Eole, a somptuous wooden Ketch designed by the architects Guillaume Verdier and Axel de Beaufort

A sumptuous sailing yacht made entirely of wood and carbon was born under the vaults of the Fernand Hervé shipyard in La Rochelle’s Ville-en-Bois district. She was launched in spring 2022. A two-year project for a French owner, all requirements and refinement, designed by the architects Guillaume Verdier and Axel de Beaufort, and Pure Design for structure calculations. 

Wood and carbon

For this ketch, the customer wanted “a family cruising boat, easy to use” and, of course, as high-performance as possible. The team worked to combine wood (strip-planked construction, a technique for assembling battens to form the hull) with carbon to lighten the ship’s high points and stiffen the structural bulkheads. There’s a lot more here than just fine cuts and masterful chisel strokes.