Nautitech 40

I have arranged to meet Sébastien, the Nautitech’s skipper, at 6 o’clock on this freezing March morning in La Rochelle’s Bassin des Chalutiers. The boat’s deck is covered with frost and very slippery, and the stars are still twinkling in the night sky, confirming the forecast of an easterly wind for our planned circumnavigation of the Ile de Ré. The footbridge swings up to let us pass, and once through the lock gates and lifting road bridge, we moor the boat on a pontoon in the town centre for just long enough to have a coffee and take some photos. The boats’s silhouette is attractive and very…