Alain Colas (16 September 1943 – 16 November 1978) was a French sailor, the first to complete a solitary round-the-world race in a multihull. He met

Éric Tabarly Éric Marcel Guy Tabarly was a French Navy officer and yachtsman, born 24 July 1931 in Nantes and died 13 June 1998 of drowning in the Irish Sea. He developed a passion for offshore racing very early on and won several ocean races such as the Osta ...

in Sydney in 1967, and bought

Pen Duick IV ''Manureva'' (originally named ''Pen Duick IV'') was a custom-built racing trimaran famous for being the first oceangoing multihull racing sailboat, opening the path to the supremacy in speed of this kind of boat over monohulls. She won the 1972 ...

from him in 1970, and won the "Transat" in 1972. In 1972, he started the construction of a 72m (236 feet) 4 masted monohull for the 1976 "Transat". He broke his right ankle, underwent 22 surgeries, and got back on his feet for the solitary transatlantic race.

won, and Alain Colas arrived 2nd, but was classed 5th. On 5 November 1978, he took part in his last race, the first

Route du Rhum The Route du Rhum is a transatlantic single-handed yacht race, which takes place every four years in November. The course is between Saint Malo, Brittany, Metropolitan France Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Mé ...

. On 16 November 1978, as he passed the Azores, he sent his last radio message saying that everything was alright and sailing well. Neither his boat '' Manureva'' nor his body were ever found.

References

1942 births 1970s missing person cases 1978 deaths French sailors Missing people People lost at sea Single-handed circumnavigating sailors {{France-yachtracing-bio-stub

See also

References