The elder residents of Cancale remember with nostalgia that time when, to build a ship, the owner went into the forest to choose the tree for the mast. For a long time, boats didn’t exist without wood, both outside and inside: hard oak for the keel, chestnut for the lighter craft, teak and mahogany for the bridges and the interiors of the most luxurious ships.

This noblest of materials was the sailor’s greatest conquest — reassuring and warm to look at, alive to the touch, with a beautiful smell. Anyone who really loves sailboats can’t resist the charm of an old sailing ship. With this boat, the relationship is constant and intimate. You must careen it and take care of it like a living friend; you can caress it. It’s tiring, blistering work, but at the same time it’s a pleasure. Less than 25 years ago, these old sailing ships seemed fated for extinction, condemned to decay, abandoned, in the depressing mud flats. Many fishing boats ended their lives in this lamentable way. The motor sounded the knell of working sailboats and polyester became the material of choice for boating. In Douarnenez, the 900 rowing boats dedicated to sardine fishing disappeared. Similar disasters occurred in other ports. No more sinagots, bisquines, lougres, piloting rowing boats, no more cotres or dundees. No more malamoks, solid oak trawlers from the Pont l’Abbé region named after a legendary bird. France’s maritime heritage was vanishing. But a handful of Bretons refused this Trafalgar.

Towards the end of the 1970s, they started to search the entire coast for interesting wrecks. They made drawings, pored through old documents, interviewed old seamen who had sailed these ships. The movement grew. In Douarnenez, the epicentre of this crusade, several associations devoted to preserving this history were founded. The Regional Federation for Maritime Culture, the Chasse-Marée, a unique magazine dedicated to maritime history and ethnology, and “Treizour,” precursor to the future Boat Museum of Port-Rhu.

The resurrection had begun. Working from wrecks or documents, boat builders recreated identical copies of several traditional sailboats, such as Le Renard de Surcouf, La Recouvrance, a 42-metre warship built in the early 19th century, and other less prestigious boats of equal historical significance. Following a European Union decision to reduce the number of fishing boats, fishermen transformed boats that would otherwise have been destroyed into recreational craft. Once again, old ships sailed the sea. The first celebration of these ships was held at Pors-Beach in the early 1980s, attracting 5,000 people. One and a half million people came to see the 2,500 boats on display at Brest 96. During this time, regattas and festivals were multiplying in the north and south of Brittany.

There were a thousand traditional sailboats for Douarnenez 98. These festivals of the sea attracted old friends and people who didn’t know each other but would become friends. In Camaret, Saint-Malo and Cancale, on the Ile aux Moines and elsewhere, sites are devoted to restoring or building traditional ships. Boat builders are always great professionals. If you find yourself drawn to one of these ships, don’t forget to embark with a lucky pipe: tobacco was thought to attract fish.