Manureva

Manureva

Manureva some days before the start of the first Route du Rhum.
Other names	Pen Duick IV
Designer(s)	André Allègre
Builder	La Perrière Lorient, France
Launched	1968
Owner(s)	Alain Colas
Fate	Disappeared in 1978
Racing career
Skippers	Alain Colas
Specifications
Length	20.80 m (68.2 ft) (LOA)

The Manureva (originally named Pen Duick IV) was a trimaran famous for having disappeared at sea, skippered by Alain Colas, during the first “Route du Rhum” transatlantic solo race. This race runs 3,510 miles (5,650 km) on a great circle route from Saint-Malo (France) to Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe, France) and takes place every four years, in the month of November.

The Manureva was constructed for Eric Tabarly at the shipyard of La Perrière in Lorient (France) in 1968. She was the first oceangoing multihull racing sailboat, leading to the supremacy in speed of this kind of boat over monohulls. Unlike the present multihulls, which have flotation compartments or materials in the hulls to make them unsinkable, the Manureva's hulls were constructed from AG4 (aluminium), which is probably the reason why no part of the boat was found afloat after it was lost at sea. Manureva was a cultural and technical revolution: this trimaran rigged as a Marconi ketch (Bermuda rig) was the fastest of her era. Some people even nicknamed her “La pieuvre d’aluminium” (the aluminum octopus). Because she was not painted, she was often described as lacking aesthetics, but this was largely compensated for by her performance. Pen Duick IV was bought by Alain Colas who sailed her to victory in the OSTAR 1972, taking 23 days 20 hours 12 min. After this, he renamed Pen Duick IV to Manureva, meaning “Travel bird” in Tahitian, referring to the albatross, a sea bird which travels very long distances. Alain Colas made some modifications to it, with the aim of circumnavigating the world with stops in several ports along the way. He had concerns that the boat might capsize in the large seas of the southern ocean, so he increased its buoyancy by widening the forward sections of the main hull and floats. In completing his circumnavigation, Alain Colas is well known for being the first sailor to sail solo around the world in a multihull.