Although Belem is now settled in her winter quarters at Saint Nazaire, December remains as always a very busy month for those who are in charge of her present and future interests, namely the Belem Foundation. While making sure that our beautiful ship is being well and properly spruced up for her 2012 sailing season, the Foundation also worked hard at developing Belem's public image during the ten days of the Paris Boat Show, where scores of visitors came to (re)discover the ship that is part of France's national heritage but mainly to find out the details of her 2012 sailing programme.
The programme is now available to you all on our website –
www.fondationbelem.com – where all dates and places of the various training trips are listed until mid-July. The second half of the season will be on line in the course of the month of January 2012.
This first part of the season consists in a succession of mainly three to four-day trips on the Atlantic, practically all in French coastal waters, except for a stop-over in Bilbao in June. Later in the year, Belem may cross over to Ireland, which is by way of becoming one of her regular, and well-loved, destinations.
Soon, you will also find out the places, dates and times of public visits on board Belem, in case you happen to be holidaying on the French coast next summer, as well as the festive events that will be welcoming our three master such as: the departure of the Nantes-Progresso (Mexico) race that sets off from Nantes on March 2nd, the first Bayonne Sea Festival in June (21st to 24th) or –unmissable! –
the launching of the Hermione ( exact replica of the ship that took Lafayette to America during the War of Independence) from Rochefort in July...
The last days of 2011 are also the last days of Commander Yann Cariou's time on board Belem. After three years spent at the helm of the three master, Captain Cariou is leaving for new and different professional waters. All the Belem team will remember him as a passionate and masterful commander, very much at home in the world of tall ships, strongly attached to maintaining and defending the standards and safety of the ship entrusted to him. We all wish him well in his future career.
Le programme des stages de navigation printemps-été 2012 présenté en avant première au Salon Nautique a suscité la curiosité d'un public nombreux et intéressé. Les réservations désormais ouvertes vont bon train. Ce programme est aussi riche en évènements et promesses de rencontre avec un large public.
Yann Cariou, commandant « à temps plein » du Belem depuis mai 2009, va quitter ses fonctions à la fin de cette année 2011 pour donner un nouveau cours à sa carrière professionnelle. Il laissera le souvenir d'un commandant passionné par le monde des grands voiliers et profondément attaché à préserver l'intégrité du navire dont la Fondation lui avait confié le commandement.
