A Light Reflection in Time
Pen Duick, at Les Voiles De St Tropez 2009
The first Pen Duick (also known as Pen Duick I) designed by William Fife III, in 1898 under the name Yum.
Purchased by Guy Tabarly in 1938, his son, the now famous Eric Tabarly learned to sail on board her. Pen Duicks hull had rotted in the mud flats after the Second World War making it dangerous to sail. Unable to pay for the work, his father tried to sell her. Having no buyer, and having fallen in love with her from the start Eric convinces his father to give Pen Duick to him.
A few years later, when Eric could handle his boat, he was told that the hull of his yacht was rotten. Unable to finance work by a yard, Eric decides to save his boat with his own hands: he uses the old hull as a mold, applying layers of glass fibre and polyester, he builds a new hull. The polyester construction was in its infancy in those days. No one had built yacht, as big and heavy in glass fibre before. It was the largest hull of this type at this time. The boat was restored in the former yard Raymond Labbe in 1983
On his voyage to Ireland, to celebrated Pen Duicks centenary in May 1998 Eric Tabarly was lost overboard during the night of 12 June.
Pen Duick now belongs to Mary and Jacqueline Tabarly who entrusted its maintenance and management to the Eric Tabarly association. She participates in classic yacht regattas in the Atlantic and gatherings of other Pen Duicks .
