Solo sailor prepares to head out again

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 18

Solo sailor prepares to head out again

After a brief stay in New Zealand a French-Canadian film maker and solo yachtsman. Yves Gelinas, is in the Chatham Islands — learning to fly a kite. He left France at the beginning of last year heading for Canada around Cape Horne. His journey was cut short 168 days and 24,000 km later when his mast broke in gales off the Chathams. That was in February. After spending the last week in New Zealand getting a new mast he is ready to return to the islands to repair the boat and start again. Handling a nine-metre boat is difficult enough without a crew, but. he is also making a film of the journey. That is where the kite may be useful. When filming he mounts the camera around the boat on piping or rigging. He then turns it on. walks

around to the other side and begins "acting." doing his day-to-day activities. On the next leg of the journey he is hoping to get some “aerial” shots by mounting the camera oh a kite flying from the boat. Mr Gelinas worked in film, acting and directing for 100 years. Then, eight years ago, he decided to live on his boat. He left Montreal and went to the West Indies, chartering his boat for a few seasons. From there he moved his “house" (the boat) to Europe. There he worked at a variety of jobs including translation, and working in shipyards, to earn enough money to carry on sailing. After finding that he was spending as much as he earned, he left what he called his “consumer habits" behind him. On shore he had

been smoking, but he will not miss his tobacco. "It is like candy. These things I can do without,” he said. His main diet on the boat is grain, beans and dried fruit. “Soul food. That’s what this trip is all about, taking care of the soul." He describes the trip as “an act of faith,” but finds it difficult to explain to others the way he feels about the trip. “I wanted to get my mind quiet," he says. Mr Gelinas broadcasts daily to Canadian radio stations, giving reports on his progress. His film is being made with the help of Radio Canada and the Quebec Film Institute. The first part of the film has already been shown in Canada — and soon it will be shown in France and possibly Belgium, Switzerland and Germanv.