Kurun around the world
by Le Tourmelin, Jacques-Yves
pub. by E.P. Dutton, NY - 1955     isbn -none-
301 p. maps, photos, line drawings of Kurun - - sailing adventure
After WWII le Tourmelin sails through Panama - Galapagos - Tahiti - N.Australia - Cocos Keeling - Reunion - S.Africa - St Helena - then home to le Croisic in France.
The 33 ft Kurun is specially built for ocean cruising. Le Tourmelin sails around the world as only one raw from WWII could do it. He is very French, visiting with French govt. officials at every stop. His lack of envionmental concern is jarring. He often shoots at and takes game to eat where modern cruising sailors would not think of hunting, including the Galapagos Is. where he hunts goats, and even dolphins, where he is never successful. But it is understandable from one who lived in France through all of WWII, under German occupation. The first boat he had built was seized by the Germans and wrecked.
He is a purist sailor - no engine and takes few offers of tows. After Tahiti he seems to be in a hurry to get home to le Croisic Brittany, NW France. However when he arrives, celebrated by the powers that be, he feels that -home- is just another port-of-call.
There seems to be a follow-up book of his sailing in the Carribbean in the early 1960s, which I have not seen, but is listed in the holdings of the Library of Congress.
The Kurun has been restored and is owned by a group which maintains it in sailing trim at le Croisic. Jacques-Yves le Tourmelin is considered one of the great voyagers along with Slocum, Gerbault, and Moitessier.
~ 2007 ~

to Books index page.

-