Tabarly documents the career of yachtsman Eric Tabarly, including footage of him arriving in Newport after winning the original Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race in 1976.

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The Newport International Film Festival ends its five-day run Sunday with the screening of a movie that, fittingly, begins in Newport and revolves around sailing.

Pierre Marcel’s documentary Tabarly is the story of legendary French sailor Eric Tabarly who we first see arriving in triumph in Newport Harbor in 1964 after having just won the single-handed North Atlantic sailboat race from Plymouth, England, to Newport. Overnight he becomes the toast of France, awarded the Legion of Honor, getting a parade down the Champs Elysees and being congratulated by Gen. Charles DeGaulle.

Tabarly became one of the world’s winningest sailors, always in black-hulled boats that were all named after his first boat, the Pen Duick. Because of his many victories, there’s a lot of film footage of Tabarly, including interviews with this modest man who seems most at home on the ocean. (He later confesses that reporters regarded him as aloof, but he maintains it was because they knew little about sailing and asked him inane questions.) There’s even footage of him when he was a French Navy pilot in Saigon, presented during a brief biographical background segment

Most of the footage, however, finds Tabarly sailing aboard the various Pen Duicks as he takes one world championship after another. It has been edited in a brisk, no-nonsense style. It includes thrilling shots of tremendous waves washing over the boat during storms.

Even when things go badly, such as a race cut short after Tabarly’s boat is slammed by a cargo ship in fog, he shows perseverance and resilience. On an around-the-world race he loses a mast, effectively putting him out of a win. But he doesn’t quit, pressing on after repairs to compete in the remaining three legs of the race. Handsome, charismatic and looking remarkably fit, at one point he climbs up the sails in a bathing suit in rough seas to make adjustments.

On June 29, 1976, we again see him arriving triumphantly in Newport Harbor after winning another solo North Atlantic race, beating the odds by skippering a boat designed for a 14-man crew. Out of contact for days, he was feared lost at sea, but managed to come in ahead of his one-time star pupil and despite having to pass through the worst storm in the history of the race. But it’s hardly the end of Tabarly’s career. There is still a 75-year-old world record to be broken on a sail from New York to England in 1980.

Tabarly, the story of one man’s obsession and his dreams, is an exciting film that even those who don’t go to sea will find inspirational.

Tabarly will be screened at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Jane Pickens Cinema as part of the Newport International Film Festival.

Tickets are $20 and are available at the festival box office at 22 Broadway or online at newportfilmfestival.com.

****Tabarly

Featuring: Eric Tabarly.

Rated: Not rated, contains nothing offensive. In French with English subtitles.

mjanuson@projo.com