Pen Duick IV is an aluminium-alloy trimaran designed by André Allègre, with structural plans by Joseph Rouillard, and built in 1968 at the La Perrière yard in Lorient for Éric Tabarly. At 20.80 m long and 10.70 m wide, she stood out for the articulated arms linking her central hull to the floats, which earned her the nickname "spider of the seas".
Delayed by the strikes of 1968, she started the 1968 single-handed transatlantic race (OSTAR), but Tabarly retired after a collision with a cargo ship and two autopilot failures. On 12 July 1969 she made up for it in the Los Angeles–Honolulu race, unofficially improving the course record by 24 hours.
In autumn 1969 Alain Colas bought the trimaran. He won the 1972 OSTAR aboard her in 20 days 13 h 15 min, beating Francis Chichester's record along the way. Renamed Manureva ("travelling bird" in Tahitian), she completed between 8 September 1973 and 28 March 1974 the first solo circumnavigation in a multihull, 169 days at sea, from and back to Saint-Malo.
In November 1978 Alain Colas started the first Route du Rhum aboard Manureva. Skipper and boat disappeared at sea around 16 November 1978 off the Azores. The loss inspired Serge Gainsbourg's song "Manureva", sung by Alain Chamfort and released in 1979.
