He wanted to be the first solo sailor to reach 100 years of age. With the completion of a last transatlantic race at the age of 88, alone on board his sailboat, he came very close to this feat. Died in Redon in 2000 at the age of 89, Marcel Bardiaux left behind him a long wake on all the seas of the globe, the equivalent of 18 circumnavigations.
His sporting debut in kayak
Marcel Bardiaux, born in 1910 in Clermont-Ferrand, began his career in fresh water, on his kayak. For years, he was considered the best downstream kayaker in the sporting world. At the age of 20, he also made a solo tour of Europe in his canoe Belle-Etoile, with a total of 8,000 km of paddling.
On the professional side, he produces and markets kayaks and invents a folding dinghy model, the Bardiaux . At the end of the second world war, he started the construction of a sailboat, a cutter of 5 tons and 9,30m.
First round-the-world voyages
In 1950, when he was 40 years old, Marcel Bardiaux started a round-the-world trip that would last 8 years, on the sailboat he had built with his own hands, The Four Winds . He recounts this journey in a two-volume work: To the 4 winds of adventure . The first volume relates his navigations to Tahiti, passing by Cape Horn. The second volume tells the story of his crossing of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
The Journal de la Société des Océanistes stated, in 1961, that the particularity of the voyage was the considerable number of stopovers, which represents an enormous expenditure of energy and skill; the danger for the sailor is indeed much more the coast than the sea .
In those days, when on-board electronics and navigation aids did not exist, one had to be a tough sailor! The Cruising Club Of America awards Marcel Bardiaux the Blue Water Medal in 1958, for the maritime exploit of the year. Eric Tabarly also received it in 1963 and Bernard Moitessier in 1966.
A stainless steel sailboat, the first of its kind
Marcel Bardiaux, strengthened by this first round-the-world voyage, embarked on the construction of a new boat. He designed it entirely, looking for a solidity and unsinkability to face any navigation conditions. The ketch that took shape under his hands was made of stainless steel, a great first for a boat.
On board this 15-meter sailboat, Marcel Bardiaux sailed around the world single-handed in 229 days, which is a real feat for a 22-ton sailing boat.
He will then go into exile with INOX in Canada, in particular to avoid the evolution of French regulations and taxes on pleasure boats.
A colorful personality
Marcel Bardiaux continued his travels and his career as a writer of the sea by publishing several books on his navigations: The Adventures of Marcel Bardiaux in 1960, Marcel Bardiaux's tips in 1965, To the 4 winds of my love in 1975 and Between two world tours in 1995.
However, his style is not to everyone's taste and the Journal de la Société des Océanistes stated: As for the navigator, his particularity is his wrestling temperament, sympathetic although a little tiring, in the long run, for the reader.
Marcel Bardiaux has, indeed, a big mouth. He is a self-made man and is not a modest success by any means, which does not always please. He does not hesitate to attack other sailors either. " Moitessier, I taught him to sail, he says. I met him in Mauritius after one of his shipwrecks. He sank three boats without doing a quarter of what I did."
The old man and the sea
However, when the old man accomplished with his sailboat INOX his last solo Canada-France transatlantic race, at the age of 88, one can only admire his tenacity. Sir Francis Chichester said of him that he was " the most resistant of all the tough guys in France ". A tough sailor, in truth, who has earned his place in the pantheon of great navigators. However, we too often forget to mention him.
