Yves Parlier (born 14 November 1960) is a French sailor. He is very well known in the offshore sailing world and generally in France, where he was elected France's top sports personality in 2002.
Nicknamed "The extra-terrestrial" for his amazing exploits and capabilities, Parlier currently holds two offshore 24-hour distance sailing records, set in April and May 2006.
Yves Parlier won (or participate in) the following events:
Winners of the Grand Prix of Zeebruge
Class40 is a class of monohull sailboat and a yacht primarily used for short handed offshore and coastal racing. The class is administered by International Class40 Association which is recognised by the World Sailing.
Boris Herrmann is a German yachtsman and author competing mostly in offshore races in the IMOCA 60 class.
Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is a French sailor. He is best known for his achievements in single-handed sailing and set the current world-record for the westabout circumnavigation. He also holds the record of sailing Cape Horn 12 times in competitions.
Loïck Peyron is a French yachtsman, younger brother of the yachtsman Bruno Peyron.
Bernard Gallay is a French yachtsman and businessman. He has competed in the Vendée Globe twice and finished his career as a professional sailor whilst participating in the Transat 6.50 in 2005. In 1994, he moved to Montpellier in the South of France and founded Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage. He still competes in amateur races such as Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez and the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
Brian Thompson is a British yachtsman. He was the first Briton to twice break the speed record for sailing around the world, and the first to sail non-stop around the world four times. He is highly successful offshore racer on all types of high-performance yachts, from 21-foot Mini Transat racers to 140-foot Maxi Trimarans.
Thomas Coville is a French yacht racer.
François Gabart is a French professional offshore yacht racer who won the 2012-13 Vendée Globe in 78 days 2 hours 16 minutes, setting a new race record. In 2017 he set the speed record for sailing around the globe, in 42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds, finishing on 17 December. He was sailing solo in the 30 metre Trimaran Macif.
Alex Pella is a Spanish yachtsman. In 2014 he became the first Spaniard to win a transoceanic single-handed race, the Route du Rhum. Alex Pella made history once again, on 26 January 2017, when he broke, with the rest of the team, the absolute round-the-world speed sailing record, known as the Jules Verne Trophy, aboard the sophisticated maxi-multihull IDEC 3. They circumnavigated the planet in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.
Armel Le Cléac’h is a French professional navigator and sea captain. He was the IMOCA world champion in 2008 and French champion in single-handed yacht race in 2003. He notably won the Solitaire du Figaro twice, the Transat AG2R in 2004 and 2010 and the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race in 2016. He finished second in both the 2008–09 and 2012–13 editions of the Vendée Globe. In the Vendée Globe 2016–17, he finished first with a new record time of 74d, 3h 35m, 46s. His performance earned him the 2018 Laureus World Sports Award for Action Sportsperson of the Year.
Guillaume Verdier is a French naval architect noted for his designs of high performance sailboats.
Jérémie Beyou is a French professional offshore sailor born on 27 June 1976 in Landivisiau (Finistère). He is a member of C N Lorient Sailing Club.
Charlie Dalin is a French offshore sailor. He placed second in the quadrennial Vendée Globe race around the world that took place in 2020–2021, with a time of 80 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 47 seconds. He covered 28,268 nautical miles at a race average of 14.67 knots. He has a Naval Architecture degree from the University of Southampton.
Yannick Bestaven is a French offshore sailor. He won the Transat 6.50 in 2001, was twice winner of the Transat Jacques-Vabre, and won the Vendée Globe in 2020-21.
The 2000–2001 Vendée Globe is a non-stop solo Round the World Yacht Race for IMOCA 50 and IMOCA 60 class yachts. This is the fourth edition of the race starting on the 9th November 2000 from Les Sables-d'Olonne.
Alain Gautier is a French professional offshore sailor. He is best known for winning the 1992–1993 Vendée Globe. He currently heads Lanic Sport Development, founded in 1989, and specializing in the preparation of and assistance to offshore racing teams including those of Ellen MacArthur in 1998 and Isabelle Joschke in 2019. He headed with Bertrand Pacé the Aleph challenge for the 34th America's Cup in 2013 but the team never got the funding required. It competed in the America's Cup World Series on supplied AC45 catamarans before withdrawing.
Foncia 2 is a IMOCA 60 Class offshore racing monohull sailing yacht launched in 2010.
Jean-Pierre Dick is a French professional yachtsman.
Patrick de Radiguès was born in Leuven, Belgium on 25 July 1956 and now based in Monaco. He started his racing cars and motorcycles competing at Le Mans. He started sailing world at the 36 years old and liked the adventure of short handed offshore. He was lucky to survive the 2000 Vendee Globe accident in which he was knocked unconscious and the boat washed up ashore.
Paul Meilhat is a French sailor and navigator. He was a high level 49er dinghy sailor with Olympic aspirations before moving into offshore sailing. From 2015 to the end of 2018 he was skipper of the IMOCA 60 - SMA and competed in the Vendée Globe.