Director on board of Tabarly
Yves Hussenot is one of Eric Tabarly's crew members. He made his first feature film "Eric Tabarly et les autres" following him on the Atlantic Triangle, a preparatory race for the Whitbread, which linked Portsmouth - Cape Town and Rio before reaching Portsmouth. It was during this race, at the Rio stage, that Tabarly left his crew ashore to check for 10 days if he could handle Pen-Duick VI solo. He won the OSTAR the following year!
Cameras on the French Whitbread sailboats
After this meeting and this first film, which was a success in theaters and received several awards, Yves Hussenot returned to see Eric Tabarly during the Whitbread 1977-78. He found him in Auckland, New Zealand, and asked him to come aboard. His idea: to make a film by placing cameramen on several of the French sailing boats. He recovers the images at the end to edit them into a film.
In the second edition of this race which will become mythical, we find on the starting line the French sailboats:
- Pen-Duick VI skippered by Eric Tabarly
- Gauloise II, ex Pen-Duick III, skippered by Eric Loizeau
- 33 Export skippered by Alain Gabbay
- Japy Hermes skippered by Jean-Michel Viant
- Neptune skippered by Bernard Deguy
In addition to these great names of ocean racing of the time, many sailors who later became famous in ocean races were doing their training here. One will recognize on the pictures Philippe Poupon, Loïc Caradec, Jean-Claude Parisis, Titouan Lamazou, Jean-Louis Etienne, Michel Horeauâeuros¦
An enhanced version in 2020
The film "Cape Horn" was released in a 90-minute version. For this version cut into 9 episodes, Olivier Champeaux, FAC Television, has completed the film with interviews with the director and sailors of the time. This enriched version dates from 2020. But the images of this way of sailing, which seems from another time, are still as strong.
