After 120 years of sailing, on cruising grounds such as the Hebrides, Ireland, Scotland, East Anglia and Brittany, Sheila became French … and then we discovered she was not fit for proper coastal navigation anymore !
That’s the way it is : in 1905, on the Isle of Man, Robert Cain, her shipwright and Albert Strange, her architect, did not consider to provide her with the CE certificate that proved she was built following European guidelines. It is most likely that they never imagined that any such thing would ever exist.
Incidentally, on top of that, they did not bother with VAT either, even in dreams. When Sheila was registered in France, two years ago, this first hurdle was passed : after some years of battling with the French Administration, someone in his right mind over there (yes, such people exist) took ownership of the case and finally concluded that we could overcome the absence of VAT certificate. Let us be reminded that Sheila was built in 1905 and that the concept of VAT dates back to German industrialist Wilhelm von Siemens, in 1918. VAT was never implemented before 1954 (first by the French, in the Ivory Coast – but not in France until 1958.) Obviously, then, Sheila had been sailing for a while. She was persevering in 1968 when VAT became European, and in 1973 when she joined the EU along with the British. And then she remained European when she went French in 2016, before Brexit.
So Sheila was allowed to fly a French flag, but since she did not have her CE certificate, the condition were that she stayed in the harbor whenever the wind was above force 4, or the waves more that 50cm, that she did not sail during the night, or get too far from a shelter (6 miles.) In summary Sheila was allowed to sail except in winter, or on any summer afternoon, when the wind is more that force 4 – so everyday in Brittany, if the sun is shining.
We had a second hurdle to overcome and for this one, the French Administration did not feel enthusiastic. The regulations are relatively clear (this is Division 244) and are European level. In summary : for a coastal cruiser, the rubber stamp people are not expected to be knowledgeable. A naval architect assesses the stability of the ship, provides a certificate to the administration and there you are. In practice : not quite that simple.
Fortunately, Sheila had a very good British architect who designed her, and now she found a very good (and famous) French architect who assessed her. François Vivier did a wonderful job.
François modeled Sheila in his computer and discovered that it takes 60° of heeling for her to start letting water enter the cockpit. The minimum requirement is 35° for a coastal cruiser. With a strong force 6 wind, and in the very unlikely scenario that she is not under jib and mizzen but still sports her main with two reefs, her heeling angle is 38°, with four people in the cockpit. On such a very unpleasant sailing day, Albert Strange’s motto would be demonstrated again : the weak link in the chain would be the crew and not the ship.
Obviously François did not only look at the computer modeled theory : we checked the stability parameters in real life, with the real boat and a real crew.
So Sheila is now a category C. She is deemed safe to go sailing when the wind is below force 6. With our security equipment on board, she still needs to be less than 6 nautical miles away from shelter and she would need a life raft to get further. For 120 years she has sailed under these conditions (and probably worst) and always kept her crew safe. Now she is compliant as well, and that is a good thing if she wants to sail to meet Tally-Ho someday.
