Logs & Articles
national shrimper week 2007
National Shrimper Week 2007 was held in Southern Brittany, but as a result of some interesting weather, our activities were confined to the Golfe de Morbihan. The French had been warned of our arrival: "Les Anglais envahissent le Golfe cette semaine", trumpeted the local newspaper (Ouest France). They described the area as ideally suiting the esprit des Shrimpers and wrote sympathetically of the convivialité engendered by such rassemblements de voilers traditionnels.
The original inspiration to go to the Morbihan had come from Freddy Glorie (Parnium IV - 302) who had volunteered to organise the week, not an easy thing to do if you live near far away Antwerp! However, his organisational skills were impeccable, and he was fortunate to have help from the locally based Shrimper & Crabber owners, primus inter pares being Charles & Pat Eve. They are based in Arradon, near Vannes, right on the Golfe, having lived in France for many years, and having owned both a Shrimper and a Crabber. Amongst his many talents, Charles plays the double bass in the Vannes Chamber Orchestra, and the storm-bound amongst us had the good fortune to attend one of his concerts in Vannes.
We weren't put off by the weather, and we all enjoyed the usual Shrimper camaraderie - in the words of Olivier Sachs (Sainte Brendan - 15): Quel dommage que nous n'ayons pas eu un vrai beau temps, heureusement que cela a été remplacé par des relations chaleureuses. We also had the chance of seeing most of the interesting places in the Golfe, especially the attractive old towns of Auray and Vannes, and the romantic Ile aux Moines. Incidentally, according to the newspaper, the cause of the high winds and heavy showers was the "le depression anglais " (the large low pressure area centred over southern Britain) - so it seems it was all our fault!
Happily, the Shrimpers managed to avoid the fate which overcame the French frigate Medusa in 1816. She ran aground and was wrecked, finishing up with some nasty goings-on (including cannabilism) - all immortalised in Gericault's huge canvas which was on show at Tate Britain recently.
We did rather better than that on croissant, galettes and fruits de mer, and most especially at a BBQ, brilliantly set up on a beach on the Ile aux Moines by the local Shrimper owners, including Francois Potier (Eole - 912) and Olivier Sachs (Sainte-Brendan - 15). Champagne and oysters were provided as an appetiser, after we got on with the task of incinerating our steaks and sausages in good old British style. Very many thanks to them.
At the end of the week, we had our usual farewell dinner and prize giving. The best deserved of all the presentations was to Freddy himself, a model Shrimper made in glass by John Killingley, based in Rock, (Blue Belle - 517). Sadly, John wasn't able to be with us because of illness, so the presentation was made by Alan Tomlins. We owe Freddy and his helpers a great debt of thanks, for his inspiration and hard work, and his leadership from the front - most especially sailing from Vannes to Crouesty on the Friday in a Force 6-7 and strong tides!
