Depending on your age, Antoine is a navigator who sang or a singer who became a navigator. In 1966, the singer, born in Tamatave ( Madagascar ), composed the Elucubrations, the song that made him famous, a summary of an era and its tensions.
The one who has travelled all the seas of the globe or almost has no salt water in his blood, as he explains: " When I was a kid, I crossed the Atlantic 4 times on an ocean liner before I was 10 years old. I lived on islands, but sailing and boats were not part of the family mythology. In a word, I was not born and raised on a sailboat, as is often the case for other sailors. "
Chance and coincidence
It was in 1969, during a tour in the south of France, that chance brought the singer into contact with sea water: " With my musicians, we rented a house in Saint-Raphaël for the summer. Next to the house was a half-abandoned shed. We went to visit it. Inside was an old plywood dinghy, the Quiva. One of my musicians suggested we go for a ride on the water, we had nothing to do that day "continues the singer.
" We barely stayed an hour on board this walnut hull that was taking on more water than we could bail out. Back on land, I wanted more, to do more and learn more. "
The "disease" contracted, the singer wants more sea spray and salt water.
He begins by documenting himself. By chance or almost, he falls on " Learn to sail in ten lessons "A book with a preface by Eric Tabarly. Chance guides the steps of the adventurer: " I went to a bookstore and found a book about going around the world on a schooner, the Europe. I was then 25 years old. "
A collective project for a finally solo navigation
With his group, the singer sets himself a challenge: " We set ourselves the goal of going to sea together five years later "explains Antoine.
During this time, the companions rented boats to learn again and again about navigation, the joys and setbacks of sailing. It is in particular on board of " Blue of Methylen " by Régis Théolier that the singer will draw from the edges.
First, the disgust
In 1973, Antoine left to sail the Mediterranean with his group of friends: " Back from Greece, even if the weather had been magnificent, I was disgusted by the navigation. The smallness of the boat, the watches and the responsibilities, all this had been too complicated to manage, I threw in the towel. "
To the point of proclaiming loudly and clearly " Never again a veil! "
Chance, always, brings the singer to another book. " I came across a book about a 16 year old kid who went on a solo trip around the world. I understood that in fact, the concern on board a boat is the others, not the boat itself. "
The following summer, the decision was made: the singer wanted to test himself as a solo sailor: " I rented a boat in Juan-les-Pins and went on a cruise by myself, to Saint-Tropez. Then, direction Brittany. I rented a sea breeze on the Vilaine river, I went to Belle-Ile and I reached La Rochelle under force 10. Back to the Vilaine, I took a lot of money but I loved it. It was at this moment, after this very adventure, that my life changed "explains the navigator.
" I had booked this boat for the month of October "Antoine adds. " A few weeks before, I came across a newspaper that talked about a new event in La Rochelle. It was during the first edition of the Grand Pavois that I met Michel Joubert who will be the architect of my boats. I also met Jacques Arthaud who published my books a few years later. "
The chance, always him.
The navigator orders his boat from a shipyard that will soon go bankrupt. He is contacted by Meta. " Meta offered to build the hull of my boat. They had built Moitessier's boat, so I was a little more confident then. I took delivery of a completely empty hull that I fitted out myself. And on June 4, 1974, my thirtieth birthday, I left, alone. I had kept my promise. "ends the singer.
" I am a proponent of the theory of triggers and coincidences " explains Antoine. " All my life, I've had chance encounters that gave me ideas. It was by chance that I started making films, because someone gave me the initial idea ".
On the water, we are not bothered
At 77 years old, Antoine still takes as much pleasure in sailing. What drives this eternal young man on the water?
" I like the sea because we are alone and we are not bothered " begins Antoine " The sea is a means of transport to other places, other people and other cultures. My partner has been sailing with me for twenty years and she doesn't like long crossings, that's why I sail in short trips. In my eyes, the boat is a means of transportation from point A to point B "he continues.
Praise for slowness? Perhaps. At least, praise for a certain idea of speed: " The boat is going at liberation speed, as Moitessier so beautifully wrote "explains the somewhat mellowed adventurer.
It is by leaps and bounds that Antoine launches himself, with no destination other than himself, this intimate stranger that one must sometimes find. With the happy assistance of luck, however: " On the day of my big departure, I meet by chance a meteorologist on the pontoons. He recommends me to have passed Cape Creus before noon. I listened to him and passed around eleven o'clock. As soon as my watch rang at noon, I saw a huge squall rising in the distance, just before the cape. I could have not met this gentleman, not spoken to him or not listened to him and found myself in the middle of it, putting an end to this adventure out of spite. "
Antoine meets and talks with many of what he calls himself references in the field: " Gérard Janichon and Jérôme Poncet advised me not to take the trade winds' highway, to follow my own route and my own way. I had to find my own way of sailing and living the water. I didn't feel like living on a boat twelve months out of twelve, I needed to come back to France a few months a year. "
The message is clear, Antoine needs to have fun on a boat, he doesn't want to be shaken up to feel happy, mobilis in mobili . " I am a tropical weather navigator." he explains . "I don't come back to Europe by boat. I choose to be in the pleasant latitudes at the right times, but not when it's crowded. I am a seeker of secret places. "
These are the secret places that have made, and still make, the success of Antoine's trips. Stuck in Australia, in a Sydney marina since the beginning of the health crisis, his boat is ready for new adventures.
Antoine's boats
The singer is not a boat collector. He has owned three different boats during his sailing life.
He has been sailing since 1988 aboard Banana Split, a 12.50-meter aluminum catamaran built by Prometa to a design by Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt.
The previous one, Voyage, was a 10-meter long sloop, also built by the Taranian shipyards according to the same architects' plans. Antoine is a faithful friend. He owned this sloop from 1981 to 1989.
Om was the first boat on which, from 1974, the singer became a solo sailor. This steel schooner of 14.14 meters long, was equipped with a lifting keel weighted with 4.2 tons of lead. It was Jérome Poncet who asked Michel Joubert to design this boat for the singer who had his very first boat built in the Rhone, in Tarare.
Why this choice of site? " Meta built Joshua, by Bernard Moitessier. I couldn't see myself trusting another yard with such a reference ".
How does Antoine see navigation?
The singer has never approached sailing as a personal challenge, a sort of relentless struggle against his own demons. This is a trait common to many long-distance sailors, but he has encountered it in others who have thrown themselves headlong into an adventure that requires rigor and preparation: "I'm not a sailor, I'm a sailor Renaud came to me for advice on buying a boat. He had not taken the time to practice slowly before launching himself. He was in a hurry to reach an intimate goal, without taking the time to travel "analyzes Antoine.
The navigator goes without a specific goal. He explains that he sails " in hindsight. I look at where I've arrived, and in my opinion, this is where I wanted to go. After all, if destiny has decided this way, there is probably a very good reason for it "Antoine laughs.
The present is tumultuous for the adventurers: " My last big crossing dropped me in French Polynesia (in the Tuamotu atoll). We returned via New Zealand. We landed in Tonga where I spent 2 years. From Tonga, we sailed to Australia until January 2020. We decided to come back to France a few days before the borders were blocked during winter. We are blocked in France since then. The boat remains south of Sydney waiting. "
However, don't think the traveler is empty of projects: " I will probably go back sailing in April. I'm going to New Zealand to present my film and my latest book. I'm just waiting for the borders to open again, the next day I'm on a plane. "
Among the projects of the singer, to put himself in the river, in metropolitan France and around: " At my age, it sometimes becomes difficult to do certain maneuvers. Not that inland navigation is reserved for a certain age group, but I remain faithful to my desire for pleasure. On the rivers, we will do the ride on nice boats. It is the famous speed of liberation of the river, we go to the discovery of people on the canals, the rivers and the streams. We are in contact with those who make the water. "
Antoine adds, still on the subject of inland navigation: " Along the waterways, nothing is being built. No shopping malls, no traffic circles, no parking lots. I believe that 90% of the waterways are as they were almost 100, 200 or 500 years ago. The river space is the new Eldorado of tranquility. I'll probably go up the Lot, I've spotted a solar boat rental, to reach this famous speed of liberation only by light. And to stop when nature decides, because there is no more light to move forward. "
Life on a boat is like life on land, with the added bonus of the sea
Antoine has travelled through the generations of navigators and the modes of navigation that are attached to them: "Boating has gone from the realm of dreams to luxury, high-end motorhomes. We used to buy bare hulls and fit them out ourselves. There is no more sailing today than there was then, it is only the use of the boats that has evolved "explains the navigator.
The adventurer completes " There is never a dull moment on a boat, there is enough to keep a young man busy. On a boat, you can do everything you do in a house, but with the added bonus of the sea. New technologies allow us to work from the other side of the world. During my stopover, I take pictures with a drone, I edit my films in progress and prepare the next ones. "
A few nuances however: " A boat is even more complicated than my farm [the singer owns a farm in Auvergne, editor's note]. On a boat, there is always something to do, it's a huge DIY, between maintenance, modifications, improvements. And the dream, too, which must never be forgotten, on land or at sea. "
From all these years spent at sea, Antoine keeps countless memories. He shares some of them with us.
Best memory on a boat?
" It is impossible to have a single best memory on a boat. Perhaps the discovery of the first anchorage with my wife, in a Tuamotu atoll, lost in the middle of nothing. "
Worst memory on a boat?
" In the tropics, in the middle of the night, I was violently reminded of Moitessier's words: ' in the tropics, you will go anyway on a reef, take a solid boat when I did it, alone and in the middle of the night, feeling very lonely to get it all back together. "
What's the next big date for the browser?
" I published my first book in 1982 ' set sail '. It was republished twice until 2010. It was a joint project with Moitessier, we wanted to put in a book everything you need to know when going on a boat. The book will be republished in the next few months. "
