Jean-Pierre Osenat, guardian of a forgotten boating tradition

So Bassin, the summer special issue of La Dépêche du Bassin, devotes a feature to Jean-Pierre Osenat and his collection of vintage motorboats, housed in La Teste-de-Buch.

Forty years of collecting

It all began with a 1950s Matonnat that belonged to his father. Since then, Jean-Pierre Osenat has brought together boats spanning the 1920s to the 1970s: pre-war Chris-Crafts, French runabouts, Jean Chauveau's inflatable dinghy… An entire fleet, the fruit of years of collecting in tribute to the marriage of mahogany and precision mechanics.

In the footsteps of Indiana Jones

Among the collection's standout pieces, a Chris-Craft Custom 18' once led a second life on the big screen: the boat piloted by Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A well-earned retirement on the Bassin d'Arcachon for this valiant vessel, as the article recounts.