| |
|
|
Length: 13,27m
Width: 3,52m
Draught: 2,25m
GRT: 1900 ft3
Main sail: 74,25m2
Flying jib: 30,40m2
Jib: 26,25m2
Staysail: 18,90m2
Gaff topsail: 30m2
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
HISTORY
 In 1874, after many sollicitations, Jules Verne joins the prestigious «Yacht Club de France» as both a writer and a sailor. He, then, owns a simple decked longboat on which he has written Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and therefore looks for a worthy-of-his-nomination kind of boat, bigger, strong but rigged in a way that it would not be too manpower demanding. Moreover it has to be comfortable enough to board a few passengers and be used as a study. Following his friend Paul Bos' advice, Jules Verne gets more and more interested in cutters. He orders 'Le Saint-Michel II' at the Abel Lemarchand shipyard in Le Havre at the end of the year 1875 laying down that the boat should be ready by April, 15th 1876. The latter has two particularities for it is the only boat owned by Jules Verne for which he entirely supervised the plans; moreover it was built for leasure sailing but according to the plans of working boats: the famous cutters also named 'Hirondelles de la Manche' (English Channel Swallows). For 18 months, Jules Verne sails on board 'Le Saint-Michel II' with which he inaugurates his ocean navigations. From the very first time it was launched, 'le Saint-Michel II' and its equipments arouse laudatory comments: « the room is made of cypress and varnished mahogany woodwork. The lounge is notable thanks to its two sofas, as well as the bedroom where stand two elegant beds and a washbasin. The crew's quarters are also outstanding». Jules Verne is pleased for his boat turns out to be both fast and comfortable.
After a first sortie in Boulogne on May,24th Jules Verne then sails across The Channel and along the English coasts. It is on one of his ways back to Nantes that he passes the 35-meter-long steam-yacht that was about to become 'Le Saint-Michel III' and with which he would sail much further than he had until now. Therefore 'Le saint-Michel II' changes hands but keeps on sailing for pilotage in Saint-Nazaire for many years. It is struck off service in 1892 and is bought by a yachtsman from Saint-Malo who then sells it in 1901 to the Belle-Île prison, for which it is probably used as a shuttle between the continent and the island, before being destroyed in 1911.
|
|
|
