The strange black schooner

RORC Champion
With her 17.45 m. length, Pen Duick III was designed to meet the du RORC rule that governed all the British fully-crewed handicap races of the day. Designed in 1966, Tabarly also hoped to use her in the OSTAR in 1968. The aluminium used for her construction was unusual for the time, but the skipper of the Pen Duicks could see all the advantages of such a material. In the same spirit as the light plywood used for Pen Duick II, aluminium combined research into lightness, facility and speed of construction, and solidity. The hull was tulip-shaped at the bow, rather wide at the main-beam, with several bilges, and very fine at the aft. It was one of the first oceanic boats to glide in strong rear breezes. Her keel, formed of an aerofoil with lead ballasts at the end, and her separate rudder, reinforced her upwind capabilities. As for the rigging, she was the only yacht in the 1967 fleet to have a schooner configuration with two masts of identical height. Tabarly had imagined evolutionary rigging within the limits of the rule: a large fore mast for flowing and wind astern; small fore mast for upwind. Under spinnaker, the 13.5 tonne yacht could carry 320 m2 of sail, a considerable area for the time. She would skim the English Channel and go on to win the seven races of the championship including the Fastnet race all classes included. She then won the great Australian classic from Sydney to Hobart. The victorious crew down under was the youngest ever seen with an average age of 22. Such a young crew had never been seen before in the history of offshore racing! Following this clear domination, a change to the RORC rule heavily penalised schooner rigging the following season! It was for this reason that Tabarly modified the rigging of his third “Pen Duick”. She became a ketch (1968), then a sloop with a single main mast (1971), but never enjoyed the same success as in her first year.

Eric Tabarly continued to sail on board Pen Duick III in the Pacific from Los Angeles to Tahiti, in the South Atlantic from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, in the Mediterranean in the Middle Sea Race and in Florida in the SORC events. He finaly decided to launch other Pen Duicks in order to attack greater challenges.

The second life of Pen Duick III
The dear schooner remained the property of Tabarly, but was hired out to other skippers. They themselves would become famous and lengthen the yacht’s impressive trail. Marc Linski – lost at sea in 1996 on board his yacht – used her for a long time at his cruising school. He rounded Cape Horn on board on the way back from the Pacific. Eric Loizeau took part in the second Whitbread 1977/78 under the name of Gauloises II. In 1978, it was Philippe Poupon’s turn to take part in the Route du Rhum aboard Pen Duick III, this time renamed “St-Malo – Pointe-à-Pitre”. He would team up with Patrick Tabarly the following year in a double-handed transatlantic to Bermuda and back. Benoît Sangnier was next to sail on board as a cruising school for five years, followed by Arnaud Dhalenne from 1984 to 88. Jean-François Coste would then complete a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation on board the legendary yacht renamed “Cacharel” in the 1989 Vendée Globe Challenge. In the hands of Patrick Tabarly, the famous schooner then went on to spend tow years in the Antarctic. Since 2000 she has been used by Arnaud Dhalenne as a training yacht for the ‘Pen Duick Cruising Club’.

The crew of the schooner
Pen Duick II had set the tone and Pen Duick III went one step further. Maneuvers were difficult on board and a crew of seven was required. Consequently a large number of crew members would learn their trade on board. Some have now left the yachting environment, but a good number have gone on to earn a living from water sports. Others have become famous skippers in their own right. Olivier de Kersauson, Alain Colas and Jean-Michel Carpentier all knew the Pen Duicks at the start of their careers. Mr Guy Tabarly, of course, as well as his son, Patrick and Pierre Fouquin also sailed on deck along with the “veterans” of Pen Duick II like Michel Vanek, Philippe Lavat and Gérard Petipas. A few newcomers also had periods on board such as Pierre English, Yves Guégan, Victor Tonnerre (the Pen Duick sail maker), Daniel Gilles ... In her second life, without the presence of her grand master, the schooner got to know even more crew members and skippers.

Today
Property of the Tabarly family and another private individual, Pen Duick III is currently based in Saint-Malo. Navigation courses are organised on her by the “ Pen Duick Cruising Club” run by Arnaud Dhallenne. She is stripped during winter for and re-launched in the spring where she makes week-end voyages to the Channel Islands. From July 2003 she will be based in the Mediterranean. (For more info: www.club-penduick.com).

On board Pen Duick III
“One word comes to mind to describe her: harmony. The boat is just as pleasant to sail on during an afternoon trip to a hidden creek for a picnic as for a circumnavigation. She is like a little scooter with her highly maneuverable rigging that allows you to sail into port under sail in total security. Her real strong point is flowing, where her large fore mast gives her considerable power. Before the Vendée Globe my idea was to change the appendages. Eric listened to me, dubious, before saying: - if it works, don’t touch it-. Of course he was right.”

Jean-François Coste / Extract from Bateaux magazine.