Under the impetus of Yves Marre and with the collaboration of naval architect Marc Van Peteghem, the Watever association was created and today uses the Bateau Lune as a showcase to alert people to the problems encountered in Bangladesh.
Through him, the Bateau Lune after having been presented at the Boat Show, is exposed all summer at the Museum of Douarnenez and should continue to be visible on various festivals in the hope of his coming to the Grand Pavois next September.
But the Bateau Lune is only the visible part of the action carried out in this country. In fact, Watever works on 4 axes:
1 - TaraTari shipyard
It is a little by him that everything started. The objective is to imagine a profitable construction site, but above all one whose model can easily be adapted in another locality. It is already more than one hundred units which left the building site. Are produced boats for fishermen but also catamaran ambulances for the floating hospital.
2 - Training
In parallel with the shipyard, a school has been created to train future marine carpenters who will no longer have to work with wood, but use polyester techniques (molded parts). For the moment, the naval architecture part is not addressed in the school, but in the evolution of the projects, it should be taken into account so that the future boats are designed on the spot with local skills.
3 - Rescue at sea
If it is important to build marine boats capable of resisting the bad local conditions, the organization of a rescue service must also be thought. Thus, a rescue chain was imagined that is very different from the one that can be envisaged on our coasts. Indeed, the rescuers are faced with shipwrecks containing many passengers. It is difficult to embark all of them on a single lifeboat. Rescuers therefore start by giving buoyancy assistance to the shipwrecked people before organizing their repatriation on land. This type of procedure is possible because the water is warm, allowing a long survival in the water.
4 - Bio composite in bamboo
Faced with the scarcity of wood, Watever is working to find alternative solutions. Bamboo is one of them, provided it is properly assembled. The ability to recreate planks would allow traditional carpenters to work with their old methods while producing strong and durable boats.
