Testing the Silmaril

I test the new larger Silmaril from Arwen Marine on a cold December day in 2022.

This is my first proper boat test and it is not perfect. The voice-over does not really work and there are other flaws. But I decided to post it as a helpful service to you all, as it still shows off the boat. More boat tests are planned for the future. Let me know what you'd like me to test, and I will see what I can do.

Arwen Marine are based in Compiegne and specialise in light and very well considered plywood cruising dinghies.
Arwen Marine - 1 rue de Roye - 60280 Clairoix, France
Téléphone : 06 80 37 50 18 (speaks English).
https://www.arwenmarine.com

Bonjour les francophones !  Il y a des sous-titres français sur cette vidéo – avec mes excuses pour la grammaire et l'orthographe incorrectes.

INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
Read my book, "The Dinghy Cruising Companion" - second edition out NOW!
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/dinghy-...
And join the Dinghy Cruising Association:
http://dinghycruising.org.uk/

MUSIC
Piano Ballad
- YouTube audio library
Easy Now -  Melanie Bell
- from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com

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. I bought her in France in 2003 to import her into the UK, and more recently returned her to France again before trade restrictions were imposed.* The design is based closely on the traditional inshore fishing boats of Brittany in the early years of the twentieth century – hence her simple boom-less lugsail rig and lack of a mainsheet horse, (sometimes controversial among my viewers). Although rare in Britain, Ilurs are relatively common in France. Modern Ilurs are however slightly different internally from mine, as they have more built in buoyancy. 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 Chasse-Marée:
https://www.chasse-maree.com/revue/
Or try Le Bon Coin, (where you can buy anything in France):
https://www.leboncoin.fr
*Since January 2021, when Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) left the European Single Market, if you buy a boat in France or elsewhere in the EU, with the intention of importing it into the UK, (other than NI), you must pay VAT and other duties on the import.