In page 17 of the Paimpol edition of 24 may 2007 : "The Conrath, two brothers made of the same wood"

« One is quiet and frames hulls since thirty years, the other is talkative and jumps into boatbuilding. Meeting the first, Gilles. »

« In Paimpol he is the only ship carpenter established in a shipyard. In 1999, after 15 years between Kérity and the former slaughterhouse at Kerpalud, he moved into a new wooden building on the quay Dayot. The nobility of his craft raises curiosity. But Gilles Conrath does not like to talk about himself. About his daily life, he complains about VAT, which at 19,6 % is weighing him down, while some competitors profit of a loophole to get exempted. « But here, my three employees are payed correctly. » Rather than making long speeches about his trade, he'd rather talk about boats. Those born from his hands, those he fixes. « I don't like the word fixing, it sounds like amateurism. Here, we restore. »

A calling to ship building

Against one of his shop's workbenches - wooden, of course - a few picture boards are propped, showing photos of hulls created or revived through his care. Like the Girl Joyce, a traditional cutter. « She had layed for 18 years on the strand. She was in bad shape. » Her skipper, sailor-artist Yvon Le-Corre, took off again with her around the world. There is also the Etoile Molène, today part of the St-Malo fleet of Bob Escoffier. The old tuna trawler came down the ramp at the Tertu yard in Rostellec, Finistère. That's precisely where Gilles Conrath, after an unfinished merchant shipping education and a short spell in coastal fishing, found his true calling of ship carpenter. Under the tutorship of d'Auguste Tertu, his spiritual father, « a phenomenon. »
This is when the 19 year old built his own boat, the Reder Noz (the night runner), a unique 25 foot leeboarder. For the hull, he recycled the wood from nearby wrecks. « At that time, I had no money, I had no real other choice. » This saturday, his faithful sea companion is laying in the shop. « I'va got a few things to do on her. She's young, she's got many nice years in front of her, smiles Gilles Conrath. It's a pity, I'd have loved to go out this week-end. It's windy. » This love of navigating is with him since his youngest age, when in the company of his brother Emmanuel, they used to ply the waters arounf the Bréhat archipellago, while on vacation at their grand-parents summer cottage.

« His reputation is well established »

Opposite his shop, Gilles Conrath has an annex, « the last traditionnal wooden shed of the harbour. » A tarp protect the Tarek, a traditionnal cedar hull with a niangon deck buiilt in 1991. Niangon, iroko, oak, pine… The yard will work with these woods. « There is no such thing as bad wood, there is only choosing the wrong wood for the wrong use. » A reference in his trade, Gilles's opinions are respected. « His reputation is well established », comments a sailor busy refinishing his mast. In today's mercantile civilisation, he must nevertheless « compose. We happen to lay teak decks on hulls made of something else than wood. »
There are still larger boatyards than Gilles's. Since a few weeks, the shipwright is reviving the Goyen, a former Douarnenez lugger eaten by long use, and which got recently adopted by an old ship's llover. With a steel rule, Gilles Conrath knocks on a rotten strake. « Here, it sound hollow, the wood has been attacked from within. » Just a bit further, he point to another board. « We fastened with bolts which we forged ourselves on size. Fastening is essential with wood ». A few more month's work and the Goyen's photo will certainly join one of the shop's picture boards. »

David Désille

Chantier Conrath

Quai Armand Dayot, 22500 Paimpol

02 96 22 09 27

Gilles's website: "Charpentiers Paimpolais"

In page 22 of the Paimpol edition of 25 may 2007 : "The informatician builds wooden boats"

« At 50, Emmanuel Conrath, the brother of Gilles, the shipwright, is switching career to build tenders out of marine plywood. »

« Emmanuel is Gilles Conrath's brother (read thursday'paper). Yougsters, the two lads used to build model ships to race them on public parks's ponds in the Paris area, where they grew up. Every summer, as soon as they reached the family summer home on the island of Bréhat, they were off to sea in all kinds of crafts. Their first real boat was the Berder, a plywood skiff with a lugger sail, and it's still in use today as Gilles'tender.
As years went by, their ways parted. Gilles's brought him to Paimpol as a shipwright. Emmanuel took off to further places : after a schooling in information technology, he went to work to the United States, then the Netherlands, and finally back to France. « At 49, I grew sick of it. As I came to an age when one must stand behind his decisions, I decided to do what I really wanted to do. »

Diversify with yawls

What he wanted to do was build boats. « I gave myself a few monts to trash it around, and I came to Gilles's boatyard in Paimpol from June to November last year. » With an idea in the back of his head, but his feet sunk in the ground. « You don't learn wood working in 5 minutes. » But in a few weeks, with his brother's assistance, he built « a first tender in epoxy-marine plywood, which I named Arwen, a lady from Tolkien's Lords of the Rings. » After sea trials, he made the necessary adjustments. « At the yard, one of Gilles's patrons saw the small boat and bought it on the spot. » A first sign that he was on the right track. « To make sure that there was indeed a market for the product I wanted to manufacture, I took my Arwen to a boatshow. I sold it there to South-Africans. » Comforted, Emmanuel Conrath decides then to launch his business.
Back to his hometown of Compiègne, he starts his company. «  I plan to build two Arwen per month. » With two versions available: rowing and sailing. He already has an order for one the boats which he reckons it is an « impulse purchase product. » But experience teaches caution. This is wht he doesn't put all his eggs in one basket. « After the fad for sea kayaking, leasure rowing in yals is becoming the big thing. I am going to try to diversify in single-user yawls. »
With a personal touch. « The problem with rowing in a yawl is that you're facing in the direction opposite to where you are going, that's against basic principlest. » He thinks about rigs to let the rower face forward, in the direction where he wants to go Just like him, nowadays endeavouring to stay on the right course. »

David Désille

Picture caption: "Emmanuel Conrath aboard his Arwen, a marine plywood dinghy which he thought up, built and now markets."

Have a look at the boats I am building