Sweet Chocolate - sailing in France - yes Chocolate Boat at Concarneau

For those of us born or brought up on the coasts of Marina – there are many pastimes. Most of the time was spent near the sands of Bay of Bengal, playing cricket on the inner roads. When we were adults the sea shore attracted – sitting in a group in evenings and early nights, talking of many things under the moon bonded many relations. The tranquility of the sky, pleasantness of the moon and stars and the voices of ocean was a unique combination which cast spells on minds.


The sky would be roaring with waves jumping settling white foam on the sands – new comers to be beach would go near the sea, back out when wave would rise and rush towards the shore. In between for a community it was life at sea – unmindful of the little distraction, the men folk would venture into the sea, and return with catches for their livelihood.

                                                                     catamaran

There would lie reclined some pieces of logs muddled together - a contraption called kattumaram – the tamil word has entered English dictionaries as ‘catamaran’ – a primitive type of boat if it could be called so – basically three or four wooden logs strung together. Though an outboard Yamaha motor could be attached to this, mostly these would be moved by oars – human power. Obviously they would not venture too long in to the sea and would return in a few hours where as trawlers would go on fishing for days together. Another one that captured our imagination and minds were sail ships – large boats driven by wind power which had masts and sails. Our images of ships were formed much later.

                                                     a wooden boat being constructed

Boats are watercrafts designed to float in water. Scientifically, an object would float when its average density is light compared to water’s average density. In a water pool, one would get drowned if he wraps his arms around legs and curl like a ball, whereas when one stretches body flat, one tends to float. Though the weight would not change, the area spread changes…. Even in school days, the scientific principle of buoyancy was not all that easily understood (for that matter subject of Science & you could add Maths, History, Geography as well !)

                                                                     speed  boat

                                                                      sail   boat

There are many types of boats such as Banana boat, Barges, Tugs, Canoe, catamaran, Coracle, Dhow, Dinghy, Ferry, Gondola, Jetboat, Kayak, Lifeboat, Motor boat, U boat, Raft, Lighter, Vallam, Schooner, Submarine, Whale boat to cite a few…….. some would be the names of boats in local parlance but to literally translate them would be dangerous for a Banana boat has nothing to do with fruit banana but is an unpowered recreational boat designed to be pulled by a large boat. But any amount of google search or asking those mariners would you get something called ‘chocolate boat’, which in fact is a reality.

                                                                     the cocoa bean

The word chocholate which enamours children and elders is of Spanish origin. Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Its beans after fermentation are dried, cleaned, roasted, shell removed to produce cacao nibs, which are then groun to cocoa mass – pure chocolate in rough form.

French chocolatier launched a 3.5m chocolate and sugar boat in front of a crowd of hundreds of onlookers in the port of Concarneau. It is reported that Georges Larnicol who owns a dozen shops across Western France, won a bet by successfully building a seaworthy boat entirely made up of chocolate. A very sweet sporting moment. It was a 3.5 meter vessel which successfully took to the water. It is also reported that there was a traditional ceremony of breaking champagne bottle of the bow at the time of launch. The boat seats two passengers and is both sail and motor driven. The boat weighing 1.2 tonnes was made in Lamicol’s workshop and ismade up of entirely chocolate except for the frame which is made of sugar. Whether one would like to sail or eat would be the question ?

Concarneau is a town in France, known for ship building and tourism. There is also a Chocolate river – the Petitcodiac river in Canada in south eastern New Brunswick is known so. The sedimentation in the 80 mile long river has prompted the residents to call it the ‘chocolate river’ due to the resultant brown tint.


Regards – Sampathkumar S