When he imagined his next boat after his victory in the 1972 English Transat on his trimaran Manureva, Alain Colas knew exactly what kind of racing machine he wanted. For him, the longer a boat is, the faster it goes. So he wanted the longest boat he could handle.
He met with the naval architect Michel Bigouin (who had already signed the ULDB Pen Duick V) to explain his project. He wanted a boat of more than 60 meters, but with masts of less than 30 meters. Each mast must support a maximum of 120 m2 of sail area. A surface that Alain Colas knows he can still control.
The boat is then designed. She will be 72 m long and will carry 4 masts and more than 1000 m2 of sails in total.
It was then necessary to find a shipyard. At the time, only the Toulon arsenal could produce a 240-ton steel hull within the allotted time. Colas managed to get the doors of this military domain opened.
To finance his boat, Alain Colas relies on Gaston Defferre and his contacts. Very good talker, he manages to make dream the leaders of big companies. Starting with Gilbert Trigano, boss of Club Mediterrenee, who agreed to finance 2/3 of the boat. By making such a financial arrangement, Alain Colas introduced sponsorship into ocean racing for the first time.
The story seems beautiful. In 1975, the dream takes shape. Everything was going well until Pentecost Sunday. In a risky anchoring maneuver on Manureva, Alain Colas had his left foot torn off by his anchor chain in La Trinité-sur-Mer.
22 operations and 5 months later, he visited the shipyard in Toulon leaning on crutches. The various people involved doubted his ability to navigate this enormous boat. However, Alain Colas did not give up and continued to believe in it.
On February 15, 1976, Club Méditerranée was launched and turned around. It's a party! For reasons of too great a draft, the hull was built and launched upside down. Keel towards the sky! The turnaround is carried out once the boat is in the water at the Mourillon slipway.
This boat is incredible. The press is talking about it: it is so well-maintained and operated by one man. Cameras monitor each mast. A hydraulic power plant manages the winches. Behind the chart table, a computer with its screen and printer are even in place. All adjustments can be made without leaving the helm. On the back deck, a wind generator is installed. A lot of equipment developed for this sailboat will be found on board our current pleasure boats.
There were many critics who described this boat as a "button presser". The rather unfair English try to forbid him to take the start of the Transat and ask him to do an additional 1500 mile qualifying run in the Atlantic. Alain Colas came back strutting, announcing that he had not encountered any problemsâ?¦
A devastating race
On June 5, 1976, the Transat started. The race that Alain Colas wanted to win and for which he had built this enormous machine. If the start was made in light winds, the tone quickly changed and the race went through three storms that caused a third of the competitors to abandon.
On Club Mediterranée, the halyards broke one by one. Alain Colas can not iron them alone in the mast. He decided to stop in Newfoundland to repair them. A stop that will last 36 hours. At this stage, he was still in the lead of the race, as there was no news of the other competitors. However, while Colas was expected to arrive in the afternoon, Eric Tabarly on Pen Duick VI emerged from the fog in the early morning to take first place. 7 hours before Alain Colas! The latter had a hard time digesting his defeat. Especially since he was later disqualified by the race committee for having had help at the time of his new departure from Newfoundland.
A charter life for Club Méditerranée
After this race, the Club Méditerranée is fitted out to be operated as a charter. Cabins were built quickly and with little money. At that time, the sponsors left the ship. Unfortunately, a fire broke out while the boat was moored in the port of Marseille, destroying all the work. The boat was then repatriated to Tahiti to continue its charter mission. But Alain Colas was not satisfied with this life. He entered his former trimaran Manureva in the first Route du Rhum in 1978. He would die in this race.
For lack of funds to operate it, Club Méditerranée was abandoned for four years at the bottom of the port of Papeete in Tahiti.
The Tapie adventure
On the advice of Michel Bigouin, Bernard Tapie bought her from the widow of Alain Colas. The yacht was then renamed La Vie Claire and made an attempt at the Atlantic crossing record from New York. Calms at the finish made the attempt fail, but the 24-hour distance record was beaten: 457 miles.
The boat returns to Marseille for a transformation. Bernard Tapie wants to keep the spirit of the fast boat by offering more comfort and luxury. Thus the fittings will remain light even if a longer deckhouse is then installed.
In 1986, after 3 years and 60 million dollars of work, the former Club Méditerranée, renamed Phocéa, was put back in the water. It is mainly used for the leisure activities of its owner and his family.
In 1988, Tapies once again set out to break the record for crossing the Atlantic under sail in a monohull. He beat Charlie Barr's record by 4 days with a crossing of 8 days 3 hours and 29 minutes.
Following legal setbacks with the tax authorities, Bernard Tapie loses the Phocéa which is seized in April 1996.
The transformation of Mouna Ayoub
Put on sale for 71 million francs, it is finally Mouna Ayoub who buys her for 37 million francs. Having become famous after her divorce from Naceur Al Rachid, this businesswoman launched the total transformation of the boat by carrying out a very luxurious refit. No longer looking for performance, the boat was entirely redone with noble (and heavy!) materials. A second floor was even added. The masts are even reduced so that the boat heels less!
Heavier, less canvas, the Phocea has lost all its identity (except its nameâeuros¦). It is proposed to the charter to cover the operating costs.
It was then sold to the owners of Pixmania. The boat finally arrived in Malaysia, visibly abandoned without any understanding of its owners' wishes. The incredible story that sticks to the skin of the "Colas hull" seems to continue, since the boat finally sinks after a fire on February 17, 2021 .
