Born in Nantes in 1931, Éric Tabarly discovered sailing as a child and was given the old cutter Pen Duick, designed by Fife in 1898, by his father. He joined the French Navy in 1953, became a naval aviation pilot then a naval officer, while restoring his boat.
In 1964 he won the single-handed Transat anglaise on Pen Duick II, ahead of Francis Chichester. He went on with Pen Duick III (Fastnet and Sydney-Hobart in 1967), the trimaran Pen Duick IV, Pen Duick V (1969 Transpacific) and Pen Duick VI, with which he won the Transat anglaise again in 1976.
An innovator, he had cutting-edge boats built, including the foiling trimaran Paul Ricard (1979), with which he broke the North Atlantic crossing record in 1980. He then sailed Côte d'Or II and Bottin Entreprise, and trained a whole generation of racers. In 1997 he won the Transat Jacques-Vabre with Yves Parlier.
He was lost at sea in the Irish Sea in June 1998 while delivering Pen Duick to a gathering of Fife-designed yachts.
