There’s no easy way to put this, Dennis, Russell, Ben, but even Brigitte Bardot wanted to go sailing with Eric Tabarly… But the legend of French ocean racing cemented by Tabarly had been founded on a very different kind of sailor, Bernard Moitessier (above), whose first solo circumnavigation woke up his nation to the possibilities of maritime adventure. Moitessier was later pressured into entering the 1968 Golden Globe but by the time he reached Cape Horn he was comfortably ahead and barring disaster a victory looked likely. Instead, passing the Falklands on his way back up the Atlantic, Moitessier famously turned east again, passing Good Hope a second time until fetching up in Tahiti after 300 days at sea. He would not return to France for another 17 years, discarding his French wife and family (Françoise Moitessier had expected him to ‘work it out of his system and then come home’) and fathering a child, Stephan, with his new partner Ileana in 1971. All very spiritual and wonderful and at one with nature, but pretty shit for everyone he left behind
New York the wind blew dead on the nose. It was like trying to reach a doorway with a man in it aiming a hose at you.’ The bravery and daring of those sailors
captured the hearts and imagination of Britons, not only the sailors but the general public as well. They liked the idea of the British being the first to do something and being out there pushing the edges of adventure. Chichester went on to circum- navigate the world singlehanded which in turn inspired Robin Knox-Johnston to become the first person to circumnavigate solo, without stopping. They were heady times for British sail-
ing but by then a French sailor by the name of Eric Tabarly had already started to steal some of their thunder. Tabarly, an officer in the French Navy, entered the
second Transat race in 1964 and won, beating Chichester by almost three days. It shot him to instant fame and the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, or the Legion of Honour, the highest military and civil award in France. The French loved Tabarly not only because he won the race but because he won a British race beating the British at their own game, something that’s warmed French hearts for centuries. Four years later, in 1968, Tabarly
returned to the event, now with a trimaran but retired after colliding with a cargo ship. He may not have finished the race but this incident only continued to cement his place in the hearts of the French public. He was even featured on the cover of
the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, although not in a wholly flattering
manner. Tabarly is depicted floating naked on his back with his, well, you know what, being used as a mast to fly a spinnaker with the caption ‘Je continue pour la France’. The French loved it and Tabarly, along with the sport of sailing, rose in the hearts and minds of all French people and he remains there today. But the British yachting scene was also
continuing to steal the hearts of their own countrymen, with Francis Chichester completing his solo circumnavigation and getting knighted by the Queen. In a sort of tit-for-tat in the medals race
Chichester was appointed a Knight Com- mander of the Order of the British Empire for ‘individual achievement and sustained endeavour in the navigation and seaman- ship of small craft’.
SEAHORSE 41
BM COLECTION MOITESSIER
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