Alain Gerbault

Alain Jacques Georges Marie Gerbault (November 17, 1893 – December 16, 1941) was a French sailor, writer and tennis champion, fighter pilot during the First World War, who made a circumnavigation of the world as a single-handed sailor. He eventually settled in the islands of south Pacific Ocean, where he wrote several books about the islanders' way of life. As a tennis player he was ranked the fifth on the French rankings in 1923.

Early life

Alain Gerbault was born on November 17, 1893, in Laval, Mayenne, to an upper-middle-class family. He spent much of his youth in Dinard, near the ancient port of St. Malo; he spent his summers playing tennis and football, as well as hunting and fishing. At college he studied civil engineering. He had a brother with whom they owned a lime factory in Laval.

At the age of twenty-one, Gerbault joined in the Flying Corps, serving as an officer; by the end of the war, he was a decorated hero. After the war, he took up tennis, becoming the French champion, and also bridge, at which he achieved an international rating. Despite his achievements, he was still searching for something to do with his life, and considered attempting to fly the Atlantic Ocean.

While visiting England in 1921 to play tennis, he came across Firecrest, an old British-designed 39-foot racing/cruising gaff sloop, at Southampton. He had already been toying with the idea of long-distance sailing, so he purchased the boat and spent a year or so sailing her around Cannes.

Firecrest

The boat in which the circumnavigation was made was called Firecrest. It was an English racing cruiser designed by Dixon Kemp and built by P. T. Harris at Rowhedge, Essex, in 1892. She was 39 feet overall, 31 feet 6 inches on the waterline, with a beam of 8 feet 6 inches, and displaced 12 tons. She was long and narrow, with a deep keel and three and a half tons of lead for ballast.