Bernard Moitessier

Abaixo reproduzo o que a wiki diz sobre Moitessier, que refiro no post anterior. Foi uma figura absolutamente marcante e original na vela do século XX. A sua participação na primeira corrida à volta do mundo em solitário - 1968 - (sem escala, porque no ano anterior Sir Francis Chichester também o fez no seu Gypsy Moth IV, mas com paragem na Austrália para reparações) ficou para a história porque de repente abandonou a corrida e resolveu fazer uma nova circum-navegação, esquecendo prémios e aproando ao Tahiti onde viveu vários anos, seguindo o exemplo de Gaugin e Jacques Brel na Polinésia, Hiva Oa. Esta história tem um fascínio especial em particular pelas circunstâncias extraordinárias em que se deu a Volta ao Mundo do Sunday Times, mas a isto voltaremos noutro post.

Bernard Moitessier (10 April 1925 Hanoi, Vietnam – 16 June 1994 near Paris, France) was a renowned French yachtsman and author of books about his voyages and sailing.
In 1968, Moitessier participated in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a race to become the first sailor to circumnavigate the earth alone and non-stop. Although Moitessier stood a very good chance of winning, he abandoned his effort seven months into the race, and continued on to Polynesia rather than returning to England. The decision to abandon is instructive of Moitessier's character - although driven and competitive, he passed up a chance at instant fame and a record, and sailed on for three more months. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston went on to both win the race and become the first man to circumnavigate the globe alone without stopping. After his 37,000-mile (60,000 kilometre) voyage, Moitessier wrote The Long Way, a classic sailing narrative.

For the 1968 race, Moitessier sailed a 12 metre steel-hulled ketch, the Joshua. He had the vessel built in 1961, and named it after Joshua Slocum, the first sailor to circumnavigate the globe alone (over a three year period with numerous stops).
Moitessier circumnavigated the world and sailed almost two-thirds of the way round a second time, all non-stop and mostly in the roaring forties. Despite heavy weather and a couple of severe knockdowns, he contemplated rounding the Horn again. However, he decided that he and Joshua had had enough and sailed to Tahiti, where he and his wife had set out for Alicante. He thus completed his second personal circumnavigation of the world (including the previous voyage with his wife) on 21 June 1969. He then started work on his book.
It is impossible to say whether Moitessier would have won if he had completed the race, as he would have been sailing in different weather conditions than Knox-Johnston; based on his time from the start to Cape Horn being about 77% of that of Knox-Johnston, it would have been an extremely close race. His book, The Long Way, tells the story of his voyage as a spiritual journey as much as a sailing adventure and is still regarded as a classic of sailing literature. Joshua was beached, along with many other yachts, by a famous hurricane at Cabo San Lucas in 1982. It was salvaged and restored, and is berthed in La Rochelle, France.
Moitessier wrote several books about his voyages and the sea, and was an environmental activist against nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. He died of cancer on 16 June 1994 and is buried in Le Bono, in Brittany, France.