Born in 1949, Éric Loizeau grew up in a Breton sailing family and learned to sail at seven in Portsall bay. A Glénans instructor, he was spotted by Éric Tabarly and did his military service aboard Pen Duick VI, where he crewed for four years.
Tabarly entrusted him with Pen Duick III for the 1977-78 Whitbread: backed by SEITA, his crew won two legs, including the Cape Horn leg. Turned professional, he had Gauloises 3 built, then the trimaran Gauloises 4, with which he won his classes in the 1982 Route du Rhum and set the solo Atlantic record.
With Roger & Gallet as partner, he had a large carbon catamaran built. In 1986 it won nearly every race of the calendar, but he had to retire from the Route du Rhum after a rigging failure. He capsized in 1987 during the Course de l'Europe and was picked up by a container ship. He finished second in the 1989 Transat en double Lorient-Saint-Barth-Lorient.
He then turned to mountaineering and reached the summit of Everest in May 2003, the first Cape Horner to do so. An ambassador of the Race for Water foundation, he has also run the Trophée Mer Montagne since 1994 and is preparing the 2026 Route du Rhum in the Vintage Multi category.
