t was all just a bit of history repeated for the crowds in Cowes, Isle of Wight, in mid-April, as they witnessed Tabarly come home at the helm of to take line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, followed, a few days later, by an all-female crew on , overall winners on on and a new all-female crew on . Just before midnight on 11 April, after 37 days and a challenging 6,814 miles at sea, crossed the finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron, first boat back, and first in Leg Four IRC handicap. Marie’s father, the French sailing legend Éric Tabarly, had two attempts at winning the Whitbread Round the World Race, which the Ocean Globe Race is based on, but was dismasted twice during the inaugural race in 1973/4. Four years later, his 73ft ketch-rigged , in which he went on to win the Observer Solo Trans-Atlantic Race (OSTAR) in 1976, was outlawed mid-way through the 1977/8 Whitbread for having a keel made of spent uranium, an exotic material that had become banned in the interim.
