Winter Work - my old house in a Breton fishing port

Описание: It has been a wet and stormy winter in Douarnenez, and going out in my cruising dinghy has been unappealing, if not down right dangerous. So instead, I have been doing some work on renovating my old Breton house and musing on my life as an immigrant to Brittany.

MUSIC
Footprints in the Sand - Roots and Recognition featuring Melanie Bell
from Epidemic Sound
www.epidemicsound.com

INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
Read my book, 'The Dinghy Cruising Companion' for much more information about dinghy cruising
and order my new book 'Sailing the Shallows' - which is already sold out, but being reprinted in March 2026!
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√