At 80 years old, Olivier de Kersauson has lost none of his aura. An exceptional sailor, singular writer, wandering thinker, he embodies a life lived against the tide, with the sea as his guide and the horizon as his only limit. More than a man, he is a legend. His ocean crossings are human adventures, his writings reflections of the soul. Free, romantic, sometimes caustic, Olivier de Kersauson has forged an existence where the storms of the sea meet those of the heart.
A youth between storms and audacity
Born in 1944 into an aristocratic Breton family, Olivier de Kersauson is the seventh of eight children. His youth is a mix of Jesuit rigor and instinctive rebellion. "I was suffocating in a world where everything seemed written in advance," he confides in one of his books. At 19, he embarked on the legendary Pen Duick III under the guidance of Éric Tabarly. The latter, a tutelary figure of French sailing, became his mentor, his beacon. "With him, I learned to read the wind and to defy the impossible. Above all, I learned that freedom is conquered by the strength of one’s arms."
Very quickly, the sea became his refuge, his mirror. Far from the school benches where he was bored, he excelled at the helm. "Bad student, but excellent helmsman," he sums up with his characteristic irony.
Humor as a weapon and shield
Olivier de Kersauson is not just an outstanding navigator. The man wields words as others handle sails: with precision and flair. A caustic commentator on Les Grosses Têtes for years, he made humor a second compass. "One never tires of blue. One tires of fools," he once retorted to an overly insistent journalist.
Behind this biting facade hides a sensitive man, deeply rooted in his values. He despises the superficial and prefers the sincerity of silences to the agitation of speeches. "Humor is my way of breathing," he admits. A necessary breath for a man in constant search of authenticity.
The women of his life, home ports and contrary winds
Olivier de Kersauson’s passions are not limited to the oceans. Women have played as decisive a role in his life as the winds in his crossings. Among them, Florence Arthaud, the "fiancée of the Atlantic," with whom he shares a secret story, imbued with mutual respect and admiration. "She was a barefoot countess, a free bird," he says.
He then marries Caroline Piloquet-Verne, with whom he has a son, Arthur. But it is in Polynesia that he finds unprecedented peace. In 2014, on a lost atoll, he marries Sandra religiously, a discreet woman passionate about gardening. "She taught me patience, this art I thought reserved for the sea," he confides tenderly.
Secrets of navigation, between records and poetry
Three-time winner of the Jules Verne Trophy, Olivier de Kersauson is a man of challenges. But for him, the essence of navigation does not lie in numbers. "It’s not the record that counts, but the inner journey it inspires." In his eyes, the sea is a school of life, a demanding mistress. "It never lies. It teaches humility and truth."
His stories are filled with unusual anecdotes, imbued with poetry. Like the albatross that followed him for 12 days in the middle of the Pacific. "A brother of wandering," he murmurs, almost moved. His crossings, often solitary, are spiritual quests where he dreams of invisible islands and fantasized reefs.
The man facing time and illness
In 2018, the sailor faces another storm: lung cancer. True to his character, he refuses pathos. "I didn’t ask to come, I don’t ask to leave," he says with detachment. Today, at 80, he looks back on the past with an almost disarming serenity: "The sea is my memory. Memories fade, but it remains, unchanging."
A storyteller of the seas and life
If Olivier de Kersauson still sails, it is also with words. A prolific author, he transcribes in his books the soul of the oceans and his reflections as a free man. His latest work, Before Memory Fades, is a literary journey through his memories, between bursts of humor and philosophical meditations. "Words, like sails, must capture the right breath," he writes.
A man of challenges, passion, and irony, Olivier de Kersauson remains true to the child he was: curious, intrepid, in love with horizons. His life is an invitation to dream, to cast off. And when the sea calls him, he never resists.