I could hardly visit one of France's major rivers without looking out for the traditional working river boats, which in this part of the Loire is a flat bottom punt which would make fellow blogger Doryman proud.
Many of the working boats are of steel construction, which is no bad thing though perhaps a little unfamiliar to us Brits.
Even more dory like is this traditional sailing boat below.
On top of the very strong current, these whirlpools would spontaneously appear in different parts of the river, at first we thought there was a sand bank or underwater obstruction but there was no consistency to their location.
Flat bottom dory or as they would probably be described in the US garvey types are clearly well suited to the shallow and fast flowing waters. I especially liked this example which would make a great weekend house, able to run up the low sand banks and beaches or small tributaries.
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I am reading a book by Harlan Hubbard called 'Shanty Boat' about 7 years drifting on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the 1940s - your last photograph is of the very same type.
ReplyDeleteThe American yacht designer William Atkin designed one of these called 'Slowpoke' which I thought was an appropriate name - As you have commented this type would make a great holiday boat - surrounded of course by a liberal brace of rowboats and sailing dinghies!!
Oh, how I do enjoy a good run down a swollen river!
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