Aboard Catafjord, Lucie Lemaitre and Jonathan Monteil have brought to life an inspiring project combining navigation, creation and transmission. This 63-foot catamaran, built in 1996 in Quebec to designs by architect Lock Crowther, has become, under the couple's impetus, a veritable floating laboratory, welcoming artists, explorers and sea enthusiasts to the Ateliers Embarqués. A look back at this inspiring project at the crossroads of the arts and the sea.
Features of Catafjord, catamaran workshop
Catafjord, a 63-foot catamaran, is a singular, robust boat built in wood and epoxy. Its slender hulls, strip-planked with laminated red cedar, are complemented by marine plywood superstructures. With dimensions of 20 meters long and 9 meters wide, and a weight of around 20 tons, this catamaran stands out for its speed. Its ketch rig and central wheelhouse simplify maneuvering, even single-handed.
Catafjord is more than just a great boat, it's a great place to live. For the past 20 years, she has sailed around the world with various owners who have equipped, improved and made her reliable for long voyages. Since 2020, she has found a new vocation as a workshop boat through the association Les Ateliers Embarqués, founded by her owners Lucie Lemaitre and Jonathan Monteil.
Offering an ideal setting for collective projects, the boat can accommodate up to 14 people on board. The interior layout is spacious and bright, designed to encourage collaboration during workshops. The open, modular central nacelle houses the galley, a large chart table, a bench seat and 2 cabins with double beds.
Two entrances lead outside, while others open onto the hulls, each with 3 cabins equipped with bench seating and double beds.
At the rear, a semi-enclosed area with a bench seat provides another covered work area.
Les Ateliers Embarqués: an immersive approach to learning and living at sea
The Ateliers Embarqués project is based on a strong conviction: the sea is a space for transmission, an ideal setting for learning and creation. " We're going on a trip, my parents, my sisters and me. A year on the sea, a year aboard a sailboat, across the Atlantic. A daring adventure, some would say risky. For me, it's true life, simple and fair. I'm 10 years old and I'm enjoying... jonathan Monteil, whose love of sailing was forged at an early age.
This experienced skipper, who holds a Capitaine 200 voile diploma, sailed from polar to tropical waters before creating this project with Lucie Lemaitre. For her part, Lucie, an artist and anthropologist by training, has always sought to combine creation and transmission. " I believe in the creative energy of play, movement and encounters "This conviction has always guided her approach to the project.
Aboard Catafjord, participants become crew members involved in the life of the ship.
Each workshop alternates between navigation, training sessions and relaxation. " While the instructors have a precise training content, we have no predefined program for the days on board.
We put together a day-by-day plan based on the needs of the course, the crew's wishes, the terrain and, of course, the weather "say the founders. The idea is simple: to use the sea as a catalyst for learning. To sail is to learn differently. This is the credo of Les Ateliers Embarqués.
" What drives me is to pass on the freedom and relationship with creation that I've been developing over the last few years. To bring out the artist in each of us, in the sense of someone who transforms. The one who transcends reality and sublimates it "explains Lucie. A project that draws its strength from total immersion, creating a setting conducive to self-revelation.
Over the years, Catafjord has seen a wide range of speakers and disciplines come and go: clowning, aquatic photography, singing, dancing, freediving, writing... Quality training, orchestrated by experts in the field. " I've been talking about my boat-workshop project for a good thirty years, but Lucie and Jonathan have done it! Indeed, I see an echo of my own dream in the adventure of Lucie and Jonathan, who offer public access to knowledge through the attractive medium of initiation to the arts in all their forms, in close fraternity with nature "says Titouan Lamazou, patron of Les Ateliers Embarqués.
Launch of the 2025 season and call for collaboration
Jonathan and Lucie, driven by their passion for sailing and sharing, continue to see their project as a dynamic process of transmission. For the 2025 season, for the first time in France, they will be offering a voyage-workshop program that will take them around the Breton islands, before sailing to the Scilly Islands, Ireland and Cornwall.
Before setting sail again, Catafjord needs a little refurbishment. From April 22 to May 22, 2025, an exterior paint job will be organized in La Turballe to prepare the catamaran for her new departure. This is a great opportunity for all volunteers who want to get directly involved in the catamaran's upkeep, and take part in a project that unites the sea and creation.
A human and nautical adventure which, with each new stage, continues to nurture encounters as rich as they are unexpected. Guillaume Néry had the opportunity to cross paths with the couple in Taiohae Bay, Marquesas, a few years ago. An exchange that was an obvious choice for the champion with multiple world records in apnea, who summed up the essence of the project as follows: " Lucie and Jonathan have transformed their proud catamaran into Les Ateliers Embarqués, a base for creation and sharing on the water. Stepping aboard is the promise of an enchanted interlude on the waves in the world of art and creation. I'm proud and happy to be the second patron of Ateliers Embarqués ".
