Podcast : Olivier de Kersauson
This man is the object of a colossal misunderstanding. An exceptional sailor, he is too often confined to the role of media prankster, radio comedian, comic-opera admiral. This prince of humour and poetry does not disown his career as a jester of the waves… the airwaves, that is. It gave him the key to his freedom. His performer’s fees paid for his lives as a sailor. A free sailor.
Olivier de Kersauson was not baptised into offshore sailing by Éric Tabarly, as so many racers of his generation and those that followed were. But his life took on its epic dimension alongside the most famous of French skippers. He had been delivering sailing boats for months when Tabarly swept him up into the whirlwind of the Pen Duick saga. From there came his passion for extraordinary maritime adventures, for ocean crossings bound by no rulebook, for voyages around the world, solo or crewed, with or without stopovers. A peerless boat handler on the deck of big yachts, Kersauson never became a professional driver in sailing’s Formula One. He remained what he was: a romantic skipper capable of mad challenges.
This lover of the sea and of boats (all boats, whether sail or motor) held his course. He took a route of his own, far from the set courses, far from career plans. He sailed every ocean in the world, rounded fearsome capes, explored unknown shores, broke impossible records.
For a full hour, for the Musée de la Plaisance, Olivier de Kersauson shared his vision of the sea, of sailors and of boats. His vision of life, in short.
Olivier Péretié
“Fortune de Mer”, published in 1976, was a bestseller despite the fact that it recounts a fiasco: a round-the-world race that drew only four boats, and a much-heralded duel between the two favourites (one of them Kriter II, skippered by Olivier) that was cut short at the halfway point when Kriter II lost her rudder… But this book in fact tells of something other than a race: the incredible saga of a crew of misfits and their skipper, as brilliant and charismatic as he was tyrannical!
“Mémoires Salées” (1985) is the exhilarating autobiography of a great sailor who gained extraordinary fame by also being one of the stars of the radio show “Les Grosses Têtes”.
“Vieil Océan” (1990) is the poignant account of a record-breaking 125-day voyage around the world, solo and on a multihull.
“Homme Libre” (1994) recounts the epic duel fought between Olivier de Kersauson and Peter Blake for the Jules Verne Trophy, the record for sailing non-stop around the world. Olivier de Kersauson failed, but the story remains gripping!
“Tous les océans du Monde” (1997) tells of the revenge of Olivier de Kersauson and his crew, and their epic struggle to wrest the Jules Verne Trophy from Peter Blake. With a new record to show for it.
“Ocean’s Song” (2008), part poetry, part philosophy, part geography, allows Olivier de Kersauson to describe, as no one else can, the seas and oceans of the world that he has been ploughing for decades.