Loïck Peyron

Loïck Peyron (born 1 December 1959 in Nantes) is a French yachtsman, younger brother of the yachtsman Bruno Peyron.

He is particularly famous for winning many races in the 1990s on board his trimaran Fujicolor.

Among his notable achievements, he won the ORMA Championship four times in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2002, the STAR transatlantic race three times, the transat Jacques Vabre twice and won the Jules Verne Trophy in 2012.

After Benjamin de Rothschild gave him control of the Gitana Team in April 2006, the team built Gitana Eighty, a 60 feet monohull, launched in July 2007 with which Loick Peyron won the Transat. On 9 December 2008, he began his participation in the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe with Gitana Eighty. After having led the race for 16 days, Gitana Eighty's mast broke.

In 2010, Peyron sailed in the 33rd America's Cup as part of the Alinghi Team, in the roles of 'floater' in race 1 and relief helmsman in race 2. Alinghi were defeated by the American challenger BMW Oracle Racing. In early 2012 he won the Jules Verne Trophy in a time of 45 days 13 hours 42 minutes 53 seconds, breaking Franck Cammas previous record by 2 days.

In late 2012 he was asked to join Artemis Racing, Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup, as one of the helmsmen. He brings a great amount of knowledge and expertise of multihulls to the campaign.

In November 2014, he won the Route du Rhum single-handed transat on Banque Populaire VII maxi trimaran. He set the new record, travelling from Brittany to Guadeloupe in 7 days 15 hours 8 minutes and 32 seconds (22.93 kts average speed) and beating Lionel Lemonchois 2006 record by 2h 10mn 34s.

In May 2016, he entered the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race aboard Pen Duick II, the boat sailed by Éric Tabarly to win this very race in 1964.

Source: Article "Loïck Peyron" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.