Les Sables d’Olonne
An evening trip to Les Sables d’Olonne
The next day the storm abated sufficiently for us to make an uneventful trip down to Les Sables d’Olonne. Having left Île d’Yeu at 1800 it was midnight and dark under a misty drizzle when we entered the long and narrow harbour channel of Les Sables. The mist held the orange glow of the lights on the channel walls and the city either side was dark, still and silent behind the pools of crisp, white light thrown by the street lamps. Quite different from the scenes when world-famous sailing events such as the Golden Globe and the Vendée Globe depart from or arrive back into this harbour. We motored in slowly, enjoying the deserted city feel and eventually found our way to the berth that Alubat had graciously provided for our use. Tired, we tied up and fell into bed.
La grande plage in Les Sables d’Olonne.
Spoiled by Alubat
We say that Alubat had graciously provided a berth for us because the company was being very generous to us. First, they had arranged for us to use one of their two berths free of charge. They were going to do some minor work on the keel and rudder for us but were happy for us to use the berth for up to a month, had we so desired.
The old (small fishing boats) and the new (an IMOCA 60), in Port Olona. Yuma is (literally) somewhere in between.
Second, they had arranged this despite the harbour being closed to recreational vessels due to preparations for the 2024 Vendée Globe, a single-handed (solo) non-stop, unassisted round the world yacht race, which was due to depart the harbour in a month’s time.
Preparations for the Vendée Globe, the Formula 1 of sailing, were in full swing.
Had we wanted to we could have had a front row seat for the start of this major yacht racing event, but we would have missed our flight back to Australia in November.
We had first-class seats to view the 2024 Vendée Globe preperations. This IMOCA 60, sailed by local Sebastion Simon, ended up finishing third.
Third, they were going to give us a tour of their factory and, fourth, they had given us free tickets to Le Grand Pavois (a big boatshow) in nearby La Rochelle later that week. What grand folk!
Painted silos along Port Olona’s harbour front.
A tour of Yuma’s birthplace
Our tour of the Alubat factory, kindly hosted by Thierry, was fascinating. While the spaces inside a shipyard are surprisingly sparsely but convincingly industrially fitted out, seeing the processes involved in boat construction is always intriguing. And being able to ask questions about how your own boat was constructed (for those of us who haven’t bought new) is fantastic.
Someone loitering outside the Alubat head-office in Les Sables.
Questions about why certain things were done certain ways and how other things were achieved all got answered, along with seeing boats of each of the new models (370, 430 and 450) in various stages of construction. And to top it all off, Alubat got some tools out to repair one of our bikes so we could cycle back to the marina!
Le Grand Pavois
The following day we hoofed it off by train to La Rochelle where we had a brief dip into the frenzied world of boatshows. Our previous experience had been the Dusseldorf 2020 show, where Denis gave us our first look at an Ovni during a tour of the then-very-new Ovni 400. This time, Cecilia and Luc gave us very thorough and cheery tours of the Ovni 370 and 430. Both models had nice details that would work well on Yuma, but overall, we’re very happy that we have the Ovni 365 we do!
David borrowed Jean-Francois’ glasses to browse the Boreal webpage. Again, nice, but we stuck with our Ovni 365.
We also got to have an hilarious half hour with Jean-Francois Eeman, the managing director and co-owner of Boreal Yachts. These are the boats that we have always joked about being our dream boats, though when we finally went aboard one in Svolvaer, Norway, we weren’t super impressed with the layout of a few key spaces. Still, it’s easy to be critical when you’re just window shopping, they certainly are delicious boats if you can afford them.
Beautiful seashell art in l’île Penotte.
Hanging out in Les Sables
The rest of our time in Les Sables was spent enjoying this splendid city and its fascination with sailing and the sea. We were lucky enough to be able to see up-close a few of the IMOCA 60 monohulls that were being prepared for the upcoming Vendée Globe – quite different yachts to our Ovni 365, to say the least.
The complex machines that are the IMOCA 60 sailing boats.
We dined in a Michelin recommended, though not starred, restaurant where we had the pleasure (and I mean it) of enjoying smoked haddock ice-cream.
Our entrée, with dollops of smoked haddock ice-cream.
Scallop-season being open again, we snaffled up fresh scallops and (of course) cheese from the markets. What a great place!
More seashell art in l’île Penotte.
And as luck would have it, Alubat decided that they would prefer it if we shifted to the city section of the harbour so that they could bring their two show boats back into their work berths.
The view from our new berth.
This meant that we were even more centrally located, with the markets, the beach and the harbour channel just a stroll away.
Le Marché des Halles Central.
Sad to leave
Tempting as Alubat’s offer of a berth for a month was, eventually we decided that we would be better off leaving the harbour before we got completely locked in by the Vendée Globe race events and, instead, spending our free time sampling a few other areas along the coast of the Pays de la Loire before putting Yuma on the hard in Arzal for the winter.
Wat een heerlijke gastvrije plek . En dat eten daar! Zucht.