As an American “old boatbuilder” and California surfer with Polynesian connections now Living in Dordogne France, I really appreciate your story and the inspiration for your project. I hope to visit someday and possibly lend a hand. Teryl www.Virsoleil.org
Hi Teryl, wow your place looks incredible, and Remy and I have a longterm plan to create a Living Land Lab some day once the Floating Stories Lab's death day comes around. We are not far from you - Plouhinec (29780) and will be building just up the road. More hands the better, we will need a lot of help and I look forward to talking story with you in the boat yard. We surely have some Californian connections? Jaiden Steele, our youth advisor on the FSL Advisory Board, is based in Encinitas.
Remy's parents live in Pouillon, and we spent 5 years living near Bayonne. We heard there is a good movement of permaculture and natural farming folks living around Dordogne. Would love to visit you also when we need a break from the build!
A wooden vessel is such a unique experience in this day and time, especially. Kudos to you.
I own a 1934 18m Motorsailer ketch on which we are currently replacing the bow. Check my work for photos and details if you have a moment! Congratulations and best of luck; these project tend to take more time, energy, patience and money than originally anticipated.... Cheers ~J
I was in the same boat as you guys. Last year, I bought the plans for a Tiki 26, planning to build it this year. The idea of building your own vessel in which you could cross an ocean was just mind blowing. In the prestudy phase however, I realized the time, cost & logistics involved. Plan B quickly took shape to start looking for the same boat, built according to plans (as I would have wanted), on the second hand market. And plan B became reality. In just two weeks from now I'll be sailing 'Lookfar' 700nm home.. Really stoked about this, my stress levels peaking even when I type this.
Next to sustainability, I also thought about the ratio of my ownership to the total lifetime of the boat. Lookfar is now about 20yrs old. Still in excellent condition so I think she will easily double that if taken good care of. Being realistic however, I don't expect me to keep her for that amount of time. Circumstances & expectations change and I will adapt accordingly. So maybe I'll sell her again in 5 or 10 years to get a bigger boat, or no boat at all, who knows? After all, it's my first sailing boat. Spending that amount of time and money on a new build would be hard to justify with other options available...
So if I were you, until you cut those first bulkheads, just keep an eye out for interesting options (maybe not even Narai's?). It will get you sailing faster & cheaper. Cheaper also means less time needed to work for an income so you'll again have more time for sailing. I got Lookfar for about a quarter of the price I would have paid built new. And to my feeling with less environmental impact. Any boat requires maintenance during its life and, interpreting the studies you shared earlier, we can reduce (even eliminate?) this impact by paying attention how it's done (ie don't sand outside in the marina/yard and always use proper dust collection!).
But I'm not you and you will have other priorities. :-) If you're really set for a Narai, second hand options will be limited if existing at all. Due to the age of the design, most of them will be close to their end-of-life state like Mara Noka was. And I totally get the built-from-scratch idea. You'll be able to customize and make it yours, creating the same feeling as Hanneke has with Gaia.
Thanks for your lovely story. We recently created the Floating Stories Lab as a non-profit association, so we are certainly not in this alone -- the boat will be owned by the association and it's a project far greater than just our little family.
We already have requests from volunteers all over the world, so hopefully this reduces the overwhelm!
Mad respect for sticking your head out like this here on and on FB, knowing you might get reactions that can be frustrating/tiring/.. But it must be a really good way to reflect on these things, get input and firmly define the path you want to follow.
The other key takeaway, being about the same age, is that we're still young. Thanks for the reminder. ;-)
I'll certainly drop by when I'm around in Bretagne.
FB is a minefield! This Substack community feels a lot healthier, and I am so grateful for the community we're building together here. Thanks for being a part of it!
Remind me where you are based? We will be touring around Bretagne beginning of May with Hanneke, Kiana and the Women & the Wind team for the movie screenings at cinemas. Will you be around?
I'm based in Belgium. Not that far, but I'll be sailing Lookfar starting May 1st from North of Wales to Belgium.
So it's somewhat unfortunate that I won't be able to meet you guys then. Especially since Kiana's youtube video on her solo atlantic crossing really introduced me to Wharram's and then to sailing at a time I really needed it - but that's another story.
On the other side, I'll be "doing it" myself. And that was the whole point... :-)
I'm in Bretagne in summer for family holidays not too far from you. And in November I'm organizing a sea kayaking course/trip for my club, but that's further North - near Lannion.
The boys play football against Lannion. It was beautiful up there! Let us know when you’re around Plouhinec or we will see you up your way when you are there. I’m trying to convince Kiana to come back later in the year to work on the boat build ;)
Thrilled you’re getting out there and excited to hear more about your journeys. Glad you finally came over to Substack too hehe.
And Yes I think you deserve to build a new boat in a conscious way that also inspires others while building not just a boat but your community as well. It will definitely be an adventure even before the sailing begins. Keep us posted on build gatherings and events that support your project. When I was much younger I built a wood/epoxy Jim Brown design Searunner trimaran while living in the warehouse where I built it. 🐝Well
Amazing thank you. I will share your project with Dr. Corina Ciocan too. She is based in the UK but has bought a place not too far from you. Being a biologist she would be very interested in your work I think!
Aiming for end of July for the first ever Fete du FSL here at CapSo. Will definitely post about it once we confirm but would love it if you guys can make it!
Do you have photos of the Searunner tri you built?! Sounds amazing! What ever happened to it?
If you want some inspiration, try this Youtube video; a timelapse of building a new replica of a 18th century Customs lugger called Grayhound.
I met the visionary builders, Marcus and Freya, on their liveaboard 30' Cornish-design sailboat in Dartmouth, England back in 2010, that they'd previously built themselves. They explained their new project, to build the massive Grayhound, and to be honest, I thought it could never be built.
They proved me wrong. I visited the build several times, and finally stood on the decks a couple of months before launch, and was actually moved to tears with the beauty of what they had achieved.
Marcus and Freya run our local coffee shop here in Audierne. Grayhound is no longer theirs, but is docked at Douarnanez, and it's certainly a beauty!
Marcus has thoughts about our build and I hope to see him lend a hand in the boat yard.
Grayhound is a work of art...
The boat lives on in new hands and I am thankful that Marcus didn't listen to people tell him he should not build it.
He and I also strongly agree there is no such thing as a 'green' boat, but that you can offset the lifestyle you have on the boat and its purpose to cause less harm.
Lovely people, brilliant boat. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for that update! I'm glad that all is well for both the builders and for the ship. I didn't realise they were so local - I'm not far from St Malo at the moment.
Nothing is 'green'. Once you take something from nature and shape it, there is energy used, there is always waste, there are impacts. But it is, I think, a fine thing to create those impacts in the process of trying to create something of beauty and quality, designed to live a long time. It is not the same as using massive resources to make some gewgaw that is shipped across the world, used once and thrown away.
If you build consciously, then the thing you build will include your consciousness forever.
If you are in Saint Malo, will you be around Brest at all on May 1? We will be there for the Women & the Wind movie screening along with Hanneke, Kiana and the other girls, our kids etc. Then Concarneau May 2, Douarnanez May 3, Lorient May 4.
Would love to see you at one of the shows if you're around and chat properly over a beer!
As an American “old boatbuilder” and California surfer with Polynesian connections now Living in Dordogne France, I really appreciate your story and the inspiration for your project. I hope to visit someday and possibly lend a hand. Teryl www.Virsoleil.org
Hi Teryl, wow your place looks incredible, and Remy and I have a longterm plan to create a Living Land Lab some day once the Floating Stories Lab's death day comes around. We are not far from you - Plouhinec (29780) and will be building just up the road. More hands the better, we will need a lot of help and I look forward to talking story with you in the boat yard. We surely have some Californian connections? Jaiden Steele, our youth advisor on the FSL Advisory Board, is based in Encinitas.
Remy's parents live in Pouillon, and we spent 5 years living near Bayonne. We heard there is a good movement of permaculture and natural farming folks living around Dordogne. Would love to visit you also when we need a break from the build!
Thank you for comments and support. Angie.
A wooden vessel is such a unique experience in this day and time, especially. Kudos to you.
I own a 1934 18m Motorsailer ketch on which we are currently replacing the bow. Check my work for photos and details if you have a moment! Congratulations and best of luck; these project tend to take more time, energy, patience and money than originally anticipated.... Cheers ~J
I was in the same boat as you guys. Last year, I bought the plans for a Tiki 26, planning to build it this year. The idea of building your own vessel in which you could cross an ocean was just mind blowing. In the prestudy phase however, I realized the time, cost & logistics involved. Plan B quickly took shape to start looking for the same boat, built according to plans (as I would have wanted), on the second hand market. And plan B became reality. In just two weeks from now I'll be sailing 'Lookfar' 700nm home.. Really stoked about this, my stress levels peaking even when I type this.
Next to sustainability, I also thought about the ratio of my ownership to the total lifetime of the boat. Lookfar is now about 20yrs old. Still in excellent condition so I think she will easily double that if taken good care of. Being realistic however, I don't expect me to keep her for that amount of time. Circumstances & expectations change and I will adapt accordingly. So maybe I'll sell her again in 5 or 10 years to get a bigger boat, or no boat at all, who knows? After all, it's my first sailing boat. Spending that amount of time and money on a new build would be hard to justify with other options available...
So if I were you, until you cut those first bulkheads, just keep an eye out for interesting options (maybe not even Narai's?). It will get you sailing faster & cheaper. Cheaper also means less time needed to work for an income so you'll again have more time for sailing. I got Lookfar for about a quarter of the price I would have paid built new. And to my feeling with less environmental impact. Any boat requires maintenance during its life and, interpreting the studies you shared earlier, we can reduce (even eliminate?) this impact by paying attention how it's done (ie don't sand outside in the marina/yard and always use proper dust collection!).
But I'm not you and you will have other priorities. :-) If you're really set for a Narai, second hand options will be limited if existing at all. Due to the age of the design, most of them will be close to their end-of-life state like Mara Noka was. And I totally get the built-from-scratch idea. You'll be able to customize and make it yours, creating the same feeling as Hanneke has with Gaia.
Thanks for your lovely story. We recently created the Floating Stories Lab as a non-profit association, so we are certainly not in this alone -- the boat will be owned by the association and it's a project far greater than just our little family.
We already have requests from volunteers all over the world, so hopefully this reduces the overwhelm!
I really appreciated your story!
Mad respect for sticking your head out like this here on and on FB, knowing you might get reactions that can be frustrating/tiring/.. But it must be a really good way to reflect on these things, get input and firmly define the path you want to follow.
The other key takeaway, being about the same age, is that we're still young. Thanks for the reminder. ;-)
I'll certainly drop by when I'm around in Bretagne.
FB is a minefield! This Substack community feels a lot healthier, and I am so grateful for the community we're building together here. Thanks for being a part of it!
Remind me where you are based? We will be touring around Bretagne beginning of May with Hanneke, Kiana and the Women & the Wind team for the movie screenings at cinemas. Will you be around?
I'm based in Belgium. Not that far, but I'll be sailing Lookfar starting May 1st from North of Wales to Belgium.
So it's somewhat unfortunate that I won't be able to meet you guys then. Especially since Kiana's youtube video on her solo atlantic crossing really introduced me to Wharram's and then to sailing at a time I really needed it - but that's another story.
On the other side, I'll be "doing it" myself. And that was the whole point... :-)
I'm in Bretagne in summer for family holidays not too far from you. And in November I'm organizing a sea kayaking course/trip for my club, but that's further North - near Lannion.
The boys play football against Lannion. It was beautiful up there! Let us know when you’re around Plouhinec or we will see you up your way when you are there. I’m trying to convince Kiana to come back later in the year to work on the boat build ;)
Thrilled you’re getting out there and excited to hear more about your journeys. Glad you finally came over to Substack too hehe.
Angie and Remy you are both always welcome to Virsoleil. We are part of the International organization www.ecosystemrestorationcommunities.org
And Yes I think you deserve to build a new boat in a conscious way that also inspires others while building not just a boat but your community as well. It will definitely be an adventure even before the sailing begins. Keep us posted on build gatherings and events that support your project. When I was much younger I built a wood/epoxy Jim Brown design Searunner trimaran while living in the warehouse where I built it. 🐝Well
Amazing thank you. I will share your project with Dr. Corina Ciocan too. She is based in the UK but has bought a place not too far from you. Being a biologist she would be very interested in your work I think!
Aiming for end of July for the first ever Fete du FSL here at CapSo. Will definitely post about it once we confirm but would love it if you guys can make it!
Do you have photos of the Searunner tri you built?! Sounds amazing! What ever happened to it?
If you want some inspiration, try this Youtube video; a timelapse of building a new replica of a 18th century Customs lugger called Grayhound.
I met the visionary builders, Marcus and Freya, on their liveaboard 30' Cornish-design sailboat in Dartmouth, England back in 2010, that they'd previously built themselves. They explained their new project, to build the massive Grayhound, and to be honest, I thought it could never be built.
They proved me wrong. I visited the build several times, and finally stood on the decks a couple of months before launch, and was actually moved to tears with the beauty of what they had achieved.
Go for it! You CAN do it!
Here is the timelapse videa:
https://youtu.be/HepAG8ziOyk?feature=shared
And here is Grayhound today;
https://grayhoundventures.com/ship/
Marcus and Freya run our local coffee shop here in Audierne. Grayhound is no longer theirs, but is docked at Douarnanez, and it's certainly a beauty!
Marcus has thoughts about our build and I hope to see him lend a hand in the boat yard.
Grayhound is a work of art...
The boat lives on in new hands and I am thankful that Marcus didn't listen to people tell him he should not build it.
He and I also strongly agree there is no such thing as a 'green' boat, but that you can offset the lifestyle you have on the boat and its purpose to cause less harm.
Lovely people, brilliant boat. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the invitation! I'll see what I can arrange, though things are pretty hectic here just now.
I'll let you know.
Cheers!
Thank you for that update! I'm glad that all is well for both the builders and for the ship. I didn't realise they were so local - I'm not far from St Malo at the moment.
Nothing is 'green'. Once you take something from nature and shape it, there is energy used, there is always waste, there are impacts. But it is, I think, a fine thing to create those impacts in the process of trying to create something of beauty and quality, designed to live a long time. It is not the same as using massive resources to make some gewgaw that is shipped across the world, used once and thrown away.
If you build consciously, then the thing you build will include your consciousness forever.
Just my view.
If you are in Saint Malo, will you be around Brest at all on May 1? We will be there for the Women & the Wind movie screening along with Hanneke, Kiana and the other girls, our kids etc. Then Concarneau May 2, Douarnanez May 3, Lorient May 4.
Would love to see you at one of the shows if you're around and chat properly over a beer!
Really resonate with this!