A taste for adventure from an early age
Born on 16 September 1943 in Clamecy in the Nièvre region, Alain Colas was raised by a renowned faience artisan father and dreamed of adventures and escape, his nose in his books. The one who " has always known that you have to make your dreams come true "is a studious student with a taste for the literary field. He imagines himself as an adventurer, like his maternal grandfather, a great traveller. In 1961 he obtained his baccalaureate and then studied literature and English in college.
It was in 1963 that he discovered the pleasures of kayaking. Anyone who doesn't know anything about boat building will learn from a shipyard and build the future kayaks of his canoe club. Today the club is named after the missing navigator.
In 1965, he applied for a position as a Lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia. Not having obtained the position, he nevertheless went to the other side of the world by boarding a cargo ship in 1966. There, he succeeded in obtaining a position at the Faculty of Arts in Sydney and became a lecturer at the age of 22 at St-John's College where he taught French literature. This is how he discovered sailing and ocean racing in Sydney Bay.
The discovery of ocean racing
In 1967, he met Eric Tabarly, who competed in the Sydney-Hobart, a 630-mile race from Sydney to Hobart. The latter then offered to take him aboard Pen Duick III to New Caledonia. Together with Olivier de Kersauson, Eric's faithful sidekick, the three men suffered a tropical cyclone that caused them to drift towards a coral reef. As they were reported missing, the three men escaped unharmed. A year later, obsessed by sailing, he decided to join Tabarly in Lorient, which was preparing for its solo transatlantic race. He's building a giant experimental multihull, Pen Duick IV . From 1968 to 1969, Alain Colas took part in the racing season alongside Tabarly in order to familiarize himself with the profession of navigator and became a marine journalist with Olivier de Kersauson who took the photos. In 1970, he bought back Pen Duick IV to Tabarly and tells about his travels and sells photos to pay for the first installments.
To better understand his boat, he took part in Sydney-Hobart and then travelled to Tahiti to write reports on Polynesia. There, he prepared his Pen Duick for his return to France and met his partner in 1971, who gave him three children.
A sailor, adventurer and reporter
On June 17, 1972, he took part in the fourth English Transat, a solo race starting from Plymouth, heading for Newport, aboard Pen Duick IV. He reached the United States in 20 days, 13 hours and 15 minutes, a new record (25 J, 20 hours, 33 m by Sir Thomas Lipton in 1968) that made him a hero. Eric Tabarly, his mentor, had also participated in the English Transat, winning the race in the 2 th edition.
He then decided to carry out the first solo round the world race in a multihull aboard Pen Duick IV, renamed Manureva The "bird of the journey" in Tahitian, which has been slightly adapted to face the seas of the southern hemisphere. He then set off from Saint-Malo on board his multihull on 8 September 1973. He made a stopover in Sydney and rounded Cape Horn on February 3, 1974. On 28 March 1974, he returned to Saint-Malo, beating Sir Francis Chichester's 32-day solo round the world record in a monohull.
In parallel, a crewed round the world race in monohulls is taking place for the first time, the Whitebread, in which Tabarly is participating. The bad tongues then blamed Alain for wanting to get media coverage of the Whitebread, without participating. It was also this race that ended the friendship of the two men, Alain Colas benefiting from public favour and Eric Tabarly, criticized, had to give up.
The construction of Club Méditerranée
In 1975, Alain Colas started building a 72-metre-long, four-masted sailboat, it Club Méditerranée at the forefront of technology. It used wind, water and solar energy and had a satellite positioning system, a computer and a fax machine. He wishes to sail the English Transat alone from 1976 on board. On May 19, 1975, the navigator had his right ankle severed by the rope of an anchor on Manureva. He then underwent 22 operations to save his foot. However, he supervises the construction of his four-masted ship from the Nantes hospital. On February 15, 1976, the boat was launched at the arsenal du Mourillon in Toulon and made its first trip at sea on March 21, 1976.
On June 5, 1976, Alain Colas started the fifth solo English Transat in Plymouth. This edition is swept by storms on the North Atlantic that sink five ships Club Méditerranée is hit, the halyards are cut. He then decided to make a technical stopover, arrived and was given a 58-hour penalty, the committee blaming him for the help of crew members to hoist his sails during his stop. He is demoted to 5 e place.
After the race, he represents France on Club Méditerranée at the Hudson River ship parade for the bicentennial of the United States. Back in France in 1976, he organized "Bienvenue à bord", visits and sailing aboard his successful four-masted ship.
In 1980, Bernard Tapie bought back Club Méditerranée abandoned, which will become Phocéa .
A last race that will make it a legend
In 1978, Alain Colas took part in his last race and set off from Saint-Malo on 5 November for the first edition of the Route du Rhum. " The boat is working perfectly, I have regained contact with Manureva... I am leading it more slowly than before and I think he is grateful to me... Manureva and I are making good progress... Hello to the whole team." As he passed through the Azores off Portugal, he sent his last radio message on 16 November 1978 I'm in the eye of the storm. There is no more sky; everything is an amalgam of elements, there are mountains of water around me" While he was at the head of the race, he was buried by a storm that would never come out... He disappeared on that sad day, at the age of 35. At that time, multihulls were not unsinkable and were built of aluminium, which was heavier than water. A lot of research will be done but no one will ever find either the sailor or the boat.
Many tributes
In 1979, Serge Gainsbourg wrote a song in tribute to the late navigator, the famous "Manureva", which was composed and sung by Alain Chamfort. When the family hears it on the radio it is a heartbreak but after all it has also helped to preserve the myth of Alain Colas and his famous ". Several streets, buildings and places now bear the name of Alain Colas.
Photo credits: alain-colas.com
