Georges Larnicol sets sail - in a chocolate boat

At first sight it seems not only like a mad idea but also one that's pretty impossible to pull off; setting sail in a boat made entirely of chocolate.

But last weekend that's exactly what Georges Larnicol did in the port of Concarneau, a town in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.

Screenshot from Ouest-France video. Georges Larnicol and first mate Joël aboard the chocolate boat.

Not only did Larnicol manage successfully to launch his 3.5 metre chocolate delight, he also managed to clamber aboard and stay afloat for one and a half hours.

As you can see from the accompanying video (courtesy of the regional newspaper Ouest France) it wasn't all plain sailing for Larnicol and his first mate, Joël.

They needed the help of Larnicol's colleagues from the diving club at which he has been a member for the past 11 years to keep the boat afloat and prevent it from tipping over.

Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat - Ouest France
 Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat

Mots-clés : bateau chocolat concarneau larnicol

Video de ouestfrance

And there was a good deal of bailing out of water as the two men headed further out of port.

After one and a half hours though Larnicol once again made dry land to the applause of the one thousand odd spectators who had been present to witness his exploit.

It wasn't the 55-year-old's first attempt to set sail in a chocolate boat.

In August his plans were scuppered when his Chocolate boat Mark I broke into pieces.

But Mark II, which took more than 400 hours to construct, met with more success and pleased with the outcome, Larnicol is promising to build a bigger 12-metre boat complete with chocolate mask for 2012.

For killjoys who might be critical of the apparent waste (of chocolate) involved, Larnicol, not surprisingly perhaps a chocolatier by profession, points out that only "recycled decorative chocolate" was used in the construction of his boat.

In other words, chocolate that was past its sell-by date and could not be eaten.

As the BBC says in its piece on Larnicol's watery exploits, Chocs ahoy!

Sarkozy urges multi-lateral action to stop piracy at sea

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has called on the international community to find a solution to the increasing incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia, which he described as "organised crime".

Sarkozy was speaking at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday after confirming that two French hostages held by pirates were "safe and sound" after being rescued by an elite commando team from this country in the early hours of the morning.

The couple, Jean-Yves Delanne and his wife, Bernadette, were taken hostage by pirates who boarded the yacht they were sailing on September 2 in the Gulf of Aden.

They had demanded a ransom of over $1 million dollars and the release of six men currently in detention in France, who were seized by French commandos in a similar operation back in April after they had been paid to free the crew of another French yacht.

Sarkozy said that the overnight mission had by necessity been a military one to secure the safe release of the couple, and one pirate had been killed and another six captured in a "risky" operation that had taken place in open waters.

"It's a great relief to all of us that this operation was successful and that the couple will be able to be reunited shortly with their family," he said.

"We intend to bring the six pirates to France where they'll be held in detention with the others (from April)," he added.

He also said that the men would only be sent back to Somalia if the government there could guarantee they would be tried and sentenced for their crimes.

Sarkozy also launched an appeal for multi-lateral action to prevent further cases, saying that most acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden actually took place in international waters outside of the jurisdiction of the Somali government. And it was therefore up to the international community to seek a co-ordinated solution.

In this case France had stepped in, he said, because the lives of French citizens were at risk.

Delanne and his wife have lived in Tahiti for years, and he had been hired to sail the yacht "le Carré d'As IV" from Australia to Rochelle in France where it was to be sold.

He's a professional sailor with years of experience and is paid to deliver boats. His wife was accompanying him on the trip.

On September 2 pirates boarded their boat which had been "easy prey" according to the French media, because of its reduced speed

In April a similar commando operation was authorised by Sarkozy to capture six pirates who had seized a luxury boat, "Le Ponant" whose 30 crew also included 22 French nationals.

According to the International Maritime Bureau the waters off the Somali coast are among the most dangerous in the world. There have been 24 attacks by pirates in the first six months of this year.