5 myths about the Davia and classic wooden yachts

When we show the Davia to visitors for the first time, the same lines come up again and again: « It must be dangerous », « It must cost a fortune », « You'd be better off with a new plastic boat », « It's bound to pollute. » I used to answer politely. Today, after ten years aboard, I prefer to take the myths apart. Here are the five most common.

1. « A wooden boat from 1929 is dangerous »

It is the opposite. A well-maintained wooden boat is safer than a standard production GRP boat, for four reasons:

• Wood is naturally buoyant. Even full of water, the frames and planking retain residual buoyancy. A GRP hull full of water sinks outright.
• Classic hulls are massive. The Davia's is 45 mm thick at the keel. A modern 15-metre production GRP hull is around 8 to 12 mm.
• Cracks show in wood. They are invisible in a GRP sandwich hull until they have gone right through.
• ADLS boats undergo an annual inspection by an independent surveyor. The Davia has been part of that discipline since 2016.

In ten years at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, the Davia has come through three major floods, a 2018 storm that tore trees out of the ground at the port, and a dozen winters. She has not budged.

2. « It must cost a fortune every year »

Yes and no. The Davia's annual maintenance budget runs to about €4,000 to €6,000, on top of which come the occasional major works (a full refit every ten years or so, a complete deck, the engines). Relative to her size, that is not far off a modern 15-metre motor boat.

The difference is the share of labour. On a classic boat, specialist labour (a shipwright, an experienced varnisher) is the main cost. On a GRP boat, it is the electronics, the synthetic rigging, the antifouling and the mechanics that dominate.

The advantage of wood: a large part of the maintenance can be done by the owner, provided you learn. I varnish the Davia myself. A professional varnisher charges €45 to €60 an hour. Over 120 hours of varnishing a year, the difference adds up fast.

3. « An old boat pollutes more than a new one »

False on two counts.

Construction: a new 15-metre GRP boat is roughly 4 tonnes of resin, 2 tonnes of glass fibre, 1 tonne of PVC foam for the sandwich, plus the electronics and metals. The carbon footprint of its build is estimated at between 15 and 25 tonnes of CO₂. The Davia was built in 1929 with local timber and traditional methods. Her construction carbon footprint has been zero for a very long time.

Use: the Davia has two Parsons Engineering Co engines of 56 hp each. They are less efficient than a modern engine, but they burn little because we travel slowly, eight knots maximum on the river. In a sailing season (May to October, around 50 engine hours), I use 250 to 300 litres of diesel. A fast modern leisure boat doing 20 knots burns that on a single weekend outing.

End of life: a GRP boat at the end of its life is a complex waste stream to deal with. Wood returns to the earth.

4. « It's just nostalgia »

No. Restoring a boat like the Davia means passing on a craft that is disappearing. There were hundreds of wooden boatyards in France a century ago. Today you can count them on the fingers of two hands. The Evans Marine yard in Migennes, where the Davia spent 24 months in major refit, is one of the few still active in central France.

These yards train apprentice shipwrights every year. Without classic boats to restore, those trades disappear entirely. The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, the Classic Boat Museum on the Isle of Wight and Patrimoine Maritime et Fluvial do nothing other than keep this chain of transmission alive.

5. « You can't sail with that any more »

Yes you can. The Davia is registered PA F22087 F, she holds her Voies Navigables de France navigation permit, her insurance, her logbook. She can navigate the entire French inland waterway network and, with the right precautions, cross the Channel to reach Ramsgate.

That is precisely the association's aim: to sail the Davia, not merely to admire her at her berth. Once the full restoration is complete, she will take part in the commemorations of Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk, and ideally in the annual ADLS gatherings at Ramsgate.

The 2029 centenary will be the occasion, I hope, to see her cross the Channel for the first time in 89 years.