My camping dinghy "Avel Dro" is trailed 1600km across Europe, all the way from Brittany to Venice. There she joins the Vela Raid, an international group of dinghies and small yachts, for a cruise in company in the Venetian lagoon. After the Raid I am joined by a friend, and we continue to explore the Lagoon for a further week.

INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
Read my book, "The Dinghy Cruising Companion":
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DinghyCruis...
And join the Dinghy Cruising Association:
http://dinghycruising.org.uk/

MUSIC
Palermo Trabant 33
Footprints in the Sand Roots and Recognition featuring Melanie Bell
both from Epidemic Sound

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILMING
Mary Dooley
Ronan Coquil

THANKS
To Giorgio Pavan for his superb organisation of the Vela Raid

APOLOGIES
For my poor Italian and also for some relatively poor quality video at times. I was using a brand new GoPro Max, as my main GoPro ceased to work. I did not really know how to use the new GoPro, or how good its footage and sound would turn out to be. It was bought to take mast top footage, which I did experiment with briefly, but I was forced to use it as my main boatmounted camera instead.

AVEL DRO
Do you want a boat like mine?
Avel Dro is an Ilur designed by François Vivier, and built of clinker plywood by Les Charpentiers Reunis of Cancale in 1994, which I bought in France and then imported into the UK, and more recently returned to France again. The design is based closely on the traditional inshore fishing boats of Brittany in the early years of the twentieth century, hence her single boomless lugsail rig and lack of a mainsheet horse, (sometimes controversial among my viewers). Although rare in Britain, Ilurs are relatively common in France. The name Avel Dro is Breton, and basically means a whirlwind.
Length 4.44 m
Sail area 12.2 m²
Beam 1.70 m
Draught 0.25 / 0.86 m
Design category C3
François Vivier's website (in English):
http://www.vivierboats.com/en/
Similar dinghies can often be found for sale on the website of the French magazine Le ChasseMarée:
https://www.chassemaree.com/revue/
Or try Le Bon Coin, (where you can buy anything in France):
https://www.leboncoin.fr

Note on postBrexit trade rules. Since January 2021, Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) residents who buy a boat in France or elsewhere in the EU, with the intention of importing it into the UK, should pay VAT and other duties on the import.