"Since childhood, Emmanuel Conrath shares with his brother Gilles, shipbuilder installed in Paimpol (see CM 190), the same love for wooden boats. His passion finally caught up with him, and he recently quit his job in IT to start building small boats. Echoing his change of career, he christened his first creation "Arwen" (evening star), name of the Elves king daughter who, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, gives up immortality for the love of a human being.

The first unit of the lapstrake tenders (2,30 x 1,25 m) was presented at the last Grand Pavois of La Rochelle, where it got purchased on the spot by a South African family travelling aboard a GRP catamaran. The second unit was purchased by a Lézardrieux owner of a 25 ft Colin Archer. "I don't know yet whether there is a market large enough to durably sustain my activity, stresses Emmanuel. I'll know more about that a year from now." The hull is made of epoxy-saturated plywood. The bottom is reinforced with a glass fiber stratification. Twin chine keels protect the hull. "And the lower stem is very soft to facilitate towing", says the builder. Arwen can be fitted with a daggerboard case and a 2,30 sqm Dacron lugger rig. Her weight is then 40 Kg."

Christian Delangue