Update
Halvard Mabire (inset) and the elegant Class40 he races with his partner Miranda Merron which the couple built themselves in 2017. The yacht was co-designed by Mabire with his close friend and naval architect Bernard Nivelt. Still one of the prettiest 40s out there
THE LAST FREEDOM – Øyvind Bordal Late last year French sailing legend Halvard Mabire passed half a million miles of offshore racing – much of it singlehanded or double - handed. That’s about 19 times around the world. Many French sailors believe that he has sailed more miles than any other man or woman alive. But he’s not much one for talking about it. ‘Alcohol. Because no great story ever started with a salad.’ The
sign hung in the Irish bar in Lorient. I had just arrived in town, and was unwinding with a cold Guinness after the long drive from Paris. By now well into number two, an older man came up to the bar. There was something about him, you just knew he wasn’t an ordinary person. His charisma was so strong that everyone involuntarily moved a little to the side. His face was haggard, bearded, but his eyes were bright and blue. He looked over at me, and immediately I thought: he’s a sailor.
He must have been thinking the same thing, because he looked directly at me, nodded briefly and gave me a small, knowing smile. Then he disappeared onto the terrace outside.
More than 50 times across the Atlantic Later that evening I spoke to a local Frenchman who pointed him out and asked if I knew who he was. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s Halvard Mabire,’ he said, as if referring to the Pope. ‘He has
crossed the Atlantic more than 50 times, and is president of the Class40 organisation. A legend here in France. All the sailors here look up to him.’
Terrible at communication I knew right away I had to talk to him. The next day I found him, after a debate during the World Yacht Racing Forum, the annual conference I had come to attend. He came down from the stage and I went up to him and introduced myself. He wasn’t much for being interviewed, though. ‘I’m terribly bad at communication,’ he said. ‘But if you want you can come out for a smoke. Then we can talk out there, where there
16 SEAHORSE
aren’t so many people.’ Outside he rolled himself a cigarette, and offered me one. He lit up, blew smoke out through his nostrils and looked at me. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘What would you like to know?’
Lived mostly at sea Halvard Mabire was born in Normandy in 1956. Already 20 years old, he built himself a small boat and took part in the first edition of the now famous Mini Transat. He came third. And ever since he has lived most of his life at sea. He has made five trips around the world, some with crew in the Whitbread races, and completed 32 transatlantic races, including the Ostar, Artemis Transat, Route du Rhum, Transat En Double and Two-Star. In addition, there are all of the trans atlantic deliveries – he has no idea how many. And not just sailing IOR boats, Whitbread Maxis and Class40s, but also multihulls, Imocas, Figaros and many other types of boats. Mabire has sailed the Figaro Solitaire seven times, and twice
raced around the world with Eric Tabarly. In 1994 his boat sank in the Atlantic during the Route du Rhum. He was in the water for 10 hours before being rescued.
Timeless place Mabire draws hard on his cigarette looking out at the harbour with his water-blue eyes. I ask: ‘Why do you think it’s so good to be at sea?’ ‘It’s timeless out there,’ he says. ‘Nothing changes, it’s been
the same for thousands of years. And there’s nobody interfering with what you’re doing. It’s the last place in the world where there’s real freedom. You decide what to do and what not to do. You have to take responsibility for yourself. I like that. It’s not like that on land. Here things are always changing. There are always a lot of people to look after you. I hate that.’ He looks at me, in a way that says: now I have nothing more to
say about it.
Hard to ski in Normandy I ask: ‘How many times have you crossed the Atlantic?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he says shortly. ‘I don’t count.’
JEAN-MARIE LIOT
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