YACHTING, the ultimate popular sport

Anyone with even the slightest "nautical" eye who travels abroad, to England, America, Holland, Germany before the war, and perhaps even today, to the Scandinavian countries even more so, is struck by this observation, which is a bit painful to our self-esteem, of the enormous development of yachting compared to its modesty at home.

It must be admitted that we possess the bare minimum of yachting that a large country like ours, which has become sporty, and where the conditions for pleasure boating are so favorable in many respects, can muster.
This inferiority is due to various causes: First of all, and despite some undeniable progress, partly due to the work of the Maritime and Colonial League, the contemporary French have a certain aversion to water sports; Many people consider navigation to be a dangerous practice: a perfectly absurd prejudice, given that, while some inevitable accidents do occur from time to time, through carelessness, it is infinitely less dangerous to engage in navigation in any form whatsoever than to travel from Paris to Marseille by train, when the inattention of a humble signalman can turn the nearest express train into a Russian salad; to ride a bicycle on roads crisscrossed by speeding cars at every turn; to speed off in a car at 80 kilometers per hour; or even to ride a horse, given over to the whims and fears of "man's greatest conquest."

A typical example in this regard: last year, the Maritime League received several hundred boys at its camp in Bouafles.
This year, more than sixteen hundred passed through the various camps in Bouafles, Barcaggio, and Arcachon; not a single accident, not even an incident. And, fortunately, considering the number of people involved, not a single illness was recorded during this season, which, for Bouafles, extended from the beginning of July to the end of September.
And then there is also this sort of incredible disinterest of the modern French, descendants of the great sailors of yesteryear, for boats, the sea, or even fresh water.
Finally, one of the culprits, in the order of ideas that concerns us here, is this incredible prejudice that yachting is exclusively the sport of millionaires.
Nothing could be more false or more absurd! Let's open the Larousse dictionary, the good and tutelary Larousse, guidebook of the most educated people, and at the word "Yacht" you will read this very amusing and no less accurate definition: "Yachting is the means of locomotion on water for individuals." Which, with a bit of exaggeration, means that anyone who travels on the water in their own boat, even if it's only the most modest boat, is yachting without knowing it: just as Mr. Jourdain wrote prose.
Without going that far, and despite current boatbuilding prices, which have unfortunately and naturally followed those of the rest of the industry in recent years, anyone can, for a few thousand francs, own a boat with a habitable living space. The example of families, parents, and children cruising on modest sailing or motorboats, lodging and living there, not without relative comfort, is common enough to make it worth emphasizing this point.
Let us add that, if we consider what these proponents of pleasure boating would pay in hotel bills at current prices for a trip of the same duration and infinitely less pleasant, we will see that the costs of a boat are quickly amortized.

Yachting can also be conceived in an even more modest way: in the form of canoes and small sailboats, the tiny self-drive canoe, with camping as an adjunct, which is truly one of the most charming forms of tourism.
Then there are even large yachts that are accessible to average budgets. The English and Americans, in particular, commonly practice it in the form of associations: A group contributes to rent a yacht of varying size: a yawl, a ketch, or a schooner; and the participants constitute the crew. If there is no one among them capable of steering the vessel, they "charter" a captain and, depending on the size of the vessel, one or two men for major projects. I, for one, have often seen examples of such organizations in our ports along the Channel and the Ocean; And, as I questioned these yachting colleagues, I was struck by the modest price they paid for practicing this noble sport in a luxurious form.

Finally, there is another form of access to yachting: the possession by a club of a certain number of one-design boats, made available to its members under certain conditions.

To be fair, it must be said that certain French circles have long understood and practiced yachting, accessible to all: the Chatou Nautical Club, one of our most active and best-run societies, has, among others, set an example in this form that cannot be praised enough. The Société des Petites Régates du Havre and certain nautical groups in Marseille are also worthy of mention in this regard. These examples prove, thanks to experience already applied by some, that when we want something here, in whatever field, we do as well as abroad. However, this requires willpower...
Let us hope that the LMC's propaganda will make an effective contribution to a goal so necessary for the greater good and development of our recreational marine; even in Navy circles where yachting is so strangely and regrettably neglected. Let us hope this all the more, even for the sake of the many industries that live off recreational boating, given that many maritime vocations were born from the practice of small yachting, and most of the great yachtsmen started out in the nutshell.

Maurice RONDET-SAINT.