A travelling association to promote do-it-yourself activities
Marie Descoubes discovered sailing during a trip to America and the Pacific. Setting off for South America to discover local ways of life, while working in woofing, a housing-for-work exchange scheme, the young woman found herself stranded by the Covid-19 pandemic in Panama and decided to hitchhike to Tahiti. A seed that gave birth to the Elément Terre Sail nautical project, as she explains: "That's how I learned to sail, by going to the various islands of the Marquesas, the Gambiers, the Tuamotu and Tahiti. I had already opened the Elément Terre Sail page before I left. When I got back to France in La Rochelle, the idea was born of a traveling association to promote do-it-yourself and simple solutions to be self-sufficient in many things."
Renovation of an unknown sailboat from 1968
What better way to get around than on a boat? Marie and the association set out in search of a second-hand sailboat, and set their sights on an 11.50-metre boat built in 1968. Brought out of a Dutch shipyard called Campen, the sailboat has had 11 owners, and sailed extensively, according to the documents found on board, but the exact model name remains unknown, regrets Marie: " The yacht has crossed the Atlantic 4 times and circumnavigated the globe via the South, according to our contacts; Campen is said to have built 26 of them, but in times too long to be profitable, before reselling the plans to Kirié, hence the family resemblance with certain models. Formerly a ketch, she was struck by lightning in Martinique in 2012, before being repatriated by cargo ship to La Rochelle to be used as accommodation. She had been converted into a sloop with an aluminum mast, but sailed very little."
After purchasing it for 15,000 euros, the association invested 5,000 euros to completely renovate it, giving priority to the use of second-hand equipment, as its president explains: "We stripped everything bare, inside and out, and renovated with second-hand products. there were some surprises, like the chainplates that needed to be redone, for which we salvaged 6 mm stainless steel scraps and found a volunteer who knew how to solder them. My neighbor on the pontoon introduced me to electricity! It took eight months of renovation and around fifty volunteers. We're happy to show that it's possible."
Better equipped to face any sailing challenge
This renovation project is also an important first step for the crew, who have discovered more about their boat," stresses the navigator: "Before that, I knew how to sail, but I'd never renovated a boat. I've learned a lot and now know the boat inside out, which is reassuring."
3 years of travel and transmission
The Element Terre Sail crew will leave France in early autumn 2023 for a 3-year voyage around the Caribbean arc, for which they are still seeking to complete the financing. During the voyage, he will produce podcasts at sea, create a database of do-it-yourself recipes available online, and raise awareness in schools. The initial crew is made up of volunteers from the association in La Rochelle, but will evolve over time, to remain in line with the project's transmission objectives, concludes its initiator: "Embarkations will last from 1 to 6 months. We'll always have two people who know how to sail and two who are learning."
