Phocea (yacht)

Phocea at anchor

Phocea was a sailing yacht that was built at Toulon, France, by DCAN in 1976.[1] She is 246 feet long (75 meters) and can cruise at 12 knots.[1] Like many yachts, she has undergone a number of refits, a major one having been in 2000 in Germany.[2] She can handle 12 guests supported by a crew of 16 sailors.[2] Phocea is a schooner with four masts.[3] Phocea was originally built for speed, and she crossed the Atlantic in 8 days and achieved speeds of 30 knots under sail.[3] The yacht has also been converted more for luxury and used on the charter market.[3]

The Phocea was the World's largest sailing yacht before the 2004 launching of Athena, by Royal Huisman. She was built at the Toulon Naval Dockyard in 1976 for renowned single-handed yachtsman Alain Colas, who named her Club Méditerranée. Shortly after competing in the Observer Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, she was converted into the charter yacht Club Méditerranée.[4][5] Later in 1997, she was reffited and renamed La Vie Claire with a new Jorg Biederbeck interior design and a new Tim Heywood exterior design.[6]

The Phocea was partially destroyed by fire on 18 February 2021 and sank the next day. She was anchored in Langkawi archipelago in Malaysia.[7]

  1. ^ a b Fleet, Yacht Charter. "PHOCEA Yacht - DCAN | Yacht Charter Fleet". www.yachtcharterfleet.com.
  2. ^ a b yacht, 75m Classic sailing; World, One of the Most Admired Around the. "ENIGMA Yacht Charter Details, Toulon Naval Arsenal DCAN". www.charterworld.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b c "Phocea | Super Yachts by Agent4Stars.comSuper Yachts by Agent4Stars.com". Archived from the original on 2018-04-12. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  4. ^ Club Méditerranée: un géant parmi les monocoques Archived 2007-03-23 at the Wayback Machine (French), with a picture of the boat
  5. ^ "The Long, Troubled, Glamorous Life Of Superyacht Phocea". Vanuatu Daily Post. Port Vila, Vanuatu: Vanuatu Daily Post: Trading Post Limited. November 16, 2012. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  6. ^ "Phocea yacht for charter". Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  7. ^ "Le Phocéa, ancien yacht de Bernard Tapie, brûle puis coule en Malaisie". Ouest-France (in French). 21 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.