“Le Chasse-Marée” pour les rosbifs

Surely I cannot be the only member of the DCA who has been seduced by the superb production standards of the Douarnenez-based magazine Le Chasse Marée? Virtually singlehandedly this magazine inspired the revival of interest in the traditional boats of the French coastline, and at the same time invented the concept of the big boat festival, with bands and booze and lots of lovely tan sails, which has now spread to these shores. But surely I am not also the only reader who eagerly awaits the next sumptuous issue of Le Chasse Marée with the resolve that I will sit down to it properly with a big French dictionary and painstakingly decipher its elegant, erudite prose — only to end up just looking at the wonderfully evocative pictures instead. What the Anglophone world cries out for is Le Chasse-Marée in English.

And now: Lo! It has come to pass. The first issue of Maritime Life and Traditions hit the bookstands just in time for the wonderful Douarnenez boat festival in August. Edited by Le Chasse-Marée’s Bernard Cadoret and also by our own Jenny Bennett (originally of Classic Boat, then founding editor of The Boatman and latterly of Wooden Boat fame), the first issue of the magazine owes much to its French progenitor — sharing articles and even text layout with the original — but how it overshadows its competitors! The articles are long, extremely well researched, elegantly laid out and superbly illustrated. So I no longer have any problems in thinking of a present for my nautically-minded friends, and a year’s subscription to the magazine will also be the most appropriate prize in our own DCA photo competition.

An annual subscription to Maritime Life and Traditions costs £20 (for 4 issues) and can be obtained from Maritime Subscription Services in Portishead, tel (01275) 842487 ext 221.