More nautical affairs

Just over a week ago I noticed at reference 2 a nautical word in the Maigret story at reference 1. This morning I have another, a word which started out as a word of abuse but which Larousse converted into the nautical word 'vaurien'. A word which I arrived at from galapiat, a word of abuse applied by a lady with pretensions to the rough officer of the law who had brought her to the wrapping up session of Chapter X, very much like those conducted by Poirot and Miss. Marple at the end of their stories.

So the word is also the name of a sort of boat, unknown to Littré but which Larousse tells me is a class boat with a keel (dérive, which started out meaning deviation from intended course), rigged as a sloop and destined for racing or for pleasure outings (la promenade). I suppose more or less our word 'dinghy', with the first catch that our word is also used for a small boat propelled by oars or outboard, used as a tender for a larger boat. The small boat which takes you from the pubic house just landside of the harbour, out to where your large boat is moored or anchored. The second catch was that our class sailing dinghies, such as the popular Enterprise, have drop keels (aka centreboards) rather than fixed keels. But more careful inspection of the Larousse entry suggests that dérive does include that sort of thing.

Clearly need to track down a French-English translator with an interest in small boats. The French are very keen on boating so there must be some of them about.

PS: OED tells me that our word 'dinghy' is derived from Hindi and that the word was originally applied to boats of various shapes and sizes, in and around India.

Reference 1: Le Chien jaune - Simenon - 1931. Volume II of the collected works.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/nautical-affairs.html.