Thierry Dubois is a French single-handed ocean racer, with a nice record of achievements between 1990 and 2000. At 33 years old, he decided to end his sports career and to build the schooner of his dreams.
"I'm not imagining my next boat"
It is thus that Thierry summarizes what he lives today.
It took six years and 23,000 hours of work to design and build La Louise, this elegant and robust 19m schooner. Thierry starts from a very elaborate schedule of conditions, inheritance of its cursus of sailor builder of boats and a blank page. The reflections and the sketches that the architect Nigel Irens propose to him are in phase with his vision.
This former top-level competitor and boat owner since the age of 16 has no regrets because this project has its roots in his adolescence. It corresponds to his conception of navigation at the turn of his sporting and professional life.
The Louise is thus designed since its birth in 2010 to offer cruises in the Arctic, away from the busy roads, and to rub shoulders with the ice in complete safety.
Small technical and philosophical evolutions are made regularly but its DNA remains intact, and it is in symbiosis with its captain.
A rigorous navigation program: the Great North
Thierry never poured in the facility, neither in his course of high level sportsman in solo, nor in his choices of life.
At the beginning of each season, in February-March, he knows that he will have to set sail for the North, in the middle of storms, crossing seas that can be complicated.
It's a real commitment to take a sailboat up there, to make it work because Greenland is a hostile zone, not very well equipped, where nothing is obvious. Autonomy on board is essential, both for supplies and mechanical parts.
"Working continuously for 10 years up there, there's only Louise" explains Thierry. Each season brings its batch of permanent improvements to the service of the comfort and the safety of the passengers.
Sharing and discovering
Lulled since his childhood by values of sharing and transmission, Thierry learns sailing and cruising in Brittany. He quickly became a skipper in a cruising school at 18 years old.
Single-handed ocean racing is a break that allows him to test his limits and also suits his character.
By carrying out his project of navigation on the Louise, Thierry thus returns to his first love: "Take a boat, put people on board, be responsible for it in terms of safety, comfort and share and let them discover."
The present and future projects
The Louise is firmly moored in Etel, back in the port where she was first floated in April 2010.
Its activity being affiliated with the Merchant Navy, it is immobilized for administrative closure following the current sanitary constraints. The decree of the Maritime Prefecture published in October 2020 during the second containment clearly states that boats are not allowed to cruise with passengers, or to offer food or accommodation on board.
Abroad, the borders of Greenland are drastically closed, and the contacts that Thierry kept with the office of tourism on the spot don't augur an opening in the short term. Ireland and Scotland are also closed to the tourism.
For the time being, the company can benefit from the French state aid but it is not easy to remain optimistic in these circumstances.
However, life flows on board and allows for work to be done (there is some) that requires time and little money.
"I can't imagine the quality and condition of the Louise regressing" . The pleasure and the passion are the engines of Thierry to realize these operations of improvements in the course of the weeks which pass.
The Louise's safety and compliance visits are done.
"I'm ready to sail and I'm allowed to sail but I'm not allowed to take passengers."
Abnegation and patience, qualities in which Thierry recognizes himself well.
