Ad Lib 69

 

Small figures hoist huge high-tech sails from springy trampolines. Which are strung between SVR Lazartigue's slender hulls.

The powered halyard winches are carefully controlled, by watchful eyes beneath the jet fighter style cockpit canopy.

As the Ultim trimaran prepares for sea, in the light airs  of yesterday morning. Before the walls of Concarneau's Ville Close.

Meercat heads appear through hatches. Blinking in the bright sunshine. 

Before burrowing back into the dark recesses of the floats. Which house the complex foil control hydraulics, required to keep SVR airborne at forty knots.

If our luck is in, Stargazer may have fleet-footed company during today's passage east. (Written before setting sail.)

Ad Lib 68

 

The black dog's evident excitement, together with its owner’s slightly overwhelmed air, convey something of the Ville Close experience.

Access is via a stocky stone bridge. Which is built narrow and arcing left. To simultaneously defeat a battering ram charge at the gates; and to disadvantage advancing, right handed, swordsmen.

The deterrent, of a mediaeval drawbridge, has been replaced by a more welcoming modern fixed structure. Those who would enter, have important choices before them:

Linger, listening to the softly strummed folk melodies of the busker beside the portcullis?

Stroll around the battlements?

For the Ville Close is a rocky island, fortified and made stronghold for the townsfolk, of Concarneau, in time of strife.

March purposefully toward the designer boutiques? Which have sprung up where market traders once hawked exotic wares, to a waiting garrison.

Filling cobbled alleys with their enticing cries. The air rich with the scent of roasting sweetmeats. Crowds milling, sampling; moving from stall to stall. Like honey bees, foraging for nectar, in a wildflower meadow.

Explore the quieter, residential corners, enclosed within the walls?

Or rest a while in the square? Surveying the swirling, shifting, people-scape.

  

Whatever the distractions within, Stargazer's skipper must heed the wise words of the weather man. Who foretells that our fortunate run of west winds is to end. Tomorrow, Stargazer must make good her easting. 

Ad Lib 67

 

Ancient meets modern, beneath the time-worn masonry of the Ville Close. Where Stargazer and her skipper take in their surroundings. Strongly resisting the urge to pinch themselves, lest they be dreaming.

A Figaro racer, sister ship to Tom Dolan's (see Ad Lib 63), is cheek by jowl with the three masted caboteur Corentin.

Close by, the local IDB yard display their wares: A trio of their quirky scow bowed, cab forward, Mojito cruisers. Two 32's and a 6.50.

Their shape and style inspired by the ClasseMini 6.50 fleet, which makes the cutting edge port of Concarneau home.

Beyond, lies a futuristic blue spidery form. Outside Mer Concept's white painted workshops. That of the foiling Ultim trimaran SVR Lazartigue. Which skipper, Tom Laperche, is working up for this year's Route du Rhum.

A familiar face is, however, missing. That of Brit Sam Goodchild with his IMOCA Macif. Also based at Mer Concept. For he is north west of Ireland, leading the Vendee Arctique race. His eye upon securing a hat trick of IMOCA championship wins; and qualification for the 2028 Vendee Globe.

Picture Credits

Sam Goodchild finish line celebrations after the 2024 Vendee Globe:  courtesy of vendeeglobe.org

Ad Lib 66

 

Pen Duick V (see Ad Lib 64) skims from crest to crest. Leaping effortlessly, like a silver salmon. 

Stargazer and Pen Duick sail shoulder to shoulder, as they thread the Toulinguet gap. The sun, still to rise, softens a steel grey sky with a suffusion of pink.

Hard on the wind, the two small ships thunder south.

Tacking to clear the Tas de Pois.

The day brightens and mellows. Stargazer tacks on.

Making her landfall five nautical miles east of the Pointe du Raz. For which, Pen Duick has already tacked. Crossing a fleet of Classe Mini 6.50 racers, running in to Douarnenez, beneath serrated ramparts of tumbled granite.

Stargazer follows Pen Duick. Out to the wave gnarled tip of the jutting peninsula. A half filled jawbone, in which only the hardiest rock molars survive the ravages of time and tempest.

The two travelling companions tack on. Standing west to Tevennec. The lighthouse which guards the northern outcrops of the, lower lying,  Ile de Sein. Where Tom Dolan's Figaro lays beached, at risk of breaking up (see Ad Lib 61 & 63).

The tide is setting Stargazer down on the black silhouette of La Vieille. A residual storm-surge rears high. Finding itself confined between the Pointe du Raz and Ile de Sein. Dashing itself against the stoic stone saviour-of-sailors in frustration.

Making seven knots, Stargazer surfs by. Into the Baie de Audierne. Eagerly eating up the miles, through the afternoon.

Heading for the Pointe de Penmarc'h. Gateway to the Kingdom of Summer. Dolphins speed by, circle beneath Stargazer, but do not linger. Speed is all. For the tide is fair, but soon to change.

In the heat of the late afternoon sun, Stargazer eases sheets onto a genteel reach. Her skipper peels off his windproofs, dons shorts and brews a celebratory pot of coffee. 

Stargazer lopes toward Concarneau. Weaving her way between craggy outcrops. A sense of wellbeing settles. as the magical Breizh (Breton) elixir sets to work on her skipper's senses. The potion comprising equal measures of soft sand, hard rock and sparkling seas.

Ad Lib 65

In tumultuous chorus the song of wind and surf combine. The tang of salt spray flavours the air.

Heightening the senses. Bringing colours to vivid life.

The full force, of this second gale, becomes evident on cresting the rise in Camaret's coast path.

Where the wind whips in unfettered from the southwest. Over the bulwark of Toulinguet. Across the wild Atlantic Ocean.

Driving, before it, the seas which have hewn the hard Breton granite into fantastical formations.

Thorn-studded, wind-stunted, scrub hunkers beside the path. Laying low in hollows and behind crags.

Underfoot, the path swoops downward. Soon it is possible to stand straight, without stooping and staggering to the gusts. The vegetation reaches shoulder height, becoming softer and more luxuriant.

Stargazer's skipper enters the sun-trap embrace of Porz-Naye's ochre cliffs. Swiftly shedding jacket and jumper. Settling on the shingle beach for lunch.

There to contemplate the weather outlook. For, tides are now coming fair in the Raz de Sein. The wind is forecast to drop fast. In fact, Stargazer must sail on the morning tide.

 

Ad Lib 64

 

A flock of storm birds gathers, in Camaret, as the wind gusts to forty knots.

Two jet black, one maverick grey, Coal Tits. Pen Duick in the Breton tongue. The former fleet of ocean racing pioneer Eric Tabarly (1931-1998). Pen Duick ll is a slim sterned ketch of the 'fish shaped' design school.

Pen Duick lll is of a similar philosophy. But lighter and stiffer. Built to cleave cleanly through the waves.

Pen Duick V is the paradigm shifting, epoch shaper. An all aluminium, ultra lightweight (eschewing even paint), water ballasted (the world's first such) flyer. Built to skim above the surface of the sea. Much imitated and evolved to the present day. By IMOCA's and Class40's, amongst miriad others.

Out in the bay, Daniel Alfredsson's OE32 Pale Blue Dot rides to her anchor. They are putting in their qualification miles, for this year's solo round the world Golden Globe Race (GGR). 

Last port of call Soreide Norway. Caught by this succession of gales, in the North Atlantic, they have run direct downwind for Camaret's (relative) respite. Prevented (I suspect) from putting into port by rules which require their passage to be 'unbroken.'