Hobie One in Morbihan

Hello !

We, Amelie and Marc, are going on an Adventure. In July, we will participate in a sailing race in Morbihan: the (well named) Morbihan Challenge. And now is the time for us to invite you to participate in this Adventure!

The Morbihan Challenge

As explained above, the Morbihan Challenge is a French sailing race. It starts in Vannes, pops out of the Gulf of Morbihan, goes around Houat, finds its way into the harbor of Lorient, and stops for 12 hours in Hennebont. Then, as Bilbo says, “there and back again”: we come out of the harbor, find our way around the island of Groix, before reaching the Gulf Morbihan again and returning to Vannes. In all, we anticipate 3 to 4 days of racing, depending on the wind, the current, the boat, the luck ...

All boats can participate, on the very simple condition of having no engine on board, even in case of emergency! In these conditions, nobody knows who can win because the boats will be of all kinds: large mono or multihulls, sail-rowing, canoes, light sailboats ...

Another singularity of the race that has convinced us to jump in: crews are necessarily mixed! Because, as you may not know it, sailing, regattas, the good old veteran sailor, all of this… it's sorely lacking women. There are habits, prejudices that are hard to bring down. With the Morbihan Challenge we will joyfully smash all that.

As to complete the adventurous aspect of this Challenge, we want to stick to the idea of doing it on a Hobie 18 Formula. Let us explain:

The Hobie 18

The Hobie 18 is a beach catamaran. In this case, it is Jean-Baptiste who lends it to us (because he is such a lovely fellow) in agreement with the happy group of Catapotes.

The fun part: the H18 is light, fast, easy to propel with paddles if the wind falls, and not too complicated to carry.

The tough part: the H18 is basically not designed for these adventures, so it has no storage, no cab or else. Nor does it have safety equipment in terms of distress flares, night navigation lights, first aid kits…

In short, this first Hobie (Hobie One, do you have it?) is a base, a raw material, a pie base, a wet clay in our resourceful and agile hands. And we need you to build the mighty ship we want.

Marc is a 1m90-tall little boy who has been sailing since he was 5 years old. All this time he has been sailing with his father between Brest and the island of Ré. The home port is in Noirmoutier, because that's where family roots dive. Besides, he is keen on rowing, and he works in Montpellier on the adaptation of agriculture to climate change ("Well, a lot to be done there!" Yes, we know ...). Today is about emancipation. After years of good and loyal service, the sailor wants to hoist his own sails and storm this adventure on his own. Well, actually, not on his own exactly. He started looking for a teammate, and Amelie found him!

Amélie, born in the French Eastern region called Franche-Comté, was not predestined to sailing. And yet... She grew the very special desire of going to South America… on a sailing ship! And that got to start sailing. She has not (yet) reached South America (the next Adventure maybe?) but has already learned a lot sailing in the South of France, between Palavas and Carnon. She sails in regattas with “Les Copains d’abord” and also with the association “Des Voiles & Femmes” (Sails & Women) which campaigns for gender diversity in crews (hey, that’s a coincidence!). And when Marc sent out his call for a teammate, she positively answered within the next minutes!