Sailboat and sailor: Joshua and Bernard Moitessier

Bernard Moitessier ( Hanoi, April 10, 1925 - Paris, June 16, 1994) was a French navigator and a compelling writer, the first to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and one of the most remarkable solo sailors of all time.

Joshua was the best known of Moitessier's boats, the one with which he made the memorable feats that nave made him an example for generations of sailors: Tahiti-Alicante non-stop with his wife Françoise in 1963 and the first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation rounding the three capes (Good Hope, Leewin and Horn) in 1968, a voyage which ended in one and a half round the world for a total of 37455 nautical miles.

Nowadays Joshua belongs to the Naval Museum of La Rochelle and since 1993 she is used as a training boat and is visitable.

The model is Joshua in minifig scale, and the minifig included is Bernard Moitessier.

She counts of 1151 bricks and is about 45 studs long. 

In the provided pictures you can see all the details from a closer look; the boat is also openable and has a detailed interior, inspired from the one of the real Joshua.

In the last two pictures you can see Joshua sailing upwind in company of a dolphin (swimming on the starboard side) and a seagull (on the top of the mizzen mast) and Joshua among the storm waves of the high latitudes.

I drew inspiration for this model from the reading of The long route, the book in which Moitessier tells about his long solo sailing experience around the world. Some drawings and some photos directly taken by the author allowed me to design Joshua as much as possible similar to how she was in the 60s, however I also needed some photos on the internet that probably refer to the look of the boat after the renovation by the Naval Museum of La Rochelle. The documentation was poor but I tried to be as faithful as possible to the original. Please notice the windvane for the automatic regulation of the helm, actually used by Moitessier for solo sailing; the full rig with mainsail, mizzen, staysail and jib is the one actually used by Miotessier; the reduction of the sail with reef and the use of a storm jib, as in the picture among the waves, was also actually used.

In his books Moitessier teaches love and respect for nature, a theme that I believe can also be represented by a Lego set, and this is why I think Joshua should become a real set in stores.

For higher res pictures see also on my flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129019614@N07/?

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