Text from François Chevalier
The first sailing regatta takes place off Marseille on 3 September 1846. The participants are divided into groups that correspond to their boat types. And these in turn are determined by their intended use. For example, the crews of the large sailing and steam ships compete in their dinghies, the fishermen and pilots in their typical professional vessels and finally all the sports sailors in their own group.
Boats for pleasure, with or without sails, can already be found on old engravings and drawings in the bay. From princes to the common people, the charm of the surrounding coasts, islands, beaches and rocky coves was enjoyed in the past.
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There are two rowing boat categories at the regattas on 29 October 1861, and M. Brun, owner of the "Figaro", wins the first sailing series. The "Lumini" wins in the second, the "Ondine" in the third. Prize money of 3,400 francs is distributed at the regattas, donated by the city, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Cercle des Phocéens foundation. A drawing by Pierre Blanchet, reproduced in "Le Monde illustré", shows the start of the race in the harbour, with the jury on the left bank of the river and the Joliette lighthouse opposite. The gaff rigging is superior to the lateen rigging right from the start.
Evolution in European sailing
Between these two regattas, one event revolutionised European sailing: the import of American catboats, both to mainland Europe and to England. The "Margot" catboat has been modelled on the American "Ingersoll" since 1847 and has won one competition after another.
In 1852, the Duke of Vicenza, Armand de Caulaincourt, who loved sailing around the islands of Hyères, ordered a centreboard boat from the boatbuilder Baillet, whose shipyard in Asnières was always at the cutting edge of development and who in the same year designed the clipper "Espadon", later better known as "La Capricieuse".
In 1854, Lucien More finally brought Charles Mower's centreboard boat "New York" to Le Havre. This attracted a great deal of media attention and soon became the model for new boats, giving the regatta boats on the Seine their elegance. From 1857, thanks to the PLM railway company, the Saint-Charles station was connected to Paris in just 72 hours, whereas it had previously taken ten days to exchange information between the two cities. The following year, a book by Alphonse Karr, "Le Canotage en France", was published, largely devoted to the development of sailing on the Seine.
The transmission of information in the sailing world has always worked, and while American and Parisian boats were not really suited to the Mediterranean, the people of Marseille soon knew how to best adapt the shape of the boats from overseas to their environment, with a stable bow and a long and fine keel, so that the draught did not cause problems.
Standardisation of the regatta criteria
As with every evolution, the rules and categorisation criteria influence the characteristics of the sailing boats taking part in regattas. In 1862, the Cercle Nautique de Marseille and the Société des Régates Marseillaises adopted the same rules for measuring length, namely the waterline, measured from the stem to the stern.
Three series are defined, from 7.50 to 12 metres, more than 6 metres and less than 6 metres. The most important sailing boats are categorised as yachts and run according to the English regatta construction classes. An illustration in "Le Monde illustré" of 17 September 1864 shows the influence of this new set of rules on the first series. Some bows are high and point inwards, the shapes at the front are wide at the top and fine under water, at the back they are rounded, wide and flat. Most of the hulls are already very flat and the very deep keels favour sailing downwind, which is particularly important on this course.
At the time, local shipbuilders fitted their boats with lateen sails. With the mostly symmetrical hulls, a single camber is sufficient to determine the shape of the frames, with flat keels so that the boats can be pulled ashore. When building these new types of Houari boats, they have to completely rethink their approach. In fact, it is hard to imagine a greater asymmetry between the front and rear of the boat than in their case.
Deep moulds and heavy keels
Alphonse-Cyprien Fabre, one of the founding members and also one of the great pillars of the Societé des Régates, explains everything about this period in his work "Aureto e Aurasso. Les beaux jours de la navigation de plaisance à Marseille" (1932). In 1861, he ordered the "Lumini", a V-shaped houari, from the boat builder C. Charron in Bordeaux. He was a passionate advocate of deep shapes and heavy keels. It turned out that he was right as long as the wind was blowing, as it did during the regatta on 29 October 1861, but as soon as it died down, the sailing boats set off without ballast or with just a few sandbags for the first few tacks, leaving the heavy "Lumini" behind.
The idea was well received, and the following year Charron delivered two new boats to Marseille, including the "Courlis" for Valentin Bon. The "Courlis" has no superstructure, is very wide, light and has even more sail area. She has a 300-kilogram keel and 800 kilos of internal ballast and is a tough competitor to beat.
As you can see, the sailors did not hesitate to seek external help. In 1862, the Philippe shipyard in Paris received an order from an important boat owner in Marseille to build a sister ship to the "Petrel", a 6.50 metre long centreboard boat based on the American model.
During the first series, held in Marseille in 1862, the "Zéphyr" was one of the best boats. The "Étincelle", built by A. Coste in La Ciotat, the builder of the "Papillon", is one of the regular winners of the third series; the "Phare", with a length of 10.50 metres in the waterline, wins 37 times and earns its owner, M. Ollive, over 25,000 francs.
In 1869, Margal finally constructed the "Jean-Baptiste". She measures 13 metres above deck, but is 29 metres long overall. The Baron, Delay and Audibert shipyards share the remaining houaris of Marseille.
Houari on course for expansion
At the beginning of the 1870s, the Houaris were expanding and there were now around a hundred of them. The rigging had become more sophisticated and it was not uncommon to see a balestron rig, which increased the sail area even further. Some are up to 25 metres long and carry 100 square metres more than the Parisian clippers of the same length. On a triangular course, the best of them average almost nine knots, but over the years, more or less the same boats always win the prizes.
In the "Gazette du Midi", to which the aforementioned author Alphonse Cyprien-Fabre also refers, the regattas organised by the Yacht Club de la Méditerranée in May 1874 are described in detail. Nicolas Bérenger's "Alcyon", built by Audibert in Marseille in 1872, took part in the second class. The boat wins the circuit in record time in all categories: one hour and 23 minutes. The reward is 250 francs and a silver medal from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs. The following year and the year after, now owned by M. Chabert, the "Alcyon" is once again in the lead.
A newspaper article from 12 June 1878 describes how the "Alcyon", now once again owned by Nicolas Bérenger, repeated the feat and won the prize of 600 francs, with the journalist also singing the praises of the organisation by the Societé des Régates Marseillaises, which had "distributed exquisite refreshments to the audience".
The author takes stock of the successes achieved by the "Alcyon" between 1878 and 1880, namely a first prize in 1878, four victories in 1879, earning 4,250 francs in prize money, as well as two first prizes and a second place in Nice, Cannes and Marseilles for 2,250 francs - a total of 7,100 francs in three years.
Loss of competitiveness
The year 1883 was then characterised by the arrival of the American schooner "Dauntless". The "Alcyon" still does well at the regattas in Nice at the end of March, with a second place in the Prix de la Baie des Anges and a first prize on 4 April.
Little by little, the Société de Régates Marseillaises is isolating other clubs, and the new rules, which take width and displacement into account, continue to favour local boats over the new classes defined by the Yacht Club de France. The area around the Houaris is slowly becoming empty. "Jean-Baptiste", "La Capricieuse" and "Ville de Marseille" share the first places in the first category. "Phare", "Alcyon" and "Bonita" regularly take turns at the top of their class.
In 1883, the clubs of Nice, Cannes, Cette and Marseille founded the Union des Sociétés Nautique de la Méditerranée, the predecessor organisation of the Comité International de la Méditerranée (CIM), and agreed on uniform rules for their regattas. In 1886, the "Journal de Cannes" reports on the regattas in Marseille; in the third series, the "Alcyon", now owned by Émilien Rocca, finishes in third place.
When the owners of the Houaris joined forces on 12 February 1887 to form the Société Nautique de Marseille, they experienced a renaissance. The "Alcyon" won its first regatta, bringing in over 40,000 francs in prize money at the time. The often well-built houaris remained around Marseille for a long time, but the new rules of 1892, which now also included the sail area, ensured that they were no longer competitive.
Reconstruction of the Houary "Alcyon"
In 2010, Édith and Marc Frilet contacted me through Gilles Martin-Raget, who is responsible for the magnificent photos in this book. The reason was their desire to bring the "Alcyon" back to life, the Houari of Émilien Rocca, Édith's great-grandfather.
It was a pleasant meeting on a terrace on the Place de la Contrescarpe in Paris. However, my request for a reconstruction that was as identical as possible was not compatible with the planned construction process at Daniel Scotto's shipyard, so I declined their offer.
The two of them finally turned to my friend Gilles Vaton, a distant cousin of Édith. It was a first for Gilles, as he was more used to designing the hulls of modern maxi yachts, which are all built in his signature style, which is why you could even say that the first Wally hulls were inspired by him. He was inspired by an old photograph of a beached Houari whose keel was not straight, as on all known models, but formed a kind of skeg at the back.
This shape must have been unusual, as it is not mentioned anywhere in the descriptions of this type of sailing boat. All surviving models, as well as the designs published in the magazines of the time, are characterised by a long keel with a more or less pronounced angle, depending on the size and date of construction of these very characteristic boats.
Watercolours serve as models for the reconstruction
Gilles, who had little experience with classic sailing boats, tried to recreate a shape that only matched a few surviving images. The production archives of the Audibert shipyard, where the "Alcyon" was built, were not consulted. He used watercolours by Louis Roux from the regatta of 13 May 1883 and photos from the family album showing the Roccas having a picnic by boat in the Calanques as references. The perspective representation on the computer made it possible to get as close as possible to the pictures.
When I traced the shapes of the "Alcyon" to illustrate an article, I nevertheless recognised Gilles' style of handling the lines quite clearly. In my humble opinion, the shapes above the waterline should have been a little less full, which would have made the bow more slender.
As elongated as the waterline is, the deck is still very wide at the front. If you look at the profile of the sailboat and the design of the connection between the hull and deck and compare these characteristics with those of the classic boats, it seems as if the freeboard in the centre and at the stern used to be even lower. This could be due to the age of the boat, which has been affected by seawater over time.
All in all, with this unique keel shape and the canoe-like forms, the "Alcyon" is quite original. Attempting a reconstruction without existing blueprints never succeeds perfectly, and the "Alcyon" remains a success considering the scale of the challenge and the few surviving plans.
These houaris were designed by too many different manufacturers and designers to be able to recognise the exact shape of any one of them. And as for the success of Édith and Marc, you only have to look at the beauty of the photos, because they speak for themselves.
Illustrated book "Traumyachten"
With over 350 impressive photographs by Gilles Martin-Raget and texts by François Chevalier, this newly published illustrated book provides detailed insights into the world of 18 of the Mediterranean's most prominent classics. Delius Klasing, 59,90 Euro.
