The
Cormoran
Company
Meeting Ronan Touly of ACCF, Kathy Mansfield learns there's more
to boatbuilding in a cold economic climate than one design,
one marketplace and one set of skills.
With photographs by the author
T
he saying goes: the pessimist complains about the
wind; the optimist expects it to change direction;
the realist adjusts the sails. I’ve just met a French
boatbuilder who has been adjusting his sails to good effect.
It may be true that entrepreneurs suffer from more regulatory
restrictions in France than the UK or the US but Ronan Touly
seems to be doing remarkably well despite them.
Ronan who owns ACCF – Atelier de Constructions
Composites de Finisterre – in Pont-l’Abbé in southwest Brittany
near Quimper, is like most of us these days, he is not expecting
an end to the stultifying economic downturn any time soon.
His core business of building high quality GRP sailing boats is
suffering as a consequence, so he’s altered his course for the
moment, diversifying into refitting and building workboats
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with his GRP expertise. He is concentrating on coastal fishing
boats but he has also won contracts from the French Navy in
Brest with 10 of his 25 staff working on minesweepers and
custom boats. He has extended his scope to lifeboats and
marine research vessels and he’s also doing more repair work
and winter storage.
And he’s looking to widen his geographical spread for his
leisure boats, showing his 14'9" (4.5m) Cormorans beyond
the French market into northern Europe, including this year's
Southampton Boat Show. He’s had naval architect Philippe
Gueroult, who had bought one of their Cormorans, design
two larger versions, the Grand Cormoran and the Grand
Cormoran Cabine – you guessed it, with a cabin for cruising.
ACCF is particularly known for the GRP version of the
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Cormoran, a design that I have admired on previous trips to
France for its classic good looks, its low topsides and its sailing
abilities even in light airs. I also like the looks of the 6-person
Grand Cormoran though I haven’t yet sailed her and approve
of the low, nicely proportioned slanted coachroof of the cabin
version, the Grand Cormoran Cabine, its generously wide
cockpit and its large sail area - 377 square feet (35m²) on a
19' (5.9m) hull. The large mainsail plus a strong, heavy boom
means the boat runs fast and safely without lifting and the
central mainsheet bar means the boat is easily singlehanded. It
has a stainless steel centreplate on a small keel including 660
lbs (300 kg) of lead ballast, two berths plus a kitchen box for
weekending and a well for an outboard. There’s also the jaunty
Loctudy, a local boat built for many years in wood, and a nice
12' (3.65m) Orcadian Skiff, with evident ability under oars and
a standing lug rig for sailing.
The GRP hull of the Cormoran reflects her tried and tested
workboat origins yet she is generously fitted out in wood to
modern yacht standards.
How it began
I asked Ronan how he got started in the business and noticed
that again, he had set himself goals. Having enjoyed family
holidays in Brittany and sailing with his grandfather, he sought
work which would allow him to live with his wife and four
daughters in this most congenial area. He has always worked
hard, moving from working with fish oils and their Omega
3 content to reorganising companies and teaching at the
University of Brest, working with composites and polymers.
In the 1990s, Ronan bought a wooden Olonnois sailing
dayboat which needed repair. A few years later, he bought the
boatyard which had done the work for him. An earlier visit to
the Paris Boat Show had convinced him that there was added
value in a boat with good quality construction, fitted out
nicely with wood, designed with well-honed sailing qualities.
He then set out to find the right boat.
His first boat, based on a fishing boat, turned out to be too
heavy and complicated but had the good result of attracting
other boats of better design. He was offered the GRP version of
the Loctudy, with 250 already built in wood. Designed in 1961
by François Sergent, the Lochtudy is a 19' (5.8m) with a small
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cabin and a gunter rig of about 215 square feet (20m²) sail
area. It’s a good family boat for sailing along the coast and on
lakes, for fishing and with two small berths for camping and
legs for standing upright when the tide goes out.
The Cormoran
And then in 1999 Ronan acquired the Cormoran, a design from
the Morlaix area of northern Brittany. In the early decades of
the 20th century, the fishermen of the Bay of Morlaix used
to race their small workboats on Sundays, honing their skills
for the summer racing season which they spent crewing on
expensive French sailing yachts. Their own boats no doubt
benefited from this expertise and in 1922 they were formed
into a class, with rules limiting the various dimensions. There
was racing between the war, and after the WWII, the naval
architect François Dervin designed a Cormoran for himself,
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CORMORAN SPECIFICATION
LOD: 14'9" (4.5m)
Beam: 6'3" (1.9m)
Draft – centreplate raised: 1'8" (0.5m)
centreplate lowered: 3'7" (1.1m)
Weight approx: 992 lbs (450 kg)
Sail area: 237 sq.ft (22m²)
retaining the classic looks of the boat. In the 1980s ,the first
GRP version was developed by Michel Moal based on Dervin’s
boat. ACCF has now built over 100 of this version.
The Cormoran, 14'9" (4.5m) on deck with a beam of 6'3"
(1.9m), carries 237 square feet (22m²). of sail. She is a very
different boat from the Loctudy, with half the weight – 992
lbs instead of 1874 lbs (450/850 kg) – and a ballasted steel
centreboard instead of a full keel. It is a more modern design
despite its classic looks and it is fast, moving easily in the
lightest of airs, as I was soon to notice. The generous mainsail
is slightly roached with four battens to retain its shape – with
the distinctive silhouette of a cormorant drying its wings.
The underbody is flatter, built for speed, the transom more a
classic wineglass shape. The topsides are elegantly low for a
reason: the fishermen often used their boats to load seaweed,
used in soap and pharmaceuticals. Harken racing gear comes
as standard, there is nice wood trim, varnished doors to
roomy lockers under the foredeck and plenty of buoyancy.
Teak coaming and deck are optional, as with the Loctudy. The
varnished Oregon pine spars of all these boats can be replaced
within 24 hours by ACCF, who have a stock of seasoned wood
ready for the purpose.
That is another attribute of ACCF: the workshop is fitted
out for working in GRP, wood and steel. There’s a large central
area with full size moulds and a curtained area for GRP
vacuum bagging using cleaner polyester resins, though epoxy
resins can also be used; Ronan’s university work on materials
allows him to stay on top of new developments. Another
area is dedicated to working with stainless steel and there
is also a wooden boatbuilding section including a sizeable
store of mahogany, teak and Oregon pine being seasoned.
Three of Ronan’s team are experienced traditional wooden
boatbuilders. All the ACCF boats can have a replacement
mast, yard or rudder delivered quickly because the wood, skills,
machines are ready and the men willing to prioritise. That’s a
useful service to offer.
is ready – though I suspect the cost of the hydrogen will be
greater than electricity. However it is most interesting and
gives a freedom from recharging and a chance to experiment
with this new form of power.
Another point of interest is that the mahogany deck and
bowsprit top will need no varnishing or other care, even in
sunny Mediterranean ports or on northern freshwater lakes.
The last layer of glass has been replaced by a mahogany
veneer impregnated with polyester resin, reducing the carbon
footprint of the boat by using less glass and giving extra
strength – as well as a very classy appearance. It’s a skilled
procedure but Ronan and his team have the skills and
equipment to do it. The K10 is an eye-catching boat, no doubt
about it and that’s perhaps needed these days to make a
customer dig into his pocket.
Just before the 2013 la Semaine du Golfe in the Morbihan,
the huge Brittany boat festival that takes place every other
year, I was lucky enough to sail the Cormoran in the Bay of
Loctudy, not far from the ACCF headquarters. It had been a
perfect sunny morning but the sea breeze had been squelched
by a thick layer of cloud and I was unable to experience the
stable seakeeping abilities of the Cormoran which I had seen
from a distance in a good wind. What I did see was an almost
uncanny ability to make headway in almost no wind at all. The
generous rig was a player in this, helped by the underwater
hull shape and the relatively light weight of the boat. The
tiller seemed responsive and the boat kept headway despite
the slight tide – I would have loved to have stayed longer in
this idyllic part of Brittany playing with this handsome boat.
Contacts
ACCF, Rocade de Pont-l’Abbé, BP92, 29120 Pont-l’Abbé,
France. Tel: +33 (0)2 98 87 12 79 www.accf.fr
Below: The Cormoran sports a generous 237 sq.ft of sail.
The shape of things to come
Ronan's latest boat is the K10, built with the Mediterranean
market in mind. Two designers well-known in the racing world,
Van Petegham and Lauriot Prevost, designed the hull, keel,
rudder and sailplan and for the aesthetics of deck and interior
design, Ronan used a new young designer, Jeremy Guenolé. I
was able to see the first hull, which will be exhibited for the
first time at the Paris and Dusseldorf Boat Shows.
Very modern in shape, the K10 incorporates a wide bowsprit
above a plumb bow, some tumblehome to the slim hull and
a wide, partly open transom with two steps for boarding
the boat after a swim. As well as the usual buoyancy, there
is storage underneath the decks and a well for the electric
engine, a stripped down Torqeedo without the housing
or the batteries. Further forward there is a small fuel cell
manufactured in Germany using low pressure hydrogen which
will last at normal speeds for 12 hours, perhaps a full season
for the sailor who only uses the engine to leave and return to a
berth. It's refillable with a canister of high pressure hydrogen.
A considerable amount of weight will be eliminated by not
having the usual heavy lead acid batteries and the technology
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