Conrad Colman was born in Auckland on 2 December 1983 to an American father and a New Zealand mother. He grew up on Waiheke Island, studied in the United States, then moved to Cowes and later to France, settling in Lorient.
He started offshore racing with the 2009 Mini Transat and the 2010 Route du Rhum in Class40. In 2011-2012 he won the Global Ocean Race, a doublehanded Class40 round-the-world race, aboard Cessna Citation. He was second in the 2013 Atlantic Cup and seventh in the 2014-2015 Barcelona World Race with Nándor Fa on Spirit of Hungary.
In 2016-2017 he sailed the Vendée Globe on Foresight Natural Energy, a 2005 ex-Maisonneuve. Despite a fire, a fall overboard and a dismasting, he finished 16th and became the first sailor to complete a round-the-world race without fossil fuel.
After a 2020 Vendée Globe project abandoned for lack of sponsor, in 2022 he bought the IMOCA ex-Groupe Bel, renamed Imagine, then Mail Boxes Etc. and MS Amlin. He finished 21st in the 2024-2025 Vendée Globe.
6 sources · updated 21 Oct 2026
Team AmaalaCo-skipperWith Jessica Berthoud, Yann Burkhalter, Guillaume Rol, Lucie de Gennes, Mathis Bourgnon, Félix Oberle, Alan Roura, Simon Koster
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