Bel Espoir

Sailing monument

The Bel Espoir II is a schooner that was purchased in 1968 by “Amis de Jeudi-Dimanche association” (AJD). L’AJD also bought a second schooner in 1973, the Rara-Avis that has the same objective, sailing with problem youths and addicts so that they can find their way back into society with their sailing traineeship. The Bel Espoir was included as a sailing monument in the national sailing patrimony on the 26th of March 1993.

Built in 1944 in Svendborg (Denmark) at the shipyard J. Ring Andersen for the shipping company A.C. Sorensen. It was baptized as Nette S, and sailed mainly as a Baltic trader in the Baltic Sea and later as a fishing vessel at Terre-Neuve. In 1950 it was renamed Peder Most and used as an animal transport ship between Hamburg and Copenhagen. It was purchased in 1955 by the British Association Outward Bound Trust, which it built as a training sailing vessel for pupils of the Public Schools. Fully adapted to school ship renamed Prince Louis II in 1965.

The association of Michel Jaouen (former chaplain of the prison system), “Amis du Jeudi- Dimanche” (AJD), became owner in 1968 and baptized it to du Bel Espoir II. This association, founded in 1954, aims at the re insertion of problem youths through various employment programs.

The Bel Espoir II sails mostly in the winter in the Caribbean sea and in the summer on the East coast of France.