Moitessier: A Sailing Legend - Softcover

Barrault, Jean-Michel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1574092049 ISBN 13: 9781574092042

Publisher: Sheridan House, 2005

Synopsis

In 1968 during the Golden Globe, the first solo non-stop race around the world, Bernard Moitessier sent the following message with a slingshot onto the deck of a freighter, 'I am continuing ...' With this unbelievable decision to turn his back on glory and money, when he had victory in his grasp, and continue sailing to the Pacific Islands after seven months at sea, he became a guru for all small boat sailors. Jean-Michel Barrault was his friend for 36 years. He met him when Moitessier, having survived two shipwrecks, went to Paris in search of work. He got him to start writing about his adventures, which Moitessier did beautifully. More adventures followed, a trip from Tahiti to Spain via Cape Horn as a honeymoon. After finishing 'The Long Way', his most famous book, Moitessier and Joshua, his 39-foot ketch spent many years in Polynesia where he built his own house, planted coconut trees and transformed his atoll into a speck of green in the middle of the South Pacific. He lived in the United States for a time, lost his boat in Cabo San Lucas during a hurricane, and spent his last years in France, where he wrote his memoirs. Shortly before his death, Tamata and the Alliance was published to great acclaim. Moitessier, the internationally known sailor, writer and ecologist, became a legend in his own time.

About this title

From the Publisher

A review by Les Weatheritt, author of Atlantic Crossings: A Sailor's Guide to Europe and Beyond and Caribbean Passagemaking

It is the best book I've read on Moitessier (and as owners of a Joshua we read all we can get our hands on) and a stunningly good read in its own right.

Barrault manages to respect the philosopher/poet in Moitessier but what he really does justice to is Moitessier the man of action. It was good to be reminded of just how much action there was in the life, and how unstoppable the man could be, since somehow this could be devalued and slip from view in Moitessier's own writing. I love that wonderful moment when Barrault openly despairs at Moitessier's hippy years and gets snappy with Bernard for wasting his talents. This obviously comes out of a long and deep friendship between the two, hence the clear rejoicing by Barrault when Bernard recovers to become his own man again and get back to sailing.

It is clear from this book why Moitessier became a guru in his own lifetime but what Barrault does (more than Moitessier himself can) is to make Moitessier an inspiration to today's sailors. I don't regret reading all those books by Bernard but I wish I'd read this one by Barrault years ago when I was seriously considering going into the Pacific.

And the translation is first rate. I wonder - did Barrault write such a clear and elegant text in the original French or is it really just a feature of the English version?

From the Author

Bernard Moitessier has fascinated me both as a writer and as a sailor. As the editor at Sheridan House, I have been instrumental in selecting his books and I have edited the translations of two of his books, his wonderful autobiography Tamata and the Alliance and his only practical book, A Sea Vagabond's World, published posthumously. When I learned about the new French biography by Jean-Michel Barrault, I was immediately intrigued and decided to translate the book into English.

Peter Nichols, the best-selling author of A Voyage for Madmen, agreed to write an introduction. Moitessier was one of his heroes.

I remain puzzled by his incredible popularity among American sailors. Hardly a nautical book is being published that doesn’t mention Moitessier. He is so "Un-American," not the celebrated winner but rather the determined looser of the Golden Globe race. And yet his name is nowhere as close to magic as in the United States except perhaps in his native France. Vive la difference! Janine Simon

About this edition

• Publisher: Sheridan House
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1574092049
• ISBN 13: 9781574092042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224