Fleet I: highly seaworthy vessels

Fleet I: the “small classics” with living quarters
“With our highly seaworthy boats, we rack up the miles and have a great time!”

With 180 boats registered for 2025 (potentially 590 people on board), Fleet I is one of the largest fleets. And on top of that, there’s plenty of sailing!

Two events in particular are universally popular: the Tuesday party on Île d’Arz and the big parade on Saturday.  That doesn’t stop them, on other days, from “sailing through the Gulf, from north to south, venturing eastward—where no one else goes because you have to know the way—and westward, with the great pleasure of sailing up the Rivière d’Auray together!” explains Frédéric Beaujean, the dynamic captain of this flotilla.

This fleet consists of boats that are particularly seaworthy and easy to handle, as they are decked sailboats under 8 meters in length, such as “the Bélouga, which is beautiful and sails well, the high-performance DC20 and Corsaire, and other lesser-known boats,” explains Frédéric Beaujean.

Gulf Week is all about the joy of sailing together, of helping others discover the treasures and subtleties of the Gulf… “We live by the tides to follow the current, but with our highly seaworthy boats, we rack up the miles and have a great time.”
Then there are the stops along the way: “Everywhere we go, the welcome is warm and the atmosphere incredible, kudos to the ports of call that offer us all these joys!”

So, naturally, precious bonds are formed: “We have true friends in Flotilla ‘I.’ They come and come back, from Belgium, the United Kingdom, or even farther afield…”
And newcomers are also welcomed with open arms, as Frédéric Beaujean recalls: “That charming couple from Normandy who had just launched a mahogany Bélouga they’d been building for the past 10 years: an absolute beauty, but they’d never sailed before… Luckily, an instructor from the Arradon Sailing Club was able to make time to accompany them. And there are plenty of other stories, some of which I’ll never forget…”