To choose the right boat for coastal navigation, you need to answer 4 crucial questions.
What size?
Without hesitation: between 5 and 8 meters. A sailboat or a motorboat will allow you to discover all the small creeks of our magnificent coastline. A 6/7 meter boat will limit your comfort and your autonomy (water, energy, food, etc.). A boat approaching 8 meters will allow you to live on board for a few days with more comfort and autonomy. More than 8 meters, your draft or size will be important, but the comfort will go hand in hand. You will gain in comfort, what you lose in ease of maneuvering.
Unstoppable?
The shores of the English Channel and part of the Atlantic Ocean are subject, as everyone knows, to high tides. To be able to run aground in these regions is to take advantage of fantastic spaces at low tide, to take advantage of the rias and abers, to sink into the rivers far from the crowd. To run aground is to live a little out of time on a boat placed on the sand to enjoy the foreshore during a tide. Blessed are the two keelboats, full or weighted dinghies!
Transportable?
A transportable vessel allows you to expand your horizons, to sail along the European coasts as well as on the lakes... But it will have the disadvantage of its transportable side, its necessarily limited size... Vast horizon outside, small space inside.
Sail or motor ?
This choice is up to you! The motorboat allows for faster travel between ports of call. But it is also less resistant to the sea and bad weather. So apart from the propulsion method, motor boats and sailboats are the result of a nice compromise found by the skipper and his crew.
Cabot : a navigation philosophy
Coasting is more a philosophy and a behavior, and it is therefore necessary to adapt to the medium in your possession. Who hasn't dreamed of a sunrise, at the bottom of a bay, alone in the world? The French coastline is full of coves, creeks, estuaries, abers and rias that are not very popular because of their restricted access. Don't these constraints make the salt of our navigations?
To help you prepare for your summer sailing, we will propose in the following articles some ideas of trips tested for you.
