Skipper : Yves Parlier

Yves Parlier was born on the 14th November 1960. Married and father of two children, he lives in Arcachon. Composite engineer, it’s his passion for sailing that led him to work in this branch.

In 1985, at twenty-four, he wins the Mini-Transat on his own boat and in 1991, the Solitaire du Figaro. In 1992, for his first participation in the Vendée Globe, he finishes fourth after dismasting. In the same year, he wins the Transat Anglaise. Nothing can stop him: 1993, he wins the Route du Café; 1994, the Route du Rhum. In 1997, with Eric Tabarly, they finish first at the Transat Jacques Vabre and at the same occasion beat the speed record. Then in 1998, Yves Parlier and his team win the Route de l’Or and in 1999 the Course de l’Europe (European Race).

Yves is fascinated by extreme sports and paragliding. In 1998 as he was testing a new wing he has an accident: a 200-meter fall. Badly injured, he ends up with multiple fractures: tibia, fibula and hip and his sciatic nerve is damaged.

Nonetheless, Yves sticks to his convictions and doesn’t give up. Backed by his team, he gets back on his feet. His aim: run the Vendée Globe, the Everest of the Seas. On the 5th of November 2000, he is on the starting line at the Sables d’Olonne. Yves does not only want to win the race but above all fulfil his dream. “Only victory is glorious…” used to say Michel Malinovsky, skipper present at the first Route du Rhum. Yves Parlier prefers Bernard Moitessier’s philosophy, for whom “only the adventure counts”. And the one Yves is about to live is miraculous. After leading the race three weeks in a row, he dismasts near Kerguelen. The question of abandoning never crosses his mind. The bay of the isle of Stewart shelters Aquitaine Innovations and his skipper two weeks, during which Yves repairs his boat. Once the mast is fixed, Yves Parlier comes back in the race, with his mind set to finish it. On the 16th March 2001, after 126 days, 23 hours and 16 minutes, Yves Parlier crosses the finish line and takes the 13th place but becomes a hero for the French.

Yves Parlier, just like Eric Tabarly, is a visionary skipper taking part in the development of high-level sailing. He is at the origin of new effective solutions in various fields such as naval architecture, use of composites or in the adjustment of navigation systems. The rapidity with which technologies have been transferred to other schemes proves the relevance of his choices and aptitude for innovation.

In 2000, after eight years of sailing on monohulls, Yves Parlier decides to come back to his first passion: multihulls. With his team, he develops a new boat design, hydraplaneurs, by adapting on multihulls the principle of stepped hulls coming from seaplanes.
The first 60 feet catamaran hydraplaneur has been built at the shipbuilding yard of Larros, in the Basin of Arcachon, and launched on January 31st, 2004.

Yves Parlier is an innovator, a perfectionist, an example of rigour and will. He has, all through his career, proved by his activities, his personality and resourcefulness that science, industry, technology and innovation can rhyme with dream, freedom and nature, and also respect men and the environment.

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