A 3-month construction site for the 50th anniversary of Pen Duick VI
In September 2023, Marie Tabarly, daughter of the mythical sailor, will take the start of the Ocean Globe Race a crewed round-the-world race with stopovers reserved for sailboats from the 70s and 80s. It is on board Pen Duick VI, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary the same year, that the young woman will complete the race. And to give her back her former splendor, the 22 m long aluminum ketch, winner of the 1976 English Transatlantic race in the hands of Eric Tabarly, has undergone a three-month winter refit.
Everything was dismantled and inspected, some things were changed, as Marie Tabarly explains: " The hull, the standing rigging and the interior have been redone. The aluminum structure was inspected and sanitized. All of this was done with the best possible balance between time, budget and performance." The new sail set will be delivered later this year.
The hull in particular required long hours of work, as the boat's captain confirms: "We had to go step by step between the coating, the sanding that requires hours of meticulous work, the light games to make sure everything is smoothâeuros¦ And start again coating and sanding where necessaryâeuros¦ and so on. Ãa was tense, the manpower to work on this kind of boat is hard to find, we were a little short of time to get the boat back to 100% of its potentialâeuros¦ But it is already very, very clean. We put a glossy lacquer for the first time: it is beautiful! In short, we went all out for her 50th birthday!"
Training for the Ocean Globe Race 2023
After a great 2022 season, including victories in the Drheam Cup and the Tour of the British Isles, the team will continue to train to win the Ocean Globe Race. A winter training session begins this Tuesday, December 20, 2022. The crew has left Lorient for Lanzarote, from where they will start the RORC Transatlantic Race on January 8th. This will be followed by the RORC Caribbean 600, a training trip to New York with Esprit d'Équipe and a return transatlantic race in March. From spring to summer, the crew will follow a technical preparation and various training sessions, before the big departure on September 10, 2023.
Throughout the coming months, the 22 newly recruited crew members will take turns on board Pen Duick VI for the big event. Thus concludes Marie Tabarly: "The goal is to train, to continue to discover the boat. To create a team as wellâeuros¦ And if we get results, all the better!"
