moitessier yacht joshua

JOSHUA IS BACK!

The 2022 Golden Globe Race has a new CLASS II. A steel ONE DESIGN replica of Bernard Moitessier’s original JOSHUA ketch will set out in September 2022 in one of the greatest adventure races the world has seen , on a solo non-stop unsupported circumnavigation of the earth,. Only about 100 people have ever achieved that while up to 700 people have been into Space!

« In the spirit of Bernard Moitessier, JOSHUA returns. »– Don McIntyre

Bernard Moitessier’s iconic 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe race yacht JOSHUA has long been admired by ocean voyagers and Sea Gypsies as the ultimate ride. As captain under telegraph pole masts, Bernard became legend when during that Golden Globe he famously altered course to Tahiti after rounding Cape Horn just 17 days behind Suhaili, rather than return to England and certain fame, to…  « Save My Soul « …  as he put it.

Now officially protected as an historic monument under French law, she is a sailing museum piece in the La Rochelle Maritime Museum. Designed by Jean Knocker in the mid 60’s, nearly 70 reproductions were built over the next 25 years. Building stopped decades ago and plans for owner builders are no longer available. That is all about to change.

The Organizers of the 50th Anniversary edition 2018 Golden Globe Race in a salute to Bernard Moitessier, have commissioned a new JOSHUA Golden Globe One Design (GGOD) yacht in the spirit of the original JOSHUA. This yacht will run as a new Class II in the 2022 Golden Globe Race with maximum 10 entries allowed. It is also available for Cruising sailors to build or buy.

In the spirit of Moitessier’s original JOSHUA, everything about this new design speaks of the original. With a slightly longer hull, a little more beam, draught and main mast, the essence remains. She looks, feels and will sail with the original. Built in Multi-chine 5mm and 6mm steel plate to One Design Class Rules, she is incredibly strong with five watertight compartments.

This JOSHUA GG One Design is being constructed under licence by experienced steel boat builder  ASBOAT (Izmir Turkey)  ( www.asboat.com ) to CE Standard. Kit Plans with a digitized cutting tape for a plasma cut steel kit to build your own cruising version are also available.

If you dare to race the 2022 Golden Globe Race in the wake of Moitessier, or dream of sailing safely in the Southern Ocean, or the high latitudes of Antarctica or the Arctic, maybe even French Polynesia to Free Your Soul, then this new JOSHUA GGOD will be your next adventure!

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BERNARD MOITESSIER: What Really Happened to Joshua

Bernard Moitessier is remembered primarily for his famous 1968-69 Golden Globe voyage, in which he blew off a chance to win the first non-stop singlehanded round-the-world race and kept on sailing halfway around the world again to Tahiti to “save his soul.” But he is also remembered for wrecking not one, but three different boats during the course of his sailing career. As is documented in his first book, Sailing to the Reefs ( Un Vagabond des Mers Sud in the original French), he lost two boats named Marie-Therese sailing on to reefs in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean in 1952 and 1958. Much later, in 1982, he lost Joshua , the 40-foot steel ketch that made him famous, on a beach at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.

Moitessier had sailed to Mexico from San Francisco with Klaus Kinski , the notoriously unstable German actor who at the time was very well known for his roles in films directed by Werner Herzog . Kinski had paid to come along so Moitessier could teach him about ocean sailing. Five days after the pair reached Cabo, on the night of December 8, Joshua and 25 other boats in the anchorage were blown ashore in a freak storm.

Moitessier on the beach with Joshua the morning after the storm

Moitessier wrote a full account of the incident, which was published in the March 1983 issue of Cruising World magazine.  In it he gives a detailed description of how he and Kinski were blown on to the beach with the boat:

At sunset, the wind blows from the southeast, not too strong, but I don’t like it. Then it increases. No stars. Then it increases again. I know (I think I know…) that it cannot last in this season but I am pleased with my decision to get the second anchor ready.

Still there is a strange feeling in my guts.

Sometime later in the night, the wind becomes much stronger and there is a big swell. I am on deck, wondering. Then, a strong gust of wind. Now I am seriously worried. This is bad weather.

Suddenly, the 55-pound CQR drags on the coarse, sandy bottom. I let go the second anchor and Joshua faces the wind again. The swell has increased a lot.

Another gust, real strong. It seems that it lasts forever. My God, Joshua is dragging again, fast!

Very soon after this, we are on the beach. The rudder touches first. Then the boat pivots slowly. Now it is laying over, sideways on the beach with heavy seas breaking on the deck, which is canted away from the beach.

My mind still refuses to believe it… but this is the hard, very hard reality. Open your eyes, you monkey, your boat is on the beach; open your eyes, you stupid monkey, and don’t pretend that you did not know that this could happen.

And so on. Moitessier goes on at great length to describe an argument, with much quoted dialogue, wherein he insists that Kinski leave the boat, and Kinski refuses. Finally the quarrelsome actor is persuaded to go ashore, and the story continues, with a detailed description of what it was like for Moitessier being aboard alone as his boat’s rig came down, as other boats piled into her, etc., etc.

All of it gripping stuff, and so the story was passed on. It reappeared in consistent form in Moitessier’s last book, his autobiography, Tamata and the Alliance , published in 1993, and also in a biography, Moitessier: A Sailing Legend , by Jean-Michel Barrault, which was published in 2004.

I heard a very different version, however, from Lin and Larry Pardey , who flew into Cabo to cover the disaster for SAIL magazine immediately afterwards. According to the Pardeys, Moitessier instantly confessed to them that he and Kinski had been up in a hotel room partying their brains out while his beloved boat was driven ashore untended. He urged them at first to share the true story with their readers, so everyone would understand what an idiot he had been–“a monkey,” as he always liked to put it–but then later changed his mind and gave them the fiction that has since been handed down in print.

The Pardeys were good friends with Moitessier, so they went along with this, though obviously they have been willing to share the true story privately. I thought of this again recently, when discussing the Pardeys with Cruising World ‘s Herb McCormick, who has just written a biography of the famous cruising duo, As Long As It’s Fun , that is due to be published next month. I urge you to check it out once it’s available, as I expect you’ll find this and many other titillating tales from the golden age of cruising buried in its pages.

Joshua under sail today

And on the hard, waiting for a scrub. Note how very long her keel is

Meanwhile, of course, Joshua didn’t die on that beach in Mexico. Moitessier felt he couldn’t cope with salvaging and refitting the boat, so he gave her away on the spot (technically, he sold her for $20), and she has since landed at the La Rochelle Maritime Museum in France, where since 1990 she has been scrupulously maintained and exercised on a regular basis. Here’s a fine video that gives a good sense of what it’s like sailing aboard her these days:

And here’s another viddy with lots of film footage that Moitessier shot during his great voyage in 1968-69. It’s utterly fantastic stuff, particularly the shots from up the mast, where you can see how much sail he crowded on. What’s particularly impressive is how he laced a big bonnet on to his genoa to maximize area:

Some may recall that Joshua also became the center of a mini-controversy that erupted in 2000 when she was hijacked by a French sailor, Jacques Peignon, who raced her singlehanded in that year’s Europe 1/New Man STAR transatlantic race without the Maritime Museum’s permission.

Peignon finishes the 2000 STAR aboard Joshua in Newport, Rhode Island, after “borrowing” her from her owners

The gutsy singlehander was greeted by angry museum officials when he stepped ashore in Newport and wasn’t allowed to sail the boat back to France. Instead the museum found a delivery crew, which included Moitessier’s son, Stephan, who had never before done an offshore passage.

Stephan Moitessier (second from left) with the crew that sailed Joshua back to France in 2000

I met Stephan, who works as a photographer and videographer , in New York City in 2002, while he was helping Reid Stowe prepare his schooner Anne for his 1,000 Day Voyage . Stephan was reluctant to talk much about his father, but he did say he very much enjoyed his voyage aboard Joshua . At the time he was looking to get aboard other boats to do more passages, but I don’t know if much ever came of that.

Stephan Moitessier aboard the schooner Anne in New York Harbor

As for the famous Bernard, what are we to make of the fact that he flat-out lied to the world about what really happened that night in Mexico? I really think age had a great deal to do with it. If you read Sailing to the Reefs , you’ll see he was perfectly honest (or at least appears to be) about the mistakes he made that led to his first two shipwrecks. What was truly remarkable about those losses was how quickly he rebounded from them and rebuilt again from nothing. By the time he lost Joshua , however, he didn’t have nearly as much energy (he said as much in his story in Cruising World ), and I think he knew, consciously or not, that all he had left really was the fame he had earned when he was younger.

Bernard Moitessier alone aboard Joshua during the Golden Globe Race

He didn’t care what others thought when he decided to save his soul during the Golden Globe Race. But he obviously cared a great deal about his reputation when he spoke with Lin and Larry Pardey in Mexico, and he was willing to sell his soul to preserve it.

BONUS VIDEO: This features an interview with Moitessier in English aboard Joshua , with several highlights from his life. You’ll see towards the end several glimpses of Stephan as a boy:

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Bernard was a tired man when he left the South Pacific circa late-1980s or early-1990s. He was discouraged from failing to get the Tahitians to adopt his green living, environmental ideas, and he was concerned that Stephan, 11, needed stimulation that he just wasn’t getting in the islands. I was among those who helped him get speaking opportunities and fees, but there just wasn’t enough to sustain a family. Going to Mexico was an escape. It didn’t work.

Great article Charlie. Thanks for writing. Moitessier is to me the saintly sailor of our recent history. I had the privilege of briefly meeting the brilliant, modest, gentle man. He was completely unique; his esteemed place in long distance sailing history secure.

If indeed he chose in his dotage to change the story somewhat because an irresponsible actor with a very bad rep somehow making him leave Joshua and be ashore that fateful night, surely he not only deserves to be cut many fathoms worth of slack; the outcome even had he been aboard, under those conditions,may well have been the same. Cap’n Fatty’s been hanging with the Pardy’s in NZ lately. I am going to send him this, and see if he can confirm what someone said the Pardy’s said about this incident so many years ago. Whatever the truth, as far as I am concerned, it leaves no stain whatsoever on one of the finest sailors and men this watery world of ours has known.

Fascinating. I often wonder just how many of the cruising stories we have are more in tune with Tristan Jone’s ideas of the truth, which could largely be summed up as ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a good sea story’.

Pardey’s wrote about this years ago: See the chapter on Cabo in the Capable Cruiser. Page 315 in this edition:

http://books.google.com/books?id=oE9aGHwxpsIC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=%22cabo+san+lucas%22+pardey&source=bl&ots=7zggm4kfbW&sig=O8PJW9L5r0083RfQe8eZcoZQY5Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T9-gUoiIMuOYyAHxuIDwAg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22cabo%20san%20lucas%22%20pardey&f=false

Great feature. Good job piecing it all together.

I like to call it literary license (artistic to some). It’s my story and I’m sticking to it…

Speaking of the golden age of cruising, it will be a shame when stories like these and many others from the likes of the Pardeys, Webb Chiles, Fatty Goodlander, and more begin collecting dust and losing details. Glad to hear McCormick is preserving some of it in a new book.

How excellent & so very interesting this article is. I take it for the most part as a compliment to Moitessier. In reading his books I found his philosophy to be very naive. This did not in the least detract from what he did, or the immensely exuberant spirit with which he sailed. Likewse his getting wrecked 3x. The circumstances of the last wreck is curious. Assuming this is true, I note that the wind was onshore. Given a crappy little dinghy on the beach, 2 foot breaking waves are enough to strand one ashore. One just nuts it out.. but obviously the waves just got bigger & bigger…

@Nick: It’s worth pointing out that all three of his wrecks were boat-shore conflicts. With sea room he never really got into any trouble, per the old saw about ships being safest offshore. As for what happened at Cabo… I don’t think anyone would have thought less of him if he’d followed his first instinct to tell the truth. What’s amazing about the Cruising World article he wrote is how detailed he made his fiction. It makes you wonder about other things he wrote.

Yo Charlie! I love this Moitessier stuff! I even think I took the photo (on slide film no less!) and did a short piece on Stephan and the “pirate” crew when they washed ashore at the Mystic Seaport back in the day. Love stuff like this!

@Bill: I guess you did take that photo, but weren’t credited for it. I found the old issue of SAIL that your story ran in. You may remember I was the one who tipped you off that Stephan was going to be aboard.

Charlie, Thanks for putting together this fascinating compilation. If I could add a few trivia?

My friend Claudia sailed from Costa Rica to the South Pacific back in that era, and happened to spend a couple of weeks anchored in the same lagoon where Moitessier had home/seasteaded. As she described it, Joshua was streaked with rust and hadn’t sailed for some time, and Bernard was at the end of his tropical dream. She suggested that he come to San Francisco and start a new life. She, her father and others like Kimball Livingston were instrumental in helping him find part time gigs.

When Joshua was given away after being shipwrecked in Cabo, her voyaging days were not over. The guys who pumped the sand out and put her back together sailed her the several thousand miles upwind to Puget Sound, and she ended up a few docks away from where I lived aboard in Port Townsend, with (as I recall) the original telephone pole masts and hand tarred rigging in place.

@Richard: Thanks for sharing. I would love to know more about Joshua’s interim years between Cabo and France. When was it you saw her in Port Townshend? charlie

Hard to put a time line on it, as I moved to Seattle soon after and don’t recall seeing Joshua after that. My impression was that she spent a couple of years in the Northwest before being sold or donated to the maritime museum in France. I believe she left the Northwest by truck–must have then been sailed transatlantic from the east coast.

Years ago there was an article in Nautical Quarterly that described Bernard Moitessier’s final years on land in France where he was involved in a program to replant roadside trees.

Over the years Joshua’s sisters have kept up the traditions of adventure she started. I met two brothers from France and their families who lived aboard identical aluminum boats in Seattle. The brothers had been the first private citizens to winter over in Antarctica aboard their first boat— a sister ship to Joshua named KIM as I recall.

You are correct. Moitessier’s Joshua was found beached and abandoned in the sand near Pt. Townsend Washington. I shot the video for the team that found the boat. A group of French media and Rochelle curators arrived from La Rochelle Maritime Museum, and the Maritime Museum of Paris. The boat was deck-loaded back to France. We drank a great deal of red of wine 😉 The person who found the boat was Virginia Conner along with her husband Sam Conner. We used their boat to stage the French crew in Seattle.

On the night of Dec 8, 1983 a novice sailor, I was alone on the Sea Nymph, a Cutter rigged, Peterson 44, at anchor off of the beach in Cabo San Lucas. When I heard on the radio that The Joshua was on the beach i was scared to death, thinking that there was little hope for me. The waves were huge but the real worry was the contents of all the boats that had gone ashore. I was worried about getting tangled up in the remnants of the boats. Fortunately i had a Bruce anchor on the bow with 250 feet of 3/8 chain. I learned later that the anchor fell over a cliff and it took several of us about 24 hours to raise it on a sheet winch. I and my son were also present the night that Joshua was pushed off of the beach. My son was on a shrimp trawler which was hooked to Joshua while a man with Caterpillar 977K/977L Crawler Loader – pushed from the beach. There was not much for me to do except take photos and light a cigarette and pass it to Bernard as his were soaked. Later i helped Joe and American and Rado a Swiss as i recall, empty what must have been tons of wet rice out of every nook and cranny on the boat. They then spent many hours below wearing hearing protectors while pounding out an enormous dent in the port side of the boat. The original rigging and sails were history but the shore was littered with all manor of boat accessories. They scoured the beach and found a new mast, sails, and rigging and finally got the boat ready to sail. They invited all their friends and those who had helped for a day sail. I believe that it was the fastest that i have ever gone on a mono hull cruise boat. Dec. 8, 1982 was one of the most exciting nights of my life. Meeting and interacting with Bernard is one of the great joys of my life. Sailing on the resurrected Joshua was one of the great honors of my life.

I’ve noticed several sources including Wikipedia claim that hurricane Paul wrecked Joshua. Yet Paul was diminished in early October. Having read most of Bernard’s books, and this article, I researched the storm data for 1982. I cannot find a December freak storm that was named or numbered. What storm actually caused this much damage and lured Sail magazine to cover it?

Sorry, I forgot to check the notify box. And thanks to anyone who can help clear this up for me

So essentially we have only Lin and Parry word about this story, and Bernard can’t belie them… I always doubt when some defamatory accounts are made after one is dead. In any case I don’t think it was a fair thing to be done on Lin and Larry’s part.

HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SOLD JOSHUA !

Doug Montgomery We hooked up with the Joshua at the cruisers race week at Isla Partido at the second event, Joe Reto, Uli and Baby Necter we part of the crew. Water ballons and a gas powered blender led to cruising fun. the boat had been refit and sailing was a fun interesting read of all the comments. the Joshua crew where witness to our wedding at the cival registry but that is another day have fun–

Hello Charles Having first read 2 books of Moitessier (“Vagabond des mers du sud” and “Cap Horn à la voile”) I was just finishing his biography by J-M Barrault when I found your very interesting post, and furthermore the excellent link toward Pardey’s book given by Colin Sarsfield in one of the comments. On this basis, I decided to write to J-M Barrault to challenge the version that indeed he gives in his book. The nature and also the timing of Barrault’s answers let me think strongly that he was not unaware of the alternative version, and that in any case he must have suspected at some time the lie of Moitessier. Since this exchange was rather long, I probably can’t insert it fully in this comment, but I would be quite happy to forward it to anyone who would be interested in it. I still hold in great esteem Bernard Moitessier outstanding personality, but I like to discover more about human psychology through these delicious anecdotes as the lie of Moitessier, and probably also Barrault’s one!-) [email protected]

A person that became a legend in his youth, a person that discovered himself, flying over the wild and bountiful sea and gifted us the song that he learned there, sang it to the world, so fucking beautifully, you are going to denigrate that gift? I do not understand. A person living on the edge, pushing experience to the limits, had a couple accidents? He had a couple shipwrecks. Jesus wept. Only 3 shipwrecks? Why not 12? I love sailing. I am a sailor. I have sailed my beloved boat into the dock. hard and all the people watching shook their heads. Yet I can sail better than anybody you have ever met. My brother, wildly better than me, that fella can sail backwards and pull into a marina and dock like he is parallel parking a car. Sailing is more than its mechanics. I love the Pardeys (deeply) but for my money they do not even come remotely close to Bernard.

Charlie, Thanks for putting together this fascinating compilation. If I could add a few trivia? My friend Claudia sailed from Costa Rica to the South Pacific back in that era, and happened to spend a couple of weeks anchored in the same lagoon where Moitessier had home/seasteaded. As she described it, Joshua was streaked with rust and hadn’t sailed for some time, and Bernard was at the end of his tropical dream. She suggested that he come to San Francisco and start a new life. She, her father and others like Kimball Livingston were instrumental in helping him find part time gigs. When Joshua was given away after being shipwrecked in Cabo, her voyaging days were not over. The guys who pumped the sand out and put her back together sailed her the several thousand miles upwind to Puget Sound, and she ended up a few docks away from where I lived aboard in Port Townsend, with (as I recall) the original telephone pole masts and hand tarred rigging in place.

The Pardeys and the Knox J’s of this world, dont even come remotely close to Moitessier.

Allez vous faire cuire un oeuf. Lentement.

I remember meeting Cap’n fatty, another guy trying to make a living out of his ‘not so interesting’ stories. We had a very lengthy lunch in Milos, hi performing a bad one man show, us listening to this old man comparing himself to Moitessier and s***ting on him between two orders yelled at his submitted wife… Very sad. If you make a living out of your stories, they better be good stories, if you make a living out of your person, you’d better be a good person. Au demeurant, la bave du crapaud…

I was one day out of Cabo the night of the storm on my Boat Tin Lizzie I arrived around 1400 hours December 9th 1983 , Bernard was and is not anyone to look up to that day. One day doesn’t make a mans history but that one day is part of it

I sailed to Mexico for Race Week, Isla Partida, with Joe and Rado in mid 80s(?). What a great boat. It had a steel tiller about 3″ around! Once trimmed however she sailed herself without anyone on the tiller. I had no idea it ended up abandoned on the hard in Washington. I know Joe was from there and had sailed Joshua back there in the late 80s or so. What a shame! I knew she went to France to a museum, but I wasn’t aware of how. I just glad she is safe and still sailing!

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Joshua one-design yacht unveiled for Golden Globe Race 2022

• Katy Stickland

The legacy of French legendary yachtsman, Bernard Moitessier, will be celebrated with a second class of 40ft Joshua steel-built one-design yachts for the Golden Globe Race 2022 fleet

The battle between Bernard Moitessier’s Joshua and Robin Knox-Johnson’s Suhaili in the 1968-69 Sunday Times  Golden Globe Race has gone down in solo sailing history.

Now, the Frenchman’s legendary ketch is being celebrated with the introduction of a second class of 40-ft Joshua steel-built one-design yachts to the revived Golden Globe Race.

But it won’t be for the 2018 race, which is expected to start and finish in Plymouth on 30 June 2018.

Instead, this new class will be introduced to the race planned for 2022.

Bernard Moitessier on Joshua

Race organisers say the decision to introduce the Joshua one-design is not only to mark the contributions by Moitessier, but to test whether the French yacht would have come close to beating Knox-Johnston’s 32-foot Bermuda ketch, Suhaili.

A maximum fleet of 10 Joshua Golden Globe one-design yachts will make up a Class 2 start on Sunday, 21 August, 2022, approximately three weeks after the smaller Suhaili class yachts.

The exact date will be determined from the average time that the first six yachts take to complete the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

‘The leading yachts in next year’s race are predicted to better Suhaili’s 313 day record by 40 to 50 days, so it is important to set a realistic rather than historic time gap between the two classes,” explained race founder, Don McIntyre.

Hull number one, currently under construction at Asboat Yacht Builder in Izmir, Turkey, will be alongside the original Joshua at the start of the 2018 Golden Globe Race in Plymouth.

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Organisers say everything about this new one-design class “speaks of the original Joshua.”

“She may be slightly longer, have a little more beam and draft, together with a taller main mast, but the essence remains. She looks, feels and will sail just like the original,” they add.

Constructed from laser-cut 5mm, 6mm and 8mm steel sheet, these multi-chined class yachts are being built to strict one-design rules.

“This is an exciting development for the Golden Globe Race, creating a new class of simple, safe, affordable and competitive one-design yachts to race around the world,” continued McIntyre.

Credit: Golden Globe Race/PPL

“They are incredibly strong with five watertight compartments and will make classic high latitude adventure yachts able to cruise safely anywhere in the world, including Antarctica, before or after the 2022 Golden Globe Race,” he added.

The strict one-design rules also stipulate the number of sails that can be carried during the race, and to make it a completely level playing field, sails for all Joshua class yachts will be supplied by one official loft.

And to further the spirit of Bernard Moitessier, competitors can use only replicas of Joshua’s original wind vane self steering system.

Bernard Moitessier works on Joshua’s sails. Credit: Getty Images

And unlike the original Joshua, the new one-design will not have reclaimed telegraph poles as masts

A fully-equipped Joshua GGR yacht and entry in the 2022 Golden Globe Race will cost around   € 300,000.

Joshua One Design Technical Specifications:

LOA:  14.00m (incl. bowsprit) LOH:  12.40m LWL: 10.25m Beam: 3.75m 
Draft: 1.62m Disp:  15.00 tonnes

Further details are at the official website.

The 2018 Golden Globe Race, set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Knox-Johnston’s victory in his traditional 32ft yacht Suhaili, has attracted 27 sailors from 14 countries to compete in similar type yachts between 32-36ft in length.

Entries for the 2022 Golden Globe Race will open on 22 August 2018.

The current 22 production yacht designs, including Eric designed Suhaili replicas approved for the 2018 GGR, will be maintained and make up the Suhaili Class. This will have a maximum of 20 entries.

The new Joshua Class will be restricted to 10 entries, all built under licence to the same strict one-design rules.

The Notice of Race will be modelled on that for the 2018 Golden Globe Race with only minor amendments expected.

There will be overall and class winners, together with a special trophy for the first Joshua class yacht to reach Tahiti on the second lap

Sailing on Joshua

My teenage years were spent reading about pioneering sailors like Joshua Slocum, Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnston. It was their hair-raising stories of huge seas, dramatic sunsets, and being at one with the oceans that first inspired me to get immersed in the sport. Like many others, the dream of course was to emulate their great voyages. Five decades on from the »Sunday Times Golden Globe Race«, i’ve finally been rewarded with a god-given opportunity to sail On Moitessier’s legendary yacht Joshua .

Now owned and maintained as a living museum piece by the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle, this distinctive bright red ketch is a national treasure in France and Moitessier the father figure of French solo sailing. It has taken a year of planning to gain permission from the French Government for her to be sailed over to England in 2018 to join the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the 1968/9 ≫Sunday Times Golden Globe Race≪. Joshua and her enthusiastic crew have been given a month-long licence to return to Plymouth and Falmouth, UK, in June next year for the start of the 2018 Golden Globe Race. Moitessier is best remembered as the man who, after rounding Cape Horn, turned his back on glory to continue to make a second circuit of the Southern Ocean – ≫because,≪ he said, ≫I am happy at sea, and perhaps to save my soul.≪ Instead of chasing after Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili for the Golden Globe trophy and ￡5,000 cash prize for the fastest circumnavigation, Moitessier turned east. The first the world knew of this dramatic change of heart was when he appeared off Cape Town about the time he was expected in the English Channel, and catapulted a film canister containing the famous message onto the bridge of an anchored tanker for the crew to pass on to Paris and London.

Biographer Peter Nichols believes the Frenchman became a hero, not so much for his epic voyages but for his epic ambivalence and human frailty. He was almost certainly bipolar; unstoppably enthusiastic and grimly depressive by turns, this wire, alternately taut and loose, threaded itself through everything he did and compounded the contradictions of his life and outlook. Much of this is reflected in Joshua . First launched in 1961, French naval architect Jean Knocker took 14 months to turn Moitessier’s detailed sketches into a workable plan. 40 ft overall with a 6 ft bowsprit, Bernard chose steel as the best construction material to minimise maintenance and maximise on strength. He wanted a yacht with a good performance upwind. His previous boats had all been traditional Asian built fishing boats and junks that lacked any sort of performance closehauled. He wanted shallow draft to explore the coral seas. Knocker had suggested a centreboard but Bernard refused. In the end, they compromised on a 1.5 m draft. Moitessier also specified a Norwegian styled pointed stern which he said divides and eases a breaking sea’s violent push when running. He also wanted a Marconi ketch rig. He liked the idea of a comfortable interior divided between two independent cabins with full headroom in each, though the Norwegian stern shape made the aft cabin less roomy. He used this for storage, which gave him all the more space in the main cabin to eat, navigate and sleep. When the weather was bad, he could also steer the boat from inside the main cabin, by simply removing the tiny spoked wheel on the outside of the cabin bulkhead, and re-attach it on the opposite end of the spindle inside.

Joshua was launched as a bare hull early in 1962 and finished in something of a rush  

Moitessier’s first booking for the sailing school he had started was on April 15! Her main mast was a 57 ft heavy telegraph pole rigged with galvanised wire scrounged from the same telephone company. Her mizzen mast had similar parentage. Halyards, sheets and mooring ropes were pulled from garbage bins, then spliced into usable lengths. There were no winches. Instead, he relied on a block and tackle named Attila to tension the lines. There was no money for an engine either, and Moitessier planned to ship two sets of oars before a friend took pity and donated a 2-stroke 7-hp engine. Joshua was readied just in time, but by the end of the season he and his new bride Francoise were exhausted by it all. That was when the idea of a honeymoon cruising around the world came up. The two set off from Marseille bound for Tahiti via Panama in 1963. Three years later, they returned non-stop via Cape Horn finishing up in Alicante, Spain, to record the longest passage ever made in a sailboat. The voyage was far from easy. Moitessier described one storm as an ≫end of the world gale≪. For six days, they endured hurricane strength winds, which threw up enormous waves – ≫breakers 150–200 metres long, breaking without interruption ≪. Moitessier employed all his trailing lines and sea anchor to slow their progress but Joshua still came within an ace of capsizing. How had the Argentine sailor Vito Dumas coped during his solo circumnavigation via the three great Capes aboard his 31 ft double-ended ketch Legh II back in 1942/3? While Bernard wrestled with the wheel inside Joshua’s cabin, Francoise read the passage where Dumas revealed his secret: ≫To escape the fury of the sea, keep up your speed.≪

There was no way he could reel in the warps or sea anchor, so Moitessier cut them free

Joshua became liberated, responding to any touch to the helm to take the breaking waves on her quarter. It was the following year that Francis Chichester became the first to complete a one-stop solo circumnavigation aboard Gipsy Moth IV. That got everyone, including Moitessier, thinking about attempting to become the first to do it non-stop. ≫The Sunday Times≪ newspaper stepped in to make a race of it. The Frenchman was appalled. When approached by the paper, Moitessier exploded. ≫This proposal makes me want to throw up. It is a sacrilege to turn what is the ultimate challenge into a race.≪ Undaunted, the man from ≫The Sunday Times≪ persisted with a suggestion that the paper amends its rules to allow a competitor to start from France. To their utter amazement, Moitessier performed a complete volt face. ≫I shall leave Toulon as soon as possible for Plymouth where I shall start the race.≪

There was a barb: ≫If I’m both the first home and the fastest, I’ll snatch the cheque without saying thank you, auction off the Golden Globe and leave without a word for ›The Sunday Times‹. That way I will make a public statement of the contempt I feel for your paper’s project!≪ Moitessier was joined in Plymouth by his friend Loick Fougeron who entered his 30 ft steel cutter Captain Browne where they made friends with two other competitors, Lieutenant Nigel Tetley with his 40 ft trimaran Victress and Commander Bill King who had been the first to put his name down for the Sunday Times challenge with his monohull Galway Blazer II. Robin Knox-Johnston set sail from Falmouth on June 14. Moitessier and Fougeron began the chase from Plymouth on Thursday August 22nd. The forecast predicted better weather the following day, but there was no way that Bernard would start on a Friday. Unfettered by trailing warps and sea anchors, Joshua made good speed. By the time the French yacht reached Cape Horn 17 days behind Suhaili , the bigger red yacht had shrunk Knox- Johnston’s lead by 40 days. Could Moitessier have caught the Englishman on the final leg back up the Atlantic? Five decades on, Sir Robin admits it would have been close. Opinion in France of course is that their man would have won. In fact, there is a common myth in French parlance that Moitessier was first to round Cape Horn.

Moitessier and Joshua finally pitched up in Papeete, Tahiti, on June 21 1969 after 300 days at sea.

By all accounts, Filli rebuilt the yacht beautifully and sailed her to Seattle where American Johanna Slee, a professional mariner, bought her. In 1989, Virginia Connor spotted the distinctive red ketch in Seattle and sent a picture to Voiles et Voiliers magazine. Once authenticated, Patrick Schnepp, director of the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle flew across in mid-winter to purchase her and arranged for Joshua to be shipped back to France. There, a team of Moitessier disciples painstakingly restored the yacht back to near original condition. The metal masts fitted after the hurricane remain, a new engine has been fitted, and the aft cabin is now fitted out with bunks to give more people the opportunity to sail on her.

or the rest, it is exactly as Moitessier had her. Everything about Joshua is minimalistic and simple. Look at the deck cleats – radiused pieces of steel pipe welded to the deck with two horns drilled through at right angles. Galvanised chain is used for the top lifelines and lower parts of the standard rigging. Amidships, just astern of where Moitessier practiced his yoga each day, the simple dorade with a tyre inner tube looking like an elephant’s trunk continues to provide fresh air below, collapsing whenever there is green water on deck. The bowsprit is also original, made from steel pipe. When it buckled sideways during Moitessier’s solo circumnavigation, he simply rigged up his handy billy block and tackle to pull it back into shape and replaced the broken stay. It remained that way for the rest of the voyage. There was a gentle 10-knot breeze when we hoisted sails off Les Sables-d’Olonne and Moitessier’s yacht responded beautifully. Once away from land she proved very close-winded, pointing much higher than Suhaili can, and cut through the swell with little ado. With her cutter rig set, she presents a cloud of sail and has the ballast to carry it upwind through quite a large wind range. There is no roller furling so the hanked jibs have to be pulled down by hand with one person having to climb out onto the bowsprit to retrieve the sail. Suhaili by contrast has a highfield lever to slacken tension on the stay and allow the sail to be pulled into the bow. Returning to port, we ran back on a broad reach, making 5 knots without fuss or setting a mizzen staysail. Joshua was a delight to sail, and it is little wonder that there are several hundred replicas floating around the globe – she makes a great blue water cruising yacht.

Text: Barry Pickthall. Thhis article appeared in GOOSE No. 26

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The crew of Bernard Moitessier's famous yacht JOSHUA tie up alongside Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's yacht SUHAILI in Les Sables d'Olonne. Photo: Christophe Favreau/GGR/PPL

Moitessier's yacht Joshua unites with Knox-Johnston's Suhaili in Les Sables d'Olonne

Two great men of the sea, Britain’s Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and French hero Bernard Moitessier never met or communicated with each other during the first Golden Globe solo round the world Race 50 years go, but their equally famous yachts, Suhaili and Joshua finally came together for the only the second time in history today.

In an historic moment, the two classic yachts will mark opposite ends of the start line when Sir Robin fires a canon from the deck of Suhaili at Noon on Sunday July 1st to start the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

18 sailors representing 13 countries will then set out from Les Sables d’Olonne on a great adventure to recreate the golden age of sailing, navigating their way around the globe just as Knox-Johnston and Moitessier did in 1968/9 using sextants, paper charts wind-up chronometers and a weather eye on their barometers.

Recalling that pioneering race back in 1968/9 which led to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston becoming the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world and Bernard Moitessier to famously turn east after rounding Cape Horn to ‘save his soul’ and make a second loop of the Southern Ocean, Sir Robin said: We never met because we started from different ports six weeks apart. I set out from Falmouth on June 14 1968 and Bernard started from Plymouth UK on  August 22.”

Nor could they communicate by radio because Moitessier refused to carry one, saying that any intrusion from the outside world would taint his voyage. In fact, he was against the whole idea of the race, seeing sponsorship from the Sunday Times newspaper as a violation of the spiritual ideal to be first to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation.

“Moitessier rounded Cape Horn on February 5, 19 days behind Suhaili and had he continued Bernard would undoubtedly have set a faster time around the world, but would not have beaten me back to the UK,” Sir Robin added.

“We finally met many years later at a press conference in Paris. Bernard was very generous but suggested to me that he thought the race was lost as far back as Australia – his last contact with the outside world. I believe he continued on for a second lap of the globe after rounding Cape Horn because by then, he was at one with the sea and had no wish to return to an increasingly commercial world.”

One person who got to know Moitessier well is catamaran designer James Wharram who, many years later, built a boat with the Frenchman. “Bernard told me that he decided to continue on for a second circuit of the Southern Ocean because he said 'I couldn’t bear the thought of President de Gaulle kissing me'!”

Moitessier and Joshua finally pitched up in Papeete, Tahiti on 21 June, 1969 after 300 days at sea. He then stayed away from France and his wife Françoise for another 17 years and fathered a child, Stephan, with new partner Ileana in 1971. He continued cruising on Joshua until the yacht was wrecked in 1982 during a hurricane while at anchor in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She was one of 26 vessels to be blown ashore that night.

Dismasted, stanchions and pulpit flattened, hatches shattered, rudder gone, she finished up full of sand and seawater, dug deep into the beach.  

That might have been the end of the story, but a team that included local lad Reto Filli, saw that the hull was still intact and spent the week digging a trench to pull Joshua up the beach. Once this was achieved, Moitessier gave his yacht to Filli, telling him to use what money he had to put Joshua back in shape. By all accounts, Filli rebuilt the yacht beautifully and sailed her to Seattle where American Johanna Slee, a professional mariner, bought her.

In 1989, Virginia Connor spotted the distinctive red ketch in Seattle and sent a picture to Voiles et Voiliers magazine. Once authenticated, Patrick Schnepp, director of the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle, flew across to buy her and arranged for Joshua to be shipped back to France. There, a team of Moitessier disciples painstakingly restored the yacht to near-original condition.  She has a new engine and the aft cabin is now fitted out with bunks to give more people the opportunity to sail on her.

Unlike Suhaili which is not listed on Britain’s Historic Ships registry because she is 18cm short of their minimum length requirements, Joshua is listed as a French treasure, and lovingly maintained as a 'living artefact' by  the ‘Friends of Joshua’ Association to give the public the opportunity to experience sailing on her.

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Ten Joshua replicas to re-run history’s greatest race

Replicas of Joshua and Suhaili are in build to race again

The rivalry between Britain and France, Knox-Johnston and Moitessier, Suhaili and Joshua , was first played out in from 1968-9 in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, in which Knox-Johnston prevailed, sailing Suhaili to become the first man to sail around the world solo and non-stop.

The race has been plagued ever since with spurious claims that “Moitessier would have won had he not given up and kept going.” These claims do not stand up well to closer scrutiny or to the way that history is recorded, but Moitessier himself, who never made such a claim, is no less a legendary figure for it. And so it is that the Golden Globe Race 2018 organiser, Aussie Don McIntyre, has announced something quite unprecedented: the building of no fewer than 10 Joshua replicas. It was also recently announced that, due to the stir caused by next year’s re-enactment race – the GGR18 as it’s known – the event will now become a permanent fixture to run every four years.

The replicas will be built in steel (as originally) in Turkey, for the lowest possible price for a 40ft (12m) ocean-going cabin yacht, and a percentage of the price of every one will help fund the preservation of the original, which is a living museum piece in Brittany. The first one is in build now.

Also in build are at least two Suhaili replicas, both of which are slated to race around the world next year in the GGR18. One is a high-tech design replica being built by an enthusiast in Australia. The other is being built in India, by shipwrights who still wield adzes, not far from where to the original Suhaili was built in the 1960s.

The original Suhaili is also still around, with her original owner RKJ, who restored her just last year (read the article here ). She and the original Joshua will be at next year’s start line in Plymouth, although neither will be taking part. Whether the first replica will be ready to race next year remains to be seen, but it seems a near-certainty that in 2022, at least one of each yacht will race each other around the world again, rekindling history.

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Published on June 20th, 2018 | by Editor

Suhaili and Joshua: If boats could talk

Published on June 20th, 2018 by Editor -->

Two great men of the sea, Britain’s Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and French hero Bernard Moitessier, never met or communicated with each other during the first Golden Globe solo round the world Race 50 years ago, but their equally famous yachts, Suhaili and Joshua (above), have come together to rekindle memories in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

In a historic moment, the two classic yachts will mark opposite ends of the start line when Sir Robin fires a canon from the deck of Suhaili at Noon on Sunday July 1st to start the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

Eighteen sailors representing 13 Countries will then set out from Les Sables d’Olonne on a great adventure to recreate the golden age of sailing, navigating their way around the globe just as Knox-Johnston and Moitessier did in 1968-69 using sextants, paper charts wind-up chronometers and a weather eye on their barometers.

JOSHUA sails in to Les Sables d’Olonne.

Sir Robin, recalling that pioneering race which led to him becoming the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world, and Bernard Moitessier to famously turn east after rounding Cape Horn to ‘save his soul’ and make a second loop of the Southern Ocean, “We never met because we started from different ports 6 weeks apart. I set out from Falmouth on June 14 1968 and Bernard started from Plymouth UK on August 22.”

Nor could they communicate by radio because Moitessier refused to carry one, saying that any intrusion from the outside world would taint his voyage. In fact, he was against the whole idea of the Race, seeing sponsorship from the Sunday Times newspaper as a violation of the spiritual ideal to be first to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation.

Noted Sir Robin, “Moitessier rounded Cape Horn on February 5, 19 days behind Suhaili and had he continued Bernard would undoubtedly have set a faster time around the world, but would not have beaten me back to the UK.

“We finally met many years later at a press conference in Paris. Bernard was very generous but suggested to me that he thought the race was lost as far back as Australia – his last contact with the outside world. I believe he continued on for a second lap of the globe after rounding Cape Horn because by then, he was at one with the sea and had no wish to return to an increasingly commercial world.”

One person who got to know Moitessier well is catamaran designer James Wharram who, many years later, built a boat with the Frenchman. “Bernard told me that he decided to continue on for a second circuit of the Southern Ocean because he couldn’t bear the thought of President de Gaulle kissing him.”

Moitessier and Joshua finally pitched up in Papeete, Tahiti on June 21, 1969 after 300 days at sea. He then stayed away from France and his wife Françoise for another 17 years and fathered a child, Stephan, with new partner Ileana in 1971. He continued cruising on Joshua until the yacht was wrecked in 1982 during a hurricane while at anchor in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She was one of 26 vessels to be blown ashore that night.

Dismasted, stanchions and pulpit flattened, hatches shattered, rudder gone, she finished up full of sand and seawater, dug deep into the beach.

That might have been the end of the story, but a team that included local lad Reto Filli, saw that the hull was still intact and spent the week digging a trench to pull Joshua up the beach. Once this was achieved, Moitessier gave his yacht to Filli, telling him to use what money he had to put Joshua back in shape.

By all accounts, Filli rebuilt the yacht beautifully and sailed her to Seattle where American Johanna Slee, a professional mariner, bought her. In 1989, Virginia Connor spotted the distinctive red ketch in Seattle and sent a picture to Voiles et Voiliers magazine.

Once authenticated, Patrick Schnepp, director of the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle, flew across to buy her and arranged for Joshua to be shipped back to France. There, a team of Moitessier disciples painstakingly restored the yacht to near-original condition. She has a new engine and the aft cabin is now fitted out with bunks to give more people the opportunity to sail on her.

Unlike Suhaili which is not listed on Britain’s Historic Ships registry because she is 18cm short of their minimum length requirements, Joshua is listed as a French treasure, and lovingly maintained as a ‘living artefact’ by the ‘Friends of Joshua’ Association to give the public the opportunity to experience sailing on her.

Circa 1968: Bernard Moitessier sailing JOSHUA during the first Sunday Times Golden Globe Race

Circa 1969: Sir Robin Knox-Johnston returning to Falmouth UK to win the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and become the first man to sail solo non-stop around the Globe

Background: The 2018 Golden Globe Race will start from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday July 1, 2018. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the Sunday Times Golden Globe solo non-stop round the world Race in 1968-69 when rules then allowed competitors to start from ports in northern France or UK between June 1st and October 31st.

A notable twist to 2018 Golden Globe Race format is how entrants are restricted to using the same type of yachts and equipment that were available in that first race, with the premise being to keep the race within financial reach of every dreamer.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook

Source: GGR

Tags: Bernard Moitessier , Golden Globe , Joshua , Robin Knox-Johnston , Suhaili

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The Unlikely Boat Builder

The continuing voyages of Petronella and her crew.

11 March 2017

6 comments:

One loose thread, pulled. And thus we are unravelled...

That's a nice example of a Joshua, certainly much better than any of the ones we have seen http://1001boats.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/joshua.html The French and Dutch build a lot of steel and aluminium boats, not so classic or romantic but have you looked at some more modern designs , probably easier to sail and more comfortable to live on.? Some friends have recently bought an Oving specifically for high latitude cruising, we went aboard a van de stadt 34 called ladybird which I think is at the top of my list for 2 handed cruising, although the 40 ft Norman/Caribbean is up there too. http://www.chamade.ch/blog2011/?page_id=1452 For ovni check out chamard Good luck looking forward to hearing more Max

We are definitely going for the romance, if we can. ;-)

Was Samos previously Petronella? https://joshuasale.wordpress.com/

No, different boats.

I'd love to hear from you. Please comment!

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Latest News: €213 Million Golden Globe Race 2022 Media Value

days hrs mins secs

Joshua and Suhaili unite in Les Sables d’Olonne

Bernard Moitessier’s yacht Joshua and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili unite in Les Sables d’Olonne

Dateline Les Sables d’Olonne France: 20th June 2018

Two great men of the sea, Britain’s  Sir Robin Knox-Johnston  and French hero  Bernard Moitessier  never met or communicated with each other during the first Golden Globe solo round the world Race 50 years go, but their equally famous yachts,  Suhaili  and  Joshua  finally came together for the only the second time in history today.

In an historic moment, the two classic yachts will mark opposite ends of the start line when Sir Robin fires a canon from the deck of Suhaili at Noon on Sunday July 1st to start the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

18 sailors representing 13 countries will then set out from Les Sables d’Olonne on a great adventure to recreate the golden age of sailing, navigating their way around the globe just as  Knox-Johnston  and  Moitessier  did in 1968/9 using sextants, paper charts wind-up chronometers and a weather eye on their barometers.

Recalling that pioneering race back in 1968/9 which led to  Sir Robin Knox-Johnston  becoming the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world and  Bernard Moitessier  to famously turn east after rounding Cape Horn to ‘save his soul’ and make a second loop of the Southern Ocean,  Sir Robin  said:

We never met because we started from different ports 6 weeks apart. I set out from Falmouth on June 14 1968 and  Bernard  started from Plymouth UK on August 22. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

Nor could they communicate by radio because  Moitessier  refused to carry one, saying that any intrusion from the outside world would taint his voyage. In fact, he was against the whole idea of the race, seeing sponsorship from the Sunday Times newspaper as a violation of the spiritual ideal to be first to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation.

Moitessier  rounded Cape Horn on February 5, 19 days behind  Suhaili  and had he continued.  Bernard  would undoubtedly have set a faster time around the world, but would not have beaten me back to the UK. We finally met many years later at a press conference in Paris.  Bernard  was very generous but suggested to me that he thought the race was lost as far back as Australia – his last contact with the outside world. I believe he continued on for a second lap of the globe after rounding Cape Horn because by then, he was at one with the sea and had no wish to return to an increasingly commercial world. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

One person who got to know  Moitessier  well is catamaran designer  James Wharram  who, many years later, built a boat with the Frenchman.

Bernard  told me that he decided to continue on for a second circuit of the Southern Ocean because he said ‘I couldn’t bear the thought of  President de Gaulle  kissing me!’ James Wharram

Moitessier  and  Joshua  finally pitched up in Papeete, Tahiti on 21 June, 1969 after 300 days at sea. He then stayed away from France and his wife  Françoise  for another 17 years and fathered a child,  Stephan , with new partner  Ileana  in 1971. He continued cruising on  Joshua  until the yacht was wrecked in 1982 during a hurricane while at anchor in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She was one of 26 vessels to be blown ashore that night.

Dismasted, stanchions and pulpit flattened, hatches shattered, rudder gone, she finished up full of sand and seawater, dug deep into the beach.

That might have been the end of the story, but a team that included local lad Reto Filli, saw that the hull was still intact and spent the week digging a trench to pull  Joshua  up the beach. Once this was achieved,  Moitessier  gave his yacht to Filli, telling him to use what money he had to put  Joshua  back in shape. By all accounts, Filli rebuilt the yacht beautifully and sailed her to Seattle where American Johanna Slee, a professional mariner, bought her. In 1989, Virginia Connor spotted the distinctive red ketch in Seattle and sent a picture to Voiles et Voiliers magazine. Once authenticated,  Patrick Schnepp , director of the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle, flew across to buy her and arranged for  Joshua  to be shipped back to France. There, a team of  Moitessier  disciples painstakingly restored the yacht to near-original condition. She has a new engine and the aft cabin is now fitted out with bunks to give more people the opportunity to sail on her.

Unlike  Suhaili  which is not listed on Britain’s Historic Ships registry because she is 18cm short of their minimum length requirements,  Joshua  is listed as a French treasure, and lovingly maintained as a ‘living artefact’ by the ‘Friends of Joshua’ Association to give the public the opportunity to experience sailing on her.

Don McIntyre GGR Chairman and Founder

Don McIntyre is the founder and underwriter of the goldengloberace.com the oceangloberace.com and the minigloberace.com . Follow him at mcintyreadventure.com .

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Golden Globe Race: Joshua and Suhaili unite in Les Sables d’Olonne

• Katy Stickland
• June 25, 2018

Bernard Moitessier’s yacht Joshua and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili come together for only the second time in history

Credit: Christophe Favreau/GGR/PPL

For only the second time in history, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili and Bernard Moitessier’s Joshua have come together.

The two classic yachts will mark opposite ends of the start line when Sir Robin Knox-Johnston fires a canon from the deck of Suhaili at Noon on Sunday, 1 July  to start the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

The 18 sailors representing 13 countries will then set out from Les Sables d’Olonne on a great adventure to recreate the golden age of sailing, navigating their way around the globe just as Knox-Johnston and Moitessier did in 1968/9 using sextants, paper charts wind-up chronometers and a weather eye on their barometers.

Recalling that pioneering race back in 1968/9 which led to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston becoming the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world and Bernard Moitessier to famously turn east after rounding Cape Horn to ‘save his soul’ and make a second loop of the Southern Ocean, Sir Robin said: ‘We never met because we started from different ports 6 weeks apart. I set out from Falmouth on June 14 1968 and Bernard started from Plymouth UK on August 22.’

Nor could they communicate by radio because Moitessier refused to carry one, saying that any intrusion from the outside world would taint his voyage. In fact, he was against the whole idea of the Race, seeing sponsorship from the Sunday Times newspaper as a violation of the spiritual ideal to be first to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation.

‘Moitessier rounded Cape Horn on February 5, 19 days behind Suhaili and had he continued Bernard would undoubtedly have set a faster time around the world, but would not have beaten me back to the UK.’ Sir Robin added.

‘We finally met many years later at a press conference in Paris. Bernard was very generous but suggested to me that he thought the race was lost as far back as Australia – his last contact with the outside world. I believe he continued on for a second lap of the globe after rounding Cape Horn because by then, he was at one with the sea and had no wish to return to an increasingly commercial world.’

One person who got to know Moitessier well is catamaran designer James Wharram who, many years later, built a boat with the Frenchman. ‘Bernard told me that he decided to continue on for a second circuit of the Southern Ocean because he said “I couldn’t bear the thought of President de Gaulle kissing me!’

Moitessier and Joshua finally pitched up in Papeete, Tahiti on 21 June, 1969 after 300 days at sea.

He then stayed away from France and his wife Françoise for another 17 years and fathered a child, Stephan, with new partner Ileana in 1971.

He continued cruising on Joshua until the yacht was wrecked in 1982 during a hurricane while at anchor in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She was one of 26 vessels to be blown ashore that night.

Continues below…

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Dismasted, stanchions and pulpit flattened, hatches shattered, rudder gone, she finished up full of sand and seawater, dug deep into the beach.

That might have been the end of the story, but a team that included local lad Reto Filli, saw that the hull was still intact and spent the week digging a trench to pull Joshua up the beach.

Once this was achieved, Moitessier gave his yacht to Filli, telling him to use what money he had to put Joshua back in shape.

By all accounts, Filli rebuilt the yacht beautifully and sailed her to Seattle where American Johanna Slee, a professional mariner, bought her.

In 1989, Virginia Connor spotted the distinctive red ketch in Seattle and sent a picture to Voiles et Voiliers magazine.

Once authenticated, Patrick Schnepp, director of the French National Maritime Museum in La Rochelle, flew across to buy her and arranged for Joshua to be shipped back to France.

There, a team of Moitessier disciples painstakingly restored the yacht to near-original condition. She has a new engine and the aft cabin is now fitted out with bunks to give more people the opportunity to sail on her.

Unlike Suhaili which is not listed on Britain’s Historic Ships registry because she is 18cm short of their minimum length requirements, Joshua is listed as a French treasure, and lovingly maintained as a ‘living artefact’ by the ‘Friends of Joshua’ Association to give the public the opportunity to experience sailing on her.

“Someone save Moitessier’s Joshua!”. The appeal from La Rochelle

• October 1, 2021
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The association “Les Amis du Musée Maritime” of La Rochelle launched an appeal. “Save the Joshua!”. The mythical boat with which the famous navigator Bernard Moitessier retired to Polynesia “to save his soul” while leading the 1968 solo round-the-world race (Golden Globe), has been on dry land since 2019 and is in urgent need of refitting.

Incidentally, the famous 40-foot steel ketch is expected to be the guest of honour at the second Golden Globe Race, which will start from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday 4th September 2022.

WHY JOSHUA IS A LEGENDARY BOAT

Why is the Joshua (Moitessier named her after Joshua Slocum, the first sailor to sail around the world between 1895 and 1898 on his Spray) a mythical boat and one that should be preserved? Not only because of its navigator. But because, for its time, it was an ingenious design. The mast of the 40-foot steel ketch was a telegraph pole. That alone would be enough to make her unique.

More specifically, Joshua (14.12 m overall, hull length 12.07 m, weight 13 t, ballast 3 t) was designed by Bernard himself and Jean Knocker, who put the French sailor’s ideas and sketches into practice. After 14 months of preparation, in 1962, Jean Fricaud’s Meta yard built the steel hull in just three months. Moitessier only paid the out-of-pocket cost of the sheet metal. But the operation turned out to be a profitable one; no fewer than 70 twins were produced. And now on board Joshua. The first thing that strikes you is the “Norwegian” stern.

He conceived it so because: “it divides, directs and cushions the violent thrust caused by a breakaway crest in a breakaway speed”. Noteworthy are the very low freeboards, just 75 cm amidships! Like a tugboat, the hull is all underwater, with a star-shaped hull with a long keel that ends with the outer rudder blade. The bow is powerful, with a tubular bowsprit a couple of metres long, supported by chains (yes, those of the anchor!). That’s also how the dragnets are made, painted black because, as Moitessier used to say, “you can see them better at night”.

The sails: main, mizzen, yankee and foresail. They are very heavy with 10-ounce fabric. Bernard, before the World Tour, where he installed four winches, used to rig them by hand with hoists. Everything is simple, repairable and serviceable. For example, the wheel steering circuit with the brakes running freely on the deck. There’s an incredible feeling of course stability when sailing. And safety. If you let go of the wheel Joshua goes straight ahead….

OUR EXPERIENCE ON BOARD THE JOSHUA

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Joshua one-design class yacht adopted for 2022 Golden Globe Race

• Laura Hodgetts
• August 17, 2017

"This is an exciting development for the Golden Globe Race, creating a new class of simple, safe, affordable and competitive one-design yachts to race around the world."

The story of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s battle to stay ahead of French yachtsman Bernard Moitessier in the 1968/9 Sunday Times Golden Globe solo round-the-world race is one of legend.

The 2018 Golden Globe Race , set to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of Knox-Johnston’s victory in his traditional 32ft yacht Suhaili , has attracted 27 sailors from 14 countries to compete in similar type yachts between 32-36ft in length.

This race, starting from Plymouth on 30 June next year has drawn so much interest that competitors, unable to prepare in time, are setting their sights on the 2022 race.

This announcement made today, the 49 th anniversary of Moitessier’s start from Plymouth on 22 August 1968, will celebrate the huge contribution that the Frenchman made to solo sailing by introducing a second class of 40ft Joshua steel-built one-design yachts to the fleet.

Bernard Moitessier’s original Joshua under full sail. Credit: PPL PHOTO AGENCY

The start of the original Sunday Times race was fluid; competitors could set out from any port in northern Europe between 1 June and 31 October. The winner would be the first to finish back at their start point and take claim to be the first to sail solo non-stop around the Globe. A £5,000 cheque awaited the one with the fastest elapsed time.

Knox-Johnston set out from Falmouth aboard Suhaili on 14 June. Moitessier followed 79 days later in his 40ft steel ketch Joshua . By Cape Horn, that lead had shrunk to 17 days, and many expected Moitessier to overhaul his British rival on the final 8,000 mile chase back up the Atlantic.

But instead of going on to claim his share of the glory, Moitessier inexplicably turned east to make a second circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean. The first the world knew of this volte-face was when the Frenchman delivered a message fired by catapult at a ship anchored off Cape Town saying that he had decided not to complete the race, but to continue on a second circuit “To save my soul” as he put it.

By then, Knox-Johnston’s traditional ketch Suhaili was closing on the Western Approaches to the English Channel and he became the sole finisher out of nine starters. Moitessier finally dropped anchor in Tahiti.

Would the Frenchman have overhauled Knox-Johnston on the final leg back up the Atlantic? Fierce discussions continue across the English Channel. Knox-Johnston admits that it would have been close. One mistaken myth even suggests that Joshua was leading Suhaili at Cape Horn.

Now the 2022 Golden Globe Race will provide the litmus test. A maximum fleet of 10 Joshua Golden Globe one-design yachts will make up a Class 2 start on Sunday 21 August, 2022 approximately three weeks after the smaller Suhaili class yachts.

The exact date will be determined from the average time that the first six yachts take to complete the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

‘The leading yachts in next year’s race are predicted to better Suhaili’s 313 day record by 40 to 50 days, so it is important to set a realistic rather than historic time gap between the two classes’, said: race founder Don McIntyre.

The first Joshua One-design production yacht under construction at Asboat Yacht Builder, Turkey

Hull number one, currently under construction at Asboat Yacht Builder in Izmir, Turkey, will be presented alongside the original Joshua at the start of the 2018 Golden Globe Race in Plymouth.

Everything about this new one-design class speaks of the original Joshua . She may be slightly longer, have a little more beam and draft, together with a taller main mast, but the essence remains. She looks, feels and will sail just like the original.

Constructed from laser-cut 5mm, 6mm and 8mm steel sheet, these multi-chined class yachts are being built to strict one-design rules.

Don added: ‘This is an exciting development for the Golden Globe Race, creating a new class of simple, safe, affordable and competitive one-design yachts to race around the world. ‘They are incredibly strong with five watertight compartments and will make classic high latitude adventure yachts able to cruise safely anywhere in the world, including Antarctica before or after the 2022 Golden Globe Race.’

Cut-away showing interior plan

The strict one-design rules also stipulate the number of sails that can be carried during the race, and to make it a completely level playing field, sails for all Joshua  class yachts will be supplied by one official loft.

And to further the spirit of Bernard Moitessier, competitors can use only replicas of Joshua’s original wind vane self steering system. There will be no room onboard for commercial steering systems.

A fully-equipped Joshua GGR yacht and entry in the 2022 Golden Globe Race will cost around 300,000 Euros.  The order book has opened at www.joshuagg.com where details and class rules are also posted.

Design detail LOA: 14.00m (incl. bowsprit) LOH: 12.40m LWL: 10.25m Beam: 3.75m Draft:  1.62m Disp.  15.00 tonnes

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2022 Golden Globe Race

Entries for the 2022 Golden Globe Race will open on 22 August 2018. The current 22 production yacht designs including Eric designed Suhaili replicas approved for the 2018 GGR will be maintained and make up the Suhaili Class. This will have a maximum of 20 entries.

The new Joshua Class will be restricted to 10 entries, all built under licence to the same strict One-design rules.

The Notice of Race will be modelled on that for the 2018 Golden Globe Race with only minor amendments expected. Click here to download PDF.

This sets up for a classic re-run of the original battle with the Suhaili class yachts being chased down by the Joshua one-design fleet. There will be overall and class winners, together with a special trophy for the first Joshua class yacht to reach Tahiti on the second lap.

BoatNews.com

Joshua again under construction at Meta

Joshua, Bernard Moitessier's famous ketch was built in the Meta yard in the Lyon region in 1962. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Golden globe in which the boat distinguished itself, the shipyard is building a replica of the yacht. Presentation planned for the big Joshua parade in September 2018.

Celebrating 50 years of the Golden Globe

The project was born out of a discussion around a good table at the Grand Pavois in September 2017. Patrice Passinge (head of the Meta yard) and Joseph Fricaud (former head of the yard) with other friends were discussing the year 2018 and the 50th anniversary of the Golden Globe race: "Why on this occasion not rebuild a Joshua?" This steel boat operated by Bernard Moitessier , who came out of the Meta shipyard that made him famous. Neither one nor two, Joseph Fricaud announces that he is ordering the first copy to entrust it to his daughter (a sailor) before giving it to charity.

The project is launched!

A Strongall replica of Joshua

As the construction of a steel hull is no longer within the competence of the shipyard , which specializes in thick aluminium (the Strongall), it is decided to modify the plans a little to adapt it to this material.

At the time, Michel Joubert had digitized the plans from the original ones. Bernard Nivelt, associate of Michel Joubert , now deceased, took over these files to adapt them to the Strongall, notably by creating a chine. But for the rest, the boat remains very similar in terms of volumes and identical in dimensions.

Another visible difference from the original Joshua is the choice of the aft cockpit. Among the 70 Joshua produced by the yard between 1962 and 1980, some had a rear cockpit. Joseph Fricaud found this layout more intelligent. The ketch rigging will be identical with its large bowsprit of nearly 2 m long. But to carry a little more canvas, the masts have been slightly extended.

A construction in progress

The construction of this "Joshua by Meta" (that will be its name) is well advanced since the hull is finished. The keel , rudder and ballast are in place, and the deckhouse is being finished. All the boilerwork is planned to be finished by the end of March 2018. The boat will then go to a carpenter for the fittings.

Under the deckhouse, there is a navigation area with the chart table and a lookout berth. Then further down a saloon with a galley before arriving in a cabin with a double bed facing a desk. In the point will be arranged a toilet.

A new version on the market?

Patrice Passinge doesn't think fans will rush to order "Joshua by Meta": "If he shows up, we'll be able to offer it. But the plan is really from another age, especially with regard to the interior volumes. The pinched bottom of the boat and its finesse don't offer much space. We only have one cabin in a boat of this size!"

The launch is scheduled for this summer. The goal is to present it with the other Joshua's at a gathering planned for the Grand Pavois 2018 in September in La Rochelle . "We're a bit behind schedule and no doubt all the fittings will not be completely finished by that date, but the boat will sail," says Patrice Passinge, "A bit like Bernard Moitessier

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• Latest Yacht for Sale: Nauticat 42, AMELIA
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Joshua 40 - Sold

Built 1974 / Price: sek750000

The Joshua 40 is a 40-foot sailing yacht designed by Meta Yachts in France. Between the early 1960s and 1980, the shipyard produced approximately 70 units of the Joshua 40. With a unique connection to the celebrated sailor Bernard Moitessier and his participation in the 1968 Golden Globe Race aboard a Joshua 40, this type of yacht offers a rich history and serves as a solid foundation for most sailing adventures. Another famous Joshua 40 is NORTHERN LIGHT, a yacht that made many trips at high latitudes and overwintered in Antarctica.

Meta Yachts has been manufacturing reliable sailing yachts since 1963, focusing on blending modern techniques and traditional craftsmanship. The Joshua 40 reflects this commitment to quality, featuring a robust steel hull designed to ensure stability under various conditions. The yacht’s ketch rig and sail plan are tailored for flexibility and easy handling, making the Joshua 40 a suitable choice for both experienced sailors and beginners planning long-distance sailing trips.

Whether you plan to sail around the world or discover new coastal destinations, the Joshua 40 provides a proven platform for most sailing adventures. The yacht’s reputation for durability, combined with its comfortable living spaces, makes it an excellent choice for exploring the world’s oceans.

Joshua 40, VIDANIA is a well-maintained yacht that has had the same owners for 20 years. During this time, VIDANIA has sailed in the northern waters of Scandinavia and the North Sea. The first owner, a French marine engineer, sailed, among other places, to the Caribbean. Owner number two used the yacht as a floating home in Belgium for 13 years and did not sail much.

The Joshua 40, VIDANIA has a thoughtfully designed interior layout that maximizes space and caters to the needs of long-distance sailing. The practical design includes a functional galley, a welcoming saloon for relaxation, and two cabins with spacious berths. The Joshua 40 offers a balance between functionality and comfort, creating a pleasant environment for life at sea.

If you are searching for a suitable long-distance sailing yacht please don’t miss the opportunity to experience the unique blend of history, dependability, and comfort that the VIDANIA has to offer.

Please feel free to contact us anytime to learn more about the VIDANIA and embark on your own unforgettable adventure aboard this remarkable sailing yacht.

• Solid hull and deck in steel construction.
• Full keel with skeg hug rudder.
• Sleep 4 persons in two cabins.
• Plenty of storage space.
• Yanmar 75 hp.

Owner’s Comments

We bought the boat in 2003 and sailed it home to Sweden via Dutch canals. Since then, we have sailed from Poland in the east to the Outer Hebrides and Orkney in the west. We have also sailed to Shetland and Fair Isle; however, we have mostly sailed along the Norwegian West Coast up to and including Lofoten. During all our voyages, we have always felt that VIDANIA has taken very good care of us and in safety, whatever the weather or wind. We have also used the boat during all winters here at home, which is not a problem thanks to a well-insulated boat with a Refleks diesel heater. It is with a heavy heart that we now, due to health reasons, will be ready to hand over VIDANIA to her next owner.

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Yacht Details

• Builder: Meta Yachts
• Yacht Model: Joshua 40
• Built: 1974
• LOA: 12.08 (m)
• Beam: 3.68 (m)
• Draft: 1.6 (m)

Contact Details

Magnus Kullberg Berthon Scandinavia Tel: +46 79 079 55 45 E-Mail: [email protected]

Your Local Broker, Internationally

Berthon UK (Lymington, Hampshire - UK) Sue Grant [email protected] 0044 (0)1590 679 222

Berthon France (Mandelieu La Napoule, France) Bruno Kairet [email protected] 0033 (0)4 93 63 66 80

Berthon Scandinavia (Henån, Sweden) Magnus Kullberg [email protected] 0046 304 694 000

Berthon Spain (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) Simon Turner [email protected] 0034 639 701 234

Berthon USA (Rhode Island, USA) Jennifer Stewart [email protected] 001 401 846 8404

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