www.puffins-trek.fr/
MUSIC
Lonely River - Roots and Recognition
Footprints in the Sand - Roots and Recognition featuring Melanie Bell
- both from Epidemic Sound
www.epidemicsound.com
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Abigail Heard
Diego Le Grelle
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
Do you want a boat like mine?
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 however slightly different internally 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
Displacement loaded with camping and sailing gear 400 kg
Design category C3
François Vivier's website (in English):
www.vivierboats.com/en/
Similar dinghies can often be found for sale on the website of the French magazine Le Chasse-Marée:
www.chasse-maree.com/revue/
Or try Le Bon Coin - where you can buy anything in France:
www.leboncoin.fr
POST-BREXIT BOAT BUYING
Since January 2021, when Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) left the European Single Market, if you buy a boat in France or elsewhere in the EU and import it into the UK, you will become liable for VAT and other duties on the import – even if it is second hand. Similar charges are due if you take a British boat the other way. This does not apply to a boat taken to another country for a holiday, however.
All Comments (21)
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Thanks for the post Roger it's been awhile and you have been missed. I don't know about others but a video or two about your restoration would be interesting.
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I would be very interested to see how the repair is executed. Thanks for a very interesting adventure on the water. John.
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Roger, just want to say....your videos, for me at least, are just so compelling! I'm going thru' some rough times, facing eviction, unemployed, swimming upstream in London & well, to watch you in the rain, with your own obstacles, chores & that wonderful sense that it doesn't have to all be amazing, dazzling, glitzy, showiness like so many things I follow on youtube (& that youtube encourage me to follow!) but simply people talking quietly, in the gloom, going about their day-to-day,....can't describe it but there's a refreshing sense of modesty about it & the metaphor of the boat taking on water struck a chord with me. We're all sinking Roger, in our own special way but you're one of youtube's better creators.
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Might this just be the best YT video I have ever seen..? Pure poetry and yet another reminder of what sailing is all about. Tnx a lot for this!
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Your videos are a feast of sight and sound, Rodger. Peaceful in a troubled world. Thank you.
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Friday and with my Rudder in bits,tired and slow progess all day. Life has been busy here and got in the way of sailing. Watching you drink beer on dull day,with no sun. The leak is my salvation,as they say there is always somebody worse off than you. Good luck with the repair. Love the videos!
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Roger, you are an artist, a bright light in an often dark world, a treasure to humanity.
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“One bounces off so many rocks, it’s hard to say.” Brilliant.
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Thank you for summing up the beauty of sailing in this short video.
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What beautiful mediations you share that end up bringing my senses into your pacing, like a wonderful piece of music, I just float along with your cadence.
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So good to see that you've had time on the water again. Hoping you get to do more of that over the coming months!
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Fantastic storytelling and great production values. Highly enjoyable as always, Mr Barnes.
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I just spent the last 25 minutes, or so, watching the most joyful video I have seen in a long while.
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So good to see the latest episode Roger - they are so enjoyable and informative and provide a real reminder of seeking the balance in life! Fair winds and tides Sir!
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Thank you Roger as always, for the realism and beauty of small boat sailing. It seems we are all sharing the same problems and weather! Maybe the jet stream will look favourably on us soon and deliver a time of good temperature, clear skies and fun breezes. I live in hope. But at least the long wait for this video has shown we are all together.🌞
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A delightful video, Roger. Well done!
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Glad to have you back Roger. We've bern reduced to watching Australian dinghy cruising and motor sailing for old dudes! Not the same thing at all 🤣 Please don't leave us so long next time!
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So happy to be able see another episode. Your title reminds me of a Berlitz ad a few years ago. A rookie in the German Coast Guard receives a distress call from an American ship. "We are sinking!" "Ziss iss ze German Coast Guard. Vat are you sinking about?" Always a hit with my English language students here in Japan.
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Glad to see you took time away from your other commitments for the important business of a stress relieving sail (although the stress on “sinking” may have dampened things). It is great to be able to live vicariously while we are in our Australian winter, although your summer did seem a bit elusive. I hope you get time for more outings in the near future.
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Philosophy according to mister R Barnes : “ Just be in the boat, drink beer and not get stressed” 😂😅
