Yves Parlier watched the start aboard his former IMOCA Open 60

The renowned French yachtsman Yves Parlier witnessed the start of the Barcelona World Race  in the company of his two children aboard his old IMOCA Open 60. The yacht, which was rechristened Mirabaud (it belongs to the owner of the company sponsoring Dominique Wavre and Michèle Paret's BWR entry) two years ago, is the boat Parlier skippered to win the Transat Anglaise, the Route du Café and the Route du Rhum between 1991 and 1994.

The Frenchman will always be remembered for his great Vendée Globe 2000-2001 feat, when after breaking the mast as he was leading in the Pacific, he managed to fish out some bits of the carbon mast from the sea and repaired it, finishing the regatta with no external help. He didn't report any problems, although he thoroughly checked over the boat. "He looked carefully at the next manoeuvre, the mast, and had a look inside the yacht and said nothing about it", said a fellow skipper.

The yacht was donated to the FNOB halfway through the year for two main reasons: so it can be used as a training tool and to be used to educate the general public on what a real yacht from this class is like.

Built in 1990 in glass fibre, this 18.29m long monohull has a displacement of 10,500kg, some two tonnes more than the average current carbon fibre IMOCA Open 60s.

Mirabaud is one of this class of offshore sailing's boats with the most history.  Her first great skipper was  Christophe Augus, who was the winner of the 1991 round the world regatta, split into legs, the BOC Challenge. The yacht then moved into the hands of Yves Parlier, until finally in 1997, with Marc Thiercelin at the helm,  Mirabaud finished second in the Vendée Globe and in the Transat Jacques Vabre, this time with Dominique Wavre.