Length: 15.35 m (50.36 ft.)
 
Width: 5.4 m (17.7 ft.)
 
Draught: 1.60 m (5.2 ft.) / 3,60 m (11.8 ft.)
 
Material: polyester / sandwich
 
Hull: centreboard sailboat
 
Rigging: schooner
 

Nora is being renovated

 
Overhauling the engines and the electrical equipment, repairing and maintaining the hull… And also refurbishing the interior to adapt it to the project (see the picture below: we are drawing plans for our future wardroom!).
Do you have some free time next Sunday? Come and help us sand, paint, … our tools are waiting for you!

Nora’s dazzling story

 
Nora was born from a dream, an encounter. This dream was the Antarctica; this encounter was the one between Jacques Rizet and a crew sailing back from these southern lands.
Jacques Rizet is an electrical engineer born in 1928, shaped for adventures. He caught the sailing virus while traveling cross the Yugoslavian islands on his brother’s small sailing dinghy (7.5 m / 23 ft., Sergeant blueprint), and came back home dying to build his own boat.
Back to Ivory Coast, his adopted country, JR starts working on the blueprints. He puts a hold on his first sketches when transferred to Mauritania and after facing a few bumps on the road. Nevertheless, the project of building Nora was conceived in Mauritania…

Jacques was barely back to France when he tried to enroll in ‘Terres Australes’ (‘Southern Lands’) to conduct a field study. When a young recruit takes his spot, JR doesn’t let his disappointment stop him:
“If they don’t want me in Crozet archipelago, I’ll build my own boat to go!”

His construction project is alive again! The dimensions, shapes, everything is designed so that Nora can meet the ice and battle the elements!

The building site is still missing… but fortune favors the bold! JR creates his own shipyard on a halved-barge (yes you read it right!), close to Paris, on the Seine. Our boat is coming from Paris!

Nora required 20 years to come to life, and was finally launched in the 2000s. She is exotically christened with blackcurrant kir, and does a few ‘Paris by night’ tours, before sailing to Le Havre, followed by Tancarville, at the Torpilleurs (torpedo) shipyard.

Suffering from health problems, JR is forced to give up the work he dedicated over 30 years of his life to. He starts looking for a sailor who could sail his boat. In 2012, he sells Nora to Yannick Masson, whose round-the-world trip projects seem like a bright future for Nora.

Today, Nora is still at the Torpilleurs shipyard, behind Tancarville’s bridge, getting prepared with love by Yannick and quietly floating while waiting for us to take her for a tour around the globe!

 
Do you want to learn more about Nora’s construction? Please consult the website l’Unité Amateur d’Ile de France.