Visits to Britanny - Petite Cornouaille - Festivals and fishing.

Making the Breton connection, the ex-fishing boat Solveig was one of the few classic working boats to visit Newlyn in the late 1970s........

eventually, interest in such vessels provoked the organisation known as Chasse Marée to hold a working boat festival in 1988 after the success of a very small fête a few years previously, the '88 event was such a huge success - as much to the organisers surprise, well over the 500 invited boats turned up - from all over the world - some as deck cargo on merchant ships - and the number of musicians topped 1,000.........

many Cornish boats made the journey including the classic yacht, Providence owned for many years by the Minns family of Restronguet and built by Pascoe's in Porthleven for the designer Nigel Warrington-Smythe in 1934.........

she was just one of many boats that enjoyed an event which drew a quarter of a million visitors over three days at the end of that July.........

including the top Douarnenez fishing boat Le Royale that used to target monk, megrim and hake on the Great and Little Sole banks - renowned for her willingness to stick out any weather the boat was never seen in Newlyn until she changed hands in the early 1990s........

looking back across a crowded harbour - and not a safety barrier in sight - and, amazingly enough, no one fell in........

everywhere you looked there were masts - the event spawned the hugely successful boat festivals that now take place every two and four years in Douarnenez and Brest - next year will be the 20th anniversary........

also visiting Brittany on occasion was the Newlyn netter, Keriolet seen here making her way in to Guilvenec for a major engine overhaul in 1992........

crewman Billy Bunn asked one of the local boats for a feed of fish as the engine job was going to keep the boat there for well over a week.......

in which time some of the boat's Breton friends paid social visits, like Bruno the engineer from the Kas Dei........

alternativley, the Keriolet's skipper and crew ventured north to St Geunole to visit old friend Jean-Claude who treated the boys to an evening meal in the Crepsicule Restaurant........

where it seems much gwin ru flowed, judging by the ruby cheeks on skipper Traz and Mr Bunn........

yet another sojourn, this time to see good friend and skipper, Christian and his wife Sylvie along with Annie Le Palud (left) of Le Doris Bar in Kerity - Annie's brother was lost along with the rest of the crew when their boat capsized in mysterious circumstances while fishing for langoustine on the Smalls - a submarine was suspected to have dragged her under - shades of the Buagled Breizh many years later. The Keriolet was fishing in the area at the same time.