Alain Thébault

Who is Alain Thébault?

Alain Thébault is a French yachtsman and skipper of l'Hydroptère.

With Éric Tabarly, he participated in the conception of a multihull on hydrofoils, named l'Hydroptère, with a team of engineers, many of them from the aeronautics industry.

The project started in 1975 and a model on a one-third scale was used for experiments between 1987 and 1992. L'hydroptère was launched in 1994 and reaches 35 knots the same year. Since 2005, with the support of Swiss banker, Thierry Lombard of Geneva, he modified his yacht for an attempt to reach the speed of 50 knots. In September 2009, in Hyères, France, Alain Thébault and his crew managed to break the outright speed record on 500m with 51.36 knots.