Here in 2004 in Concarneau, Jean-Michel Barrault made his mark on sailing history. MARCEL MOCHET / AFP
The journalist-writer and distinguished sailor died at the age of 96. A page in sailing is turning.
A page in French boating and sailing has just turned. And painfully. Jean-Michel Barrault, renowned writer and distinguished navigator, died this Wednesday at the age of 96. World tourer and friend of the legendary Bernard Moitessier, he created the Course de l’Aurore with Jean-Louis Guillemard in 1970, which would become the Solitaire du Figaro and one of the most famous French ocean racing events.
Journalist for Le Figaro, his pen has also been used in the columns of Yacht, Neptune-nautique, Voiles et Voiliers – of which he will be editor-in-chief for a few years – and Voile magazine, but also Aurore and Le Télégramme. He was one of the very first to recount the exploits of ocean adventurers. A fine connoisseur of the sea and a beautiful seafarer, he who sailed from a very young age on sailing fishing boats in Le Croisic, he thrilled his readers with his great stories, his nautical flights, and participated in the popularity of sailing racing. His numerous works have enjoyed certain success and his personality left no one indifferent on the pontoons of the Aurore race then the Solitaire du Figaro, which he considered and pampered as his baby, and rightly so.
40 books rewarded with 12 literary prizes
Often accompanied by his wife Dany, who at sea also held the helm and did not hesitate to take care of the fragile stomachs of the novice journalists who covered Le Figaro with them on the press boat, he accompanied and supported the development of the race offshore in France for many decades before retreating to their beautiful apartment on Place des Vosges. And to keep a keen eye on the different races, never hesitating to pick up his phone to express a point of view or shed light on a racing event with his unrivaled knowledge of things at sea. Born in Nantes in 1932, Jean -Michel Barrault will have written 40 books, rewarded with 12 literary prizes.
The sea loses a sailor, a journalist, a writer but also a friend and a defender. Jean-Michel Barrault died two weeks after his wife Dany – on January 1 – and after 73 years of marriage… The latter was the first woman to skipper an all-female crew in offshore racing (Cowes-Dinard 1965) . After meeting at Sciences Po Paris, they notably completed two world tours as a couple as well as numerous crossings with friends (Cape Horn, Patagonian canals, Atlantic, Pacific). Le Figaro sends its sincere condolences to their family and loved ones.
