From Launch to Departure: Commissioning Petit Loir

Launching a boat and having a boat ready to cross the North Sea are two different milestones. I spent most of May in Tréguier closing the gap between them.

Laila and our two children, then one and four years old, were there with me. Much of each day belonged to the children; the evenings were largely reserved for preparing Petit Loir. It was an intense but rather cosy arrangement: family life in Tréguier combined with the steady work of learning, testing and checking a new boat.

New boats inevitably have faults. The important thing is to find them while the builder is nearby, rather than somewhere in the middle of the North Sea.

Boréal had scheduled three days for the formal handover. One was devoted to a test sail, another to the electrical systems, and the third to the onboard electronics. It was a large amount of information to absorb, but it provided the foundation I needed to start testing the boat independently.

Afterwards, I took Petit Loir out several times. These trips were less about going anywhere than about checking the deck hardware, becoming familiar with the controls and developing a feel for how she handled. A few problems emerged, as expected, but the Boréal team dealt with them swiftly.

Remaining in Tréguier made the process considerably easier. The boat was moored in sheltered surroundings, and the Boréal team was working on another boat directly alongside us. Whenever a technical question arose, knowledgeable help was close at hand.

Our parents also came to visit—both mine and Laila's—and helped with the children. Their support gave me more time aboard while also turning the commissioning period into something more than a month of technical work. The children explored the cockpit, we walked through Tréguier, and Petit Loir gradually began to feel less like a newly delivered machine and more like part of our family life.

By the end of May, I no longer had to think consciously about every switch, line and manoeuvre. There was still much to learn, but the boat and I were beginning to understand one another.

The planned departure date, 1 June, was approaching. The checks had been made, the faults we had found had been corrected, and Petit Loir was nearly ready to leave the safety of Tréguier.

Now I only had to wait for my crew.