Captured on camera: solo offshore racing pt1

Blue Green photo agency's Christian Fevrier provides this unique gallery from the annals of solo sailing

Singlehanded offshore racing has not always been the highly developed, sophisticated sport it is today. But it has always been at the leading edge of offshore racing technology and perhaps best of all, the characters involved have been some of the most remarkable characters one is ever likely to meet.

One man who has watched and recorded this progression with more than a passing enthusiasm over the last decade is French photographer and journalist Christian Fevrier (right) who, in association with the new Blue Green picture agency in Cowes, brings us this extraordinary dossier of historical photos.

Below: What a face! The late, great Eric Tabarly almost singlehandedly put yachting on the map in France. But to do so took winning the second ever OSTAR, in 1964, in which he set a trend by building the first purpose-built boat for singlehanding. He followed this up with a repeat win in the 1976 race in which he singlehanded his Whitbread maxi! Tabarly is perhaps what many racing sailors today aspire to be - here was a man as happy (and as effective) sailing in a RORC race as he was in the Whitbread, racing a trimaran singlehanded in the OSTAR or with friends on board his cruising yacht Pen Duick, from which he was eventually lost overboard.