A hull, partitions, three berths, a chart table… And lots of bamboo. This is the particularity of the SoBoo 650 sailboat built by François and Marine Rouvrais, a brother and sister from Ploemeur. A “more durable material, with a low ecological impact”. This idea came to them in 2022. Today, the design has progressed well. “The structural part is finished. The hull and bulkheads are in place. It took us about four months,” explains François.
Two tons of bamboo
With their father, they work hard in a Vannes hangar, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For many months, that’s all they’ve been talking about. The 25-year-old young woman left her position as naval architect at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). They will now tackle painting, fittings, masting, laying the keel… Then will come the finishing phase: “A little electronics, portholes, navigation tools…”, lists François, 26 years old.
To reduce their budget, by around €80,000, they used second-hand parts, particularly for the keel, mast and boom. “We arrive at €30,000. We collected €3,800 thanks to crowdfunding on the internet. We also received support from our former establishment, the National School of Advanced Techniques (ENSTA) Bretagne,” says the duo.
The bamboo comes straight from China, in the form of plywood panels. Two tons in total. “One day, ideally, we will be able to find it in the short circuit but for the moment, it is not processed in France.”
“Leap into the unknown”
The siblings talk about a real “leap into the unknown”. “At school, we did a lot of theory and less practice. This project taught us a lot of things, especially on the logistical side,” they say. Upstream, Marine developed instructions for three months, to allow faster construction. “Once you have the drill and screwdriver in hand, you can’t make any mistakes,” she smiles. This will be a lesson for future designs.”
Will other sailboats see the light of day? “For the moment, we do not have the objective of undertaking. Once the boat is reliable, we will tour the boat shows. Depending on the popularity, we will do market research. It’s also a project that would be interesting for the Region.” The launch of SoBoo 650 is scheduled for September 2025. But Marine and François give themselves time: “We don’t put pressure on ourselves”.
Practical
Related News :