The man got wind of an abandoned schooner in New Zealand, up to Brittany, where he sails. Intrigued by the news, he went to Newport with a former Antarctica captain and discovered this boat steeped in history. Peter Blake's widow agreed to sell him in exchange for which the businessman had to perpetuate the project her husband had accomplished.
Browser roots
Etienne Bourgois is 42 years old and is passionate about sailing, which his paternal grandfather taught him while sailing in the Mediterranean on sailing boats that all bore the name of Tara, the name of the family home in the film Gone with the Wind. But his grandfather is not the only "sailor" in the family since his uncle is none other than Bruno Troublé, former helmsman for Baron Bich on the America's Cup from 1977 to 1983. It was he who organized the preliminary events at the time, the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Admittedly, Agnès B's general manager is a sailor, but the poles do not speak to him. He therefore hires a team of professionals, most of whom already know the boat. They were part of Jean-Louis Étienne's former team when the schooner was called Antarctica.
Etienne Bourgois is 42 years old and is passionate about sailing, which his paternal grandfather taught him while sailing in the Mediterranean on sailing boats that all bore the name of Tara, the name of the family home in the film Gone with the Wind. But his grandfather is not the only "sailor" in the family since his uncle is none other than Bruno Troublé, former helmsman for Baron Bich on the America's Cup from 1977 to 1983. It was he who organized the preliminary events at the time, the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Tara and the first polar expedition
The boat was renamed Tara and a first expedition left for Greenland with naturalists. A second one is organised in South Georgia and a third one in Antarctica. Etienne Bourgois discovers the polar journey and especially the passing of time. A pace that clearly contrasts with that of his position as a businessman.
When he buys the boat, the new owner knows that he has not yet made the long journey for which it was built: transpolar drift.
From a distance, a man watches over Tara, a boat unlike any other. Jean-Claude Gascard is an internationally recognized oceanographer and research director at the CNRS. At the beginning of his career, he had the chance to go on the ice floe and became passionate about this ice bank that grows and shrinks with the seasons.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of information. The few expeditions are limited to a few weeks a year, in April and September, when the ice is thick enough for an aircraft to land. If drifting buoys perform transpolar drift and collect information, it is not enough. He dreams of being at the heart of his project. He was almost part of the expedition to Antarctica with Jean-Louis Étienne. He had to manage the scientific aspect and had already organized everything. The boat was to be caught in the ice in northern Siberia and to leave it between Greenland and Spitsbergen. But made of means, the drift is cancelled.
The fourth edition of the International Polar Year
Eleven years later, he had a new chance. The fourth edition of the International Polar Year runs from 2007 to 2009 and the world scientific community decides to fund a two-year research programme. Jean-Claude Gascard is assigned the coordination of one of the flagship projects, which brings together ten countries: Damocles, in relation to the danger threatening the planet. Budgets were allocated to him and through Christian de Marliave, a specialist in the poles, he met Etienne Bourgois in 2005.
If the company manager finds the deadline short, he also remembers the scientific dimension he wants to give to his project. The two men set up a partnership that will see the birth of Tara's first expedition, following in Nansen's footsteps: Tara Arctic. In 2007, the schooner carried out the transpolar drift in 2007, 113 years after the Nansen drift in 1893, in only 16 months, compared to the Fram's three years.
