Jean Maurel was born in Nantes on 10 November 1960. He raced mainly multihulls in the 1980s and 1990s. Sixth in the 1986 Route du Rhum on the catamaran Elf-Aquitaine II, he won the 1989 Transat Lorient-St-Barth on the trimaran Elf Aquitaine III with Jean-Luc Nélias, then the 1990 Twostar with Michel Desjoyeaux.
In 1994 he finished eighth in the Route du Rhum on the catamaran Harris Wilson. In 1995 he won the Transat Jacques-Vabre in IMOCA on Côte d'Or with Fred Dahirel. He was fourth in the 1998 Route du Rhum in IMOCA.
In October 1999, during the Transat Jacques-Vabre, the trimaran Groupe André, which he sailed with Paul Vatine, capsized near the Azores and he was picked up by a cargo ship. Project manager for Bayer from 2001 to 2004, he became race director at Pen Duick, in charge of the Transat Jacques-Vabre from 2005 and the Route du Rhum from 2006. He died in Paris on 3 June 2012.
