I have not put an outboard motor on my dinghy in nearly twenty years, preferring sail and oar. But engines are useful on a canal. So this is a first trial of my new, (if actually rather old), Seagull outboard on my local canal, which begins as the River Aulne in western Brittany. Hopefully you won't need to wait another 20 years to see this again.
The Nantes-Brest canal runs the length of Brittany, passing through remote rural countryside, and most of it is open for navigation (although there are gaps). In the west it is mainly the River Aulne navigation. If was ever to make a longer passage up the canal, working the locks, I would need to book a lock keeper to meet me at each one, as you are not allowed to work them yourself, and the old lock keeper's cottages are all abandoned by their former keepers. So I would need to keep to a programme, which might be difficult if I was rowing. The idea is that this outboard would help me out, if I was falling behind my agreed schedule.
INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
Read my book, "The Dinghy Cruising Companion" - second edition out NOW!
www.bloomsbury.com/us/dinghy-...
And join the Dinghy Cruising Association:
dinghycruising.org.uk/
MUSIC
Suncatcher - Wendy Marcini
- from Epidemic Sound
www.epidemicsound.com
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, and basically means a whirlwind.
Length 4.44 m
Sail area 12.2 m²
Beam 1.70 m
Draught 0.25 / 0.86 m
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
*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 with the intention of importing it into the UK, you will be liable to pay VAT and other duties on the import. This is true even if it is second hand, and similar charges will be due if you take a British boat the other way. This does not apply to a boat taken to the other country for a brief holiday with its owner, however.