100 years of "L'Amitié" a traditional French hand built boat

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Project visual 100 years of  "L'Amitié" a traditional French hand built boat
Successful
13
Contributions
31/05/2021
End date
€1.980
Out of €1.800
110 %

100 years of "L'Amitié" a traditional French hand built boat

<p>Hello,&nbsp;</p> <p>For those of you who don&#39;t know me, my name is&nbsp;Benjamin.</p> <p>Last year, in a very fortunate turn of events I was able to acquire<em> L&#39;Amiti&eacute;,&nbsp;</em>one of the oldest and, of now less than 50 pre WW2, hand built, early 20th century fishing boats,&nbsp;traditional in this part of the French Med&nbsp;( Nice to Marseille ) for next to nothing.&nbsp;</p> <p>At 6,90 m long and 2,3m wide this piece of French floating history,<em>&nbsp;&quot;L&#39;Amiti&eacute;&quot;</em>,( translates&nbsp;into English, as&nbsp;&quot;Friendship&quot;)&nbsp;was built in 1921 and&nbsp;is 100 yrs old this year.</p> <p>A&nbsp;perfect year&nbsp;to give her the much needed&nbsp;solid overhaul that will hopefully see her on the water for the next 100 years.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I have been able to trace her back to the mid 80&#39;s but haven&#39;t had time to find out more about her. I do know that she&#39;s identical to the day she was built, except for the ageing teak decking (and paint colour probably&nbsp;?)&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The previous owner had started a&nbsp;restoration project but had to give it up a few years ago due to age and poor health.</p> <p>She hasn&#39;t had any real attention&nbsp;since and when I got her, was looking worse for wear.</p> <p>Luckily, overall she was in good shape ( after a good scrub and clean) but the parts that he wasn&#39;t able to restore have seriously deteriorated and need replacing.</p> <p>So I have decided to take on this project and with your help will manage to get her looking her at her best and seaworthy for the next 100 years.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>A bit of history:</p> <p>She is locally know as a Pointu, the traditional workhorse of the prewar years in the small vessel world around Le Vieux port de&nbsp;Marseille and a few other major ports.</p> <p>They first appeared in the late 1800 and are thought to be of Italian original design but no set plans exist for them, instead, they are all slightly different and&nbsp;unique ( really, no two are the same) in any respect. Built from a multitude of woods, they have an undeniable rough and rustic&nbsp;elegance.</p> <p>Originally&nbsp;powered by Sail or by Oar, 1921 was the year they first starting building them with engins.</p> <p>After talking to&nbsp;knowledgeable people on the subject I have concluded that <em>L&#39;Amiti&eacute;</em> was not designed as a Sail boat and although I could convert her to one ( check them out online, they have a Latine Sail and look beautiful), I have decided to keep her as a motor powered vessel.&nbsp;</p> <p>These boats are sadly disappearing fast as&nbsp;owners retire and can&#39;t find a buyer, as the average boat user wants speed and low to no maintenance.Without minimum attention and&nbsp;kept out of the water, the boats quickly deteriorate.</p> <p>And yes, they don&#39;t go fast ( but 6 knots for roughly 2 metric tonnes of hard wood is good in my book) and yes, they do require more than just a hose down at the end of day.</p> <p>But they can be&nbsp;repaired over and over again if something happens ( insert lengthy conversation about the&nbsp;Ship of&nbsp;Thesus&nbsp;here) are endlessly forgiving and were initially so well&nbsp;designed that with basic upkeep, they&#39;re still around a century later ( I have yet to see a&nbsp;good looking 100 year old fibreglass&nbsp;boat).</p> <p>To me they&#39;re beautiful, and with your help, I want to see her back&nbsp;in&nbsp;her element looking splendid, hopefully for another century&nbsp;(and to use her as often as I can).</p> <p>Thank you, even if all you do is read this page and talk to some friends about it, that will be a great help.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>PS: Stop by and say hello if you are every in her home port of Carry le Rouet.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Allocation of funds

<p>I have personally invested everything that I can and always worked to the most cost effective solution&nbsp;so far in this project along with countless hours of good old fashioned elbow grease and toil. Not forgetting&nbsp;the help of&nbsp;good friends and close family.</p> <p>The reason I am asking for financial help at this stage is that&nbsp;the work that I need to undertake cannot be done piecemeal, it&nbsp;needs to be done while she is in a dry dock and&nbsp;in one go so as&nbsp;to keep the&nbsp;wood from drying out too much and&nbsp;minimise cost.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>These funds are for the many basics things that L&#39;Amiti&eacute; needs in order to stay afloat safely.&nbsp;</p> <p>The main part of the budget will go towards acquiring, shaping and refiting a new section of timber ( and pizza&nbsp;for Charles who along with his vast wealth of knowledge and wooden shipbuilding expertise&nbsp;is kindly accepting to help restore/build theses&nbsp;technical parts in exchange of food, lodging and beer and also a Cigar for Roc, who is helping me source the timber and letting me use a few key tools such as a band saw and planner).</p> <p>The other big expense is the special paint she needs, I&#39;m not sure when the last time was that she was properly repainted ( can see at least 3 different successive colour schemes in parts) and so the plan is to strip her back down to the wood, make sure everything is sound&nbsp;and give her a proper paint job ( 2 undercoats of primer,&nbsp;and several&nbsp;topcoats of good quality marine paint plus the&nbsp;Antifouling).</p> <p>The third&nbsp;expense is the tools necessary to get the jobs done. Thankfully I have some of the basics, but a decent orbital sander and hand planner will have to be purchased to even consider&nbsp;getting the paint job done properly</p> <p>Lastly, the remaining funds will go to smaller essential motor maintenance ( New water pump wheel, new filters, new oil, new alternator belt, new anodes and a new bilge pump).</p> <p>Obviously, there are plenty of other things that I would love to get repaired, changed or improved and so any extra donations will&nbsp;be greatly appreciated and go towards such items as a new Battery, new silent blocs,&nbsp;respraying the engine for protection against corrosion,&nbsp;acoustic foam to reduce the noise from the diesel engine, new fender ( current ones are quite ropey) etc.</p> <p>I&#39;m happy to answer any questions and will try my best to document the project and create a Facebook or webpage to put all the pictures/video&#39;s up once the project is complete.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Thank you once again for all and any contribution, every little helps.</p>

Rewards

A Big Thank You

€20

  • 5 contributions
A big thank you for your contribution. Please stop by anytime and say hi, and If I can, I'll take you out on the boat.

A Bigger thank you

€60

  • 3 contributions
Plus a hand written thank you card featuring the Silouhette/Outline of the boat ( designed by local Carry le Rouet Artist Coyote Quinn ), her name and 1921-2021. (PS: will send to anywhere in the world)

Estimated delivery: September 2021

Welcome Aboard Able Seaman

€100

  • 3 contributions
A big thank you as well as a Couple of hours for you and a Friend on board L'Amitié. ( depending on weather, sea conditions and common sense).

Welcome aboard Deck Cadet

€200

A big Thank you, a whole morning or afternoon for you and 2 people of your choice, light snacks and a bottle of chilled wine to enjoy with the light snacks on board L'Amitié. ( depending on weather, sea conditions and common sense).

Welcome Aboard Chief Mate

€400

So, you've gone large and I owe you a solid thank you for that. In return, you and 3 friends can choose from either a day cruise ( roughly 10:30 to 4:00pm ) that includes some serious lunch time bites, some wine and some excellent swimming/snorkelling opportunities. The other otpion is an afternoon/evening cruise ( from 4:30 to 9pm) with a yummy and sizeable "Apero" wine and I'll throw in a Sunset for good measure. ( depending on weather, sea conditions, common sense and between end of May to early September).

Hello Captain

€500

    You get to be Captain for the day. You and 4 friends will have a large choice of options, of which a few are listed below, but in short, the boat is at your disposal with food and wine ( and me) for the day (9am to Sunset). Will be happy to take Children, but recommend doing 2 half days in that case. Some Options: -Going round le Frioul and Chateau D'IF, -Exploring a few of the Calanques -Ditching two friends and converting the whole day into a half day with a set menu lunch and wine at the Chateau of Sormiou, arriving and departing by Boat. -Still ditching two friends and converting the whole day into an afternoon snorkel and then a Romantic Champagne and Seafood Sunset extravaganza. -I think you get the idea, things are possible when you're the Captain for the day ;-) ( depending on weather, sea conditions, common sense and between end of May to early September).

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