To prove the qualities of his trimaran - which now has a classic rigging - and sell it in the United States, Tabarly began a crewed Atlantic crossing (La Trinité - Martinique) four months later with Alain Colas and Olivier de Kersauson. Forced to take shelter in the Canaries to avoid gusts to 70 knots, he nevertheless shattered all records with a transatlantic race of 10 days and 11 hours, sailing at an average speed of 11 knots on this 2640 mile route.
Pen Duick IV then competed in parallel in the Los Angeles - Honolulu race, trimarans not being accepted. Once again, it left its mark by breaking the record by more than 24 hours, surpassing by more than 20 hours the great monohull Windward Passag, one of the fastest boats of its time. A record that is sure to interest the owner of Windward Passag, who will finally give up buying the trimaran because of the rusticity of the arrangements. After Panama and California, Pen Duick IV continues his cruise in the Pacific.
It was on his return to France - a stopover in Nouméa in the autumn of 1969 - that Tabarly sold Pen Duick IV to Alain Colas, one of his crew members. The visionary skipper had to part with one of these boats to settle unexpected debts and preferred to the trimaran Pen Duick III, capable of taking part in classic races.
After a few sailings in Polynesia and a Sydney/Hobart out of the race (multihulls not being allowed) he returned to mainland France in 76 days (Tahiti - Reunion Island - Reunion Island - Trinidad). Back in France, Alain Colas participates in the 4 e edition of La Transat (1972) which he won brilliantly in 20 days and 13 hours, spraying all the times in the process. He will try to return in Atlantic record mode, but fails with a race time of 17 days and 8 hours.
In 1973, he decided to sail around the world by the 3 capes alone. To this end, he revised Pen Duick IV within his original site. It reinforces the forward buoyancy of the 3 hulls, adds steps under the floats to reduce loading, replaces the masts with new ones and expands the sail area. The boat was renamed Manureva. He set off on his circumnavigation at the same time as the Whitbread's competitors and completed his round the world trip as a hero on 8 September 1973, after 10,000 miles covered in 169 days!
Leaving the trimaran for the 5 e edition of La Transat in 1976 for the giant monohull Club Méditerranée (72 m), he lost to Eric Tabarly at the helm of Pen Duick VI.
For the next edition - 1978 -, the English limited the size of the boats to 60 feet (18.28 m), but a new race appeared in France, the Route du Rhum, launched by Michel Etevenon. A new challenge for Alain Colas who will start aboard Manureva . A race on which the skipper and his boat disappeared off the Azores on 16 November 1978... Many tracks have been mentioned: waterway, disintegration of a link arm or even collision, but the reasons for this sinking will remain unresolved.
