Remember… The day a chocolate boat floated in the port of Concarneau
The Sweetest Sail: Chocolate Boats Take to the Breton Waters
The story sounds like a gourmet yachtsman’s dream or a confectioner’s fantasy: making a boat float out of chocolate. Not a model, mind you – a real sailboat, navigating a Breton port. Yet, this sweet utopia actually happened. Fifteen years ago, in 2010, Concarneau became the stage for a nautical launch unlike any other, under the amused gaze of hundreds of spectators and the assured hand of a passionate artisan: Georges Larnicol.
A Chocolate Sailboat: A Bet Won in Concarneau
It was September 25, 2010. The port of Concarneau, in Finistère, was buzzing with excitement. Hundreds of spectators gathered along the quays of the Ville Close. Before their eyes, Georges Larnicol, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France) and renowned chocolatier, launched a peculiar sailboat. 3.50 meters long, 1.20 meters wide, weighing no less than 1.2 tons, the boat was made entirely of chocolate, except for its sugar framework.
Equipped with a sail and a small engine, the boat welcomed two people on board – including Larnicol himself – and made several circles in the water, before a mesmerized crowd. It floated. It moved forward. It amused. “It’s a sugar cube in the port of Concarneau,” joked the master chocolatier, in sailor’s boots, delighted with his slightly crazy bet.
The Chocolate Regatta of Quimper: A Race… That Melts
The following year, the sweet madness continued. On September 24, 2011, the Odet River became the stage for an even more improbable spectacle: a regatta of chocolate boats. Seven skiffs, built on the same principle as the Chocolat II, were launched between the courthouse and the prefecture of Quimper. The crews, largely composed of chocolate factory employees, set off rowing or sailing.
But the Breton weather has its whims: the autumn sun’s rays melted the hulls. Three boats quickly sank, triggering bursts of laughter on the quays. Others managed, by frantically bailing water, to complete the river loop. “We all participated in their creation… The technique? Bailing!” said Yoann Raso, a chocolate apprentice and skipper for a day, still dripping but laughing.
An Idea Born from Waste
Behind the humor and excess, it was an idea deeply rooted in an artisanal and responsible approach that gave birth to these improbable boats. “We had to do something with our unsold chocolates… It made my stomach hurt to see it all go to waste,” Larnicol confided at the time. He could have settled for donations or discreet recycling. But no. This Breton, rooted in his territory, preferred to reinvent the material. Instead of ending up in stock, a second life – floating, aesthetic, and joyful.
And After? A Sweet Dream for Brest 2012… That Stayed on the Dock
In the euphoria of these sweet successes, Georges Larnicol then mentioned a titanic project: for the Brest 2012 Maritime Festivals, he wanted to build a 12-meter sailboat, with two masts and 6 to 8 tons of chocolate. A monumental floating work, between technical challenge and artistic manifesto.
But the idea never came to fruition. Too complex, perhaps, or hampered by the logistical realities of an already overloaded international event. The dream, however, will remain etched in memories, like a melting utopia that would have deserved its wake in the Brest harbor.
2013: The Winged Boat, a Tribute to Breton Ingenuity
Three years after the Chocolat II, in 2013, Georges Larnicol continued his artistic and historical exploration with an astonishing creation: a winged boat, still made of chocolate, inspired by the one invented in the 19th century by the navigator and aviation pioneer Jean-Marie Le Bris. The work, weighing 600 kg, required more than 1,000 hours of work. It is less a boat than a tribute to Breton inventiveness, between sea and sky, between myth and memory.
Even today, as boaters set off on spring cruises or tinker with their cockpits between two praline eggs, this melting story remains in people’s minds. It reminds us that boating, sometimes too serious, can also open up to poetry, absurdity, and the pure joy of a crazy project carried out successfully. Yes, a chocolate boat can float. Yes, a regatta can melt in the sun. And yes, the sea can also welcome the sweetest dreams.
So at Easter, instead of absentmindedly crunching on a chocolate bunny, remember the day when Concarneau saw a cocoa sailboat sailing. And let a part of the impossible melt gently in your mind.
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