Specification
| Class | A |
| Rig | Three-masted Barque |
| Height (m) | 26 |
| Overall length (m) | 46,9 |
| Nationality | France |
| Year built | 1948 |
| Home port | Saint-Malo |
Biography
Race participant
The Le Français was originally a traditional Baltic freighter. She was built in 1948 by J. Ring-Andersen for the Royal Greenland Trading Company at the Svendborg shipyard in Denmark, one of the world’s most famous dockyards.
Launched under the name of the Kaskelot (which means sperm whale in Danish) she later served as a support vessel for pilot whale fishing in the Faroe Islands in the 1960s. 20 years later, she was bought by Square Sail in the United Kingdom and was converted into a two-masted barque. She subsequently featured in many TV productions and films, including The Three Musketeers, Shackleton and David Copperfield. She was chartered for numerous tall ships events before beginning a new life under French colours in 2018.
Her new name, Le Français, was no random choice: it is a tribute to the three-masted schooner that took Jean-Baptiste Charcot on his first expedition to the Antarctic. The vessel was built for Charcot at the St Malo shipyard in 1903, to a design by naval architect François Gautier.
The Le Français is now based in St Malo and introduces young people from a variety of backgrounds to life at sea, maritime heritage and the world of traditional sailing.