Stopover in Sète 2024: Corsican feluccas, a maritime heritage to be saved

The Santa Liberta with its swordfish-shaped bow exposed on the Algiers quay. Free Midi – DORIAN CAYUELA

Corsica is the guest of honor of Stopover in Sète 2024. A delegation of fishermen and musical groups made the trip from the Isle of Beauty. To see in particular on their stand, two feluccas, these traditional boats which are still used today for artisanal fishing. This is their story. 

La Santa Liberta, "a piece of memory" 

During their journey to Corsica, in January 2024, following in the footsteps of traditional boats in distress, the Sète marine carpenters Raymond Dublanc and Robert Contreras came across small treasures like the Santa Liberta felucca, decorated with a swordfish. the bow, signed Nobili. It is owned by Jacques Fieschi, a former transporter and trader based in Propriano. Built in 1967 for the shipowner Languilion, this boat was then bought by the Gianetti brothers, fishermen. Then, quickly sold to a Parisian bookseller who had difficulty keeping it. Bought in 1979 by Jacques Fieschi, collector of feluccas, she sailed for almost 40 years. For pleasure, in regattas, but not only that. "It is magnificent, it’s a piece of memory, it defended the Corsican coast", confides Jacques Fieschi, who renamed it Santa Liberta. The boat can no longer sail. However, it will be visible in the Corsican village of Escale.

The Santa Liberta “a museum piece”. Free Midi – DORIAN CAYUELA

In Scopa, felucca saved by a sailor

It’s a signature of the Nobili shipyards in Ajaccio: the swordfish on the bow. The A Scopa felucca is therefore no exception to the rule. This boat designed by a Sardinian architect and designed in Corsica in the 1970s, presented in the Corsican village during Stopover in Sète, is the pride of its owner. Abdallah Elmessalih, better known in Ajaccio under the name “Bibi” is one of the last sail manufacturers in the country. Sailor with a passion for speed, founder of an integration project with the Ajaccio Nautical Society, he is at the origin of the rescue of A Scopa, among the dozen feluccas that ;rsquo;he still remains in Corsica. It is with the American Simon Berner, passionate about boat restoration, based in Asprettu on the Isle of Beauty, that his project of restoration of the boat, emblematic of the heritage local maritime, was born. The felucca will be presented alongside SantaLiberta in Sète. The first should sail during the parades. Bibi and Simon Berner will also be present at the festival to share their experiences.

A Scopa Free Midi – DORIAN CAYUELA