About Yves Gélinas

You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that’s all.

Benoit Moitessier

Yves Gélinas is an award winning sailor, inventor, cinematographer, writer and manufacturer best known for his solo circumnivagation with Jean-du-Sud in the years 1981-1983. He was Jean-du-Sud‘s skipper from 1973 to 2022.

Born the 17th January 1939 in Montréal (Québec, Canada), he studied arts at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (50-58) and acting at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique du Québec (58-61). He then acts in television shows and directs theater acts for nine years (61-70), years through which he begins crewing boats.

In 1967, he purchases a 24 feet Olympic star sailboat and call her Jean-du-Sud. In the same year, he marries a swedish women with whom he has two daughters, Anniki and Julika Gélinas. He further invents his first self-steering gear model and perfoms his first solo sail in the St-Lawrence estuary (68), where he meets the real Jean du Sud, Gilles Vigneault’s father. In 1970, he ends his marriage.

In 1973, he purchases an Alberg 30, hull #399 with his brother, sailboat which becomes the definitive Jean-du-Sud. He designs a second version of a vertical self-steering gear. From 1974 to 1976, he performs various cruises in the Antilles, Bermudas and the US east coast. His brother eventually transfers is share of ownership and Yves becomes the sole owner of Jean-du-Sud. In 1977, he crosses the Antlantic and performs various cruises in Europe. He sails to Sweden in 1978, where his two daughers lived.

He works in Europe from 1979 to 1981 as a handyman in a shipyard in Plouër-sur-Rance and as a translator. He further perfects his self-steering gear design and undertakes severals changes to Jean-du-Sud in preparation for a circumnavigation. He further secures funding to film his voyage throughout.

He leaves St-Malo on September 1st, 1981 and begins his solo circumnavigation. He his however forced to stop in the Chatham Islands in February 1982, as Jean-du-Sud was knocked over twice and dismasted. He returns to Montréal and begins the production of his movie.

The second part of his movie is aired in 1984 on Radio-Canada. It wins the Toulon Grand Prize of the fiftieth Festival of Maritime Movies, the Grand Prize of eleventh Sports Movie Festival of Turin, the Grand Prize of the International Movie Festival of La Rochelle. (Note: the movies have now been pieced together as a single film.)

In 1984, Yves Gélinas is awarded an Honoris Causa doctorate from Université Laval.

From 1984 to 1987, he performs various conferences and film airings, and a few cruises on the St-Lawrence river.

He develops a relationship with his then « girl next door », Céline Lacerte, in 1987. They fell in love during a cruise on Jean-du-Sud and later married in 1998.

In 1988, he releases his book (in French) « Jean-du-Sud et l’Oizeau Magick », a written account of his circumnavigation. (The book is translated to English in 2018).

A condensed, tranlated version of his movie is further presented at the Houston 21st Annual [Film] Festival of the Americas, where it wins the Silver Award.

During the 1981-1995 period, he navigates Jean-du-Sud engineless. Besides the circumnvagation, he most notably navigates the St-Lawrence river up to Oka solely with sails. (In 1995, he installs an outboard engine on the port hip.)

In 1989, he founds the Cape Horn company.

The Cape Horn logo, besides the lettering, depicts the distintive (patented) single piece of the self-steering gear that translates the horizontal displacement in lateral displacement.

The company begins with a single « Jean-du-Sud » self-steering gear model, then assembled by Yves himself, and slowly grows with a variety of models. Eventually, Yves delegates production to his nephew and focuses on its administration, which allows him to return to sea.

From 1989 to 2001, Yves does various cruises in Québec, Ontario and Eastern provinces of Canada.

For his circumnavigation, Yves is awarded the 1998 Golden Circle Prize from the (now disbanded) Joshua Slocum International Society.

In 2001, he navigates Jean-du-Sud accross the Atlantic with his second and current wife, Céline Lacerte. The voyage, punctuated by seasonal stops and work impediments, lasts up to 2008 and takes them in Scotland, France, the west coast of Europe and the mediterannean sea.

From 2008 to 2015, he navigates Jean-du-Sud in Québec, the Eastern provinces of Canada and the East coast of the United States. In 2011, he his admitted to the Québec Sailing Federation Hall of Fame.

In 2015, he navigates to the West Indies with Kevin Grondin. He returns to Montréal during Christmas holidays, during which Kevin Grodin is named Skipper. The trips ends in 2016, with Jean-du-Sud grounded on uncharteered sandbanks in Florida.

In 2018, he performs his last significant trip as Jean-du-Sud‘s skipper, with a navigation in the Eastern provinces of Canada.

In 2022, Yves, aged 83, entrusted Jean-du-Sud to Southy Pier. He further sold the Cape Horne company to Guy Lavoie.