"Semaine du Golfe"

[Roberto]

During last week Semaine du Golfe in South Brittany I took this picture (a lot of other UK boats too): any reasons why they are all congregating at the stern ? First impression is a boat with all captains and a couple of slaves

A couple of days later a slight change we were used as training buoy by this animal

 

[erbster]

Wish I'd been able to go. Try again in '15

 

[Roberto]

Wish I'd been able to go. Try again in '15

I wondered how people bring their boats there, at least the smaller ones ? There were quite a few from Holland, Denmark, others flying the Saltire, others from Ireland, from England, plus all sorts of defaced ensigns... some boats are say 6-7-8m with wooden spars, hemp ropes... Maybe they all go to sleep at the hotel, anyway if they come by sea, congratulations to all of them

 

[erbster]

My friend (who has often posted on this forum) has a cape cutter 19 as I do and trailed it there. The boat gets craned in and he slept aboard. I often sleep 4 aboard mine (inc 2 kids), but sleeping aboard an open boat is quite weather dependent. The ferry crossing is subsidised, the event is free; if one paid for accommodation, it would still be a very good value for money week.

 

[Roberto]

I often sleep 4 aboard mine (inc 2 kids),

I saw a lot of socialising between crews, also from differing countries; I have two kid 5-9yo (though on a plastic boat) and they kept on saying "look dad there's a lot of kids' action over there, where the nice boats are"

I find it's a very nice rally, a nice balanced combination between big, old boats, and a lot of smaller ones, often family run, everyone sailing together.
Safety was not bad either, I followed them on vhf and they kept track of a lot of boats "there are two still outside the gulf", "the yellow one has gone a bit far" etc.

A nice week spent with other nice old boats fellow sailors. Or watching from a plastic fantastic

 

[DownWest]

My friend (who has often posted on this forum) has a cape cutter 19 as I do and trailed it there. The boat gets craned in and he slept aboard. I often sleep 4 aboard mine (inc 2 kids), but sleeping aboard an open boat is quite weather dependent. The ferry crossing is subsidised, the event is free; if one paid for accommodation, it would still be a very good value for money week.

The accomodation at the camp sites is only 10 euro/night inc brekky and the buses take you to and from where ever your boat ended up the night before. The whole event is excellent, just I missed it this year as involved in an important job.
Last time I had to take my own tent, but a mate was in an EDF site with fixed tents at the same price.

 

[Easticks28]

Definitely have to go there one year. Thanks for posting.
Some lovely footage here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qEazgf8DQ0k

 

[Ru88ell]

Just got back from this. We were in fleet 3 bis, and unfortunately most of the people went off to the camp sites each night. The weather was carp and barely dropped below F5, and sometimes went up to F8.

I'm not sure I'd rush to go again, despite being applauded by crowds three deep all along the canal into Vannes on Saturday night. Better weather, ie, after a later Easter, might make it more tempting. It is a very cheap way to spend a good time in France. The organisers arranged a £100 bung to entice me there, then charged me nothing to enter and nothing to launch, moor and recover. I read that they have a €1.25m budget to put this event on - so it ought to be pretty good.

 

[Ru88ell]

I've just added this video of us crossing one of the 8kt tides nr Ile Berder on the way to Larmor Baden