They settled down into their exit row seats on the Boeing 767 bound to New York from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. The exit row was an unexpected surprise because on every one of the last 31 flight segments, they had asked for, but never received the exit row. The business class seat spacing was much appreciated. It was a long flight, nearly 6 hours from St. Thomas to New York but it was only the first in two legs that they would fly to Paris. The flight was crowed for a midweek flight, mostly families with children, and some businessmen. It was an unadventurous flight and they whiled away the hours. K2 was reading Herman Wouk’s “Don’t Stop the Carnival” about life in the Caribbean. Kim was updating their travel log. Both were a bit worn out from the three days of racing in the Rolex Cup, but it was worth the effort and new friends made.

Landing in New York was uneventful and after an hour and half of ground time the continuing flight from to Paris was airborne. The seats for this flight were not as good as the previous flight, but they had a two-seat row so not all was lost. Across the isle was a French speaking family with a young child seated between them. It was a bit of wait on the taxiway, and just about the time they plane rolled on to the runway, the child started fidgeting and crying. The crying continued unabated until the plane reached cruising altitude 20 minutes and 35,000 feet later. The crying child was spent and slept the remainder of the flight.  On the last flight, the attendants had collect $5 for headphones for in-flight entertainment. K2 and Kim kept the headphones, but on this flight they found another set in the seat backs. Every flight is different, even when flying on the same airline.

The next morning they arrived in Paris. Sleepy and groggy they passed through customs without the usual problems they experienced in the US. Since K2 was a Canadian, every time they entered the US, the customs would ask K2 countless questions about how long she was staying, where she worked, where she lived. Answering these questions was at best problematic. But they had learned to answer as truthfully as possible without causing reason for immigration to detain them as had happened previously. In Paris, a simple comparison of our passport picture sufficed, and K2 and Kim passed through customs with 3 bottles of Cruzan Rum for the crew at the factory.

They still had to get from Paris to Perpignan in the south of France where their sailboat was being build. Unfortunately their continuing flight was on AOM airlines in Paris ORLY airport 40 miles south of Charles DeGaule. After scooping out the airport they discovered that Air France ran a shuttle bus and 40 minutes later they were headed south on to ORLY. It was a 3-hour wait in ORLY for the AOM flight to Perpignan. Around 3:30 they touched down in Perpignan and drove a short distance to Canet en Roussillon where the Catana factory and their hotel was. Exhausted and jet lagged they collapsed on the bed.

They slept the sleep of the dead and despite their growing hunger they continued to sleep. The hours passed and around 9 am local time they started to stir. Kim called the Catana factory and made an appointment to meet their representative Christophe Gallot-Lavallee at 2pm. Lunch in France take on epic significance and meetings never occur between the hours of noon and 2. With time to spare, K2 and Kim headed out for their first real meal in France. Sure they had airline meals, but eating airline food was a bit like eating Chinese food. Eat once and 30 minutes later you’re hungry again. 

With time on their hands they drove to the Catana factory in the Hertz rental, a bright blue Peugeot “Bic pen branded” compact sedan. It was accessorized with a number of Bic pen like features, but a real Bic pen was not to be found. The factory was a surprise to them. Where there had been one large rectangular steel sided building, now there were two, and a cluster of temporary offices set between them. There was the usual collection of Catana yachts sitting at the dock, but the most noticeable was a new red 472 that sat oddly stern low in the water. They took a short walk out to the dock to look more closely at the 472. The reason for the low setting stern was a Jet Ski was slung on an articulated structure bolted to the underside of the bridge deck. Clearly the Jet Ski was much to heavy for the boat.

After the factory, hunger was really setting in and they drove a short distance to Canet en Plague, or Canet on the Beach for lunch. The last time that they had been to Canet it was out of season and most hotel and restaurants were closed. Being April not much has changed since last November except that it much warmer. The population was some what divided about this however, since half the people were wearing overcoats and the other half had shorts and t-shirts. The locals were probably wearing the overcoats and tourist the shorts.

Canet en Plague is a modern French beach resort with 6 to 10 story building rising up from the road that fronts the beach. It’s tacky and without character unlike the older fishing villages scattered up and down the coast. There was not much choice in restaurants so they headed to the place that they ate last November. It was a quiet corner restaurant with an awning-covered patio filled with wrought-iron chairs and tables. Probably a pleasant place in the summer, but in the cool breeze of April they headed in doors. After decoding the French menu K2 decided on a cheese and onion pizza and Kim ordered spaghetti carbonara. The restaurant was mostly deserted except for one older couple with two small children. They were much to old for these children to be their own and K&K guessed that they were grandparents. The children were amazingly well behaved and quietly entertained themselves while the grandparents ate their seafood extravaganza. The platter was pilled high with ice upon which rested crayfish, shrimp and clams. Some of the crayfish were speared with long bamboo sticks and arranged like a bouquet of flowers upright on the ice.

With lunch over, they ambled outside and wandered the town for a bit. With everything closed for lunch, there was not much to see. So they headed back to the Peugeot and took a driving tour of the small harbor that encircled the north end of the town. The neatly arranged harbor was filled with a smattering of small sail and motorboats. It was as quiet as the rest of the town. Most of the apartments still had their roll down shutters in place and a deserted feeling permeated the place. They continued their drive and ended up at the factory just in time for their appointment. The parking lot was empty which meant that most of the staff was still out to lunch but the front reception room was open and the English speaking reception greeted them. It was a short wait as they went through the stack of French magazine excerpts on Catana yachts.

Christophe greeted them a short while later and apologized for the wait. In the recent growth of Catana more had changed then the number of building. With increased production meant increased customer contact and Christophe was one of the new kids on the block to manage new customer accounts. His father owned hull #1 of the 471-line and was having a 581 build. He was also a principal of the business. Maybe this would mean that their boat would get additional oversight. Only time would tell. Christophe took them on a tour of the factory and showed them the beginnings of their catamaran. Outside the original factory building the deck was sitting on 4 stands about waist high off. It had just come out of the mold the day before and been turned over that morning. The deck without any of the windows cut out appeared to belong to secret space project. They were thrilled, and all of a sudden it seemed real to them. Kim and K2 had talked endlessly about the boat, and it seemed the more they talked, the less real it was. But this was the real thing. The deck of the boat was standing just in front of them as real as each other. Kim ducked under the deck and the liner had all ready been bonded to the deck. It was still hard for him to imagine that this was the beginning of their boat.

They concluded the tour of the factory and headed out to look at the new 472, the one sitting stern low in the water. As they approached, Christophe explained the problem with hanging so much weight on the stern of the boat. But to Kim and K2 no explanation was necessary. Both had raced in Transpac and VicMaui and knew how weight affected any boat, let alone badly positioned weight. But the owner had insisted, and Catana warned, but complied with the owner’s wishes. They designed the Jet Ski platform to lower 18” under the water so the Jet Ski could be driven right on to the platform. Even though the Jet Ski was a horrendous addition to such a fine yacht there were pearls to be found here. As soon as they stepped on board they fell in love with the cockpit table. It was square and folded diagonally across the corner to reveal dink holders. To their eyes it was much cleaner and practical then the folding leaf teak table normally supplied. They had to have it. The other item was the swim ladder on the port hull. This normally just folds up and makes the port stern awkward to move around on. On the 472, the ladder neatly folds into a recess on the stern – another must have. When they entered the salon they were starting to think that they ordered the wrong boat. Besides the varnished cherry, the interior design was pleasing and showed many refinements that made since. The owner had made changes that they did not like, but as a whole it was a very pleasant boat.

With a sigh they started toward Christophe’s office in one of the temporary buildings. There were many details to go over. Christophe got out the contract and the latest addendums and started down the list one after another. Even with his excellent English it was still necessary to revert to pictures and diagrams sketched on paper to make their points. After two hours of paper work they were all tired. Kim and K2 had asked if it was possible to go out on one of the 471’s at the dock. Christophe called around and started to make arrangements. He said he would send email that night when he knew better. They made arrangement to meet the next afternoon to wrap up the review. With business concluded Kim and K2 headed for the rental car, but first they took one last peek in the new building at their hull.