CNES supports environment expedition
29 July 2009
The French ecology ministry has tasked the schooner La Boudeuse, skippered by Patrice Franceschi, with a special environmental mission, supported by CNES. The expedition launches in August.
200 handmade pulleys
La Boudeuse sets sail in August. Credits: La Boudeuse.
“La Boudeuse is 48 m in length, has 13 sails and uses 6 km of rope and 200 pulleys—each one made by hand,” explains Amaury Bironneau, onboard administrator on the last three-mast explorer in the world.
The captain of the French vessel, Patrice Franceschi, has been mandated by the French ecology/environment ministry* to undertake a second mission to meet people groups around the globe. La Boudeuse is now being readied to take to the sea.
“We recovered the schooner in Sweden in 2003,” continues Amaury Bironneau. “It was then used to circumnavigate the world’s oceans until 2006, under the patronage of UNESCO. This mission was the subject of various documentaries as well as books and travel logs.”
La Boudeuse arrived in Paris in 2007 and for the last year and a half has been berthed at Quai François Mauriac, where visitors can look round the ancient vessel and admire its impressive rigging.
ABCsat telecommunication kit
Amaury Bironneau (right) with a Bajau fisherman in the Komodo Strait, Indonesia. Credits: La Boudeuse.
Then came the good news.
La Boudeuse will set sail in August, heading south toward
But first, the ship had to be dismasted and taken down the
Dismasting a vessel like La Boudeuse is tricky, because some of the parts are very old,” explains Amaury Bironneau. “You have to take it apart piece by piece, then put it back together at the other end in exactly the same way.”
Dismasting of La Boudeuse, Quai François Mauriac, Paris, 28 May 2009. Credits: CNES.
The message from French ecology/environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo is simple.
This will connect La Boudeuse directly with the CCMM maritime medical consultation centre in Toulouse throughout the expedition. “We thus hope to contribute to improvements in satellite telecommunication systems and their applications in telemedicine,” concludes Amaury Bironneau.
*French ministry of ecology, energy, sustainable development and land planning
**Always be connected by satellite
