PHOTOS GALLERY

From her rescue in Hawaii in 2019 to her current renovation in Nantes, discover in pictures the adventure of L'Hydroptère's new life!

On June 28, 2019, Chris Welsh and Gabriel Terrasse saved *L’Hydroptère* from destruction by purchasing her at auction from the State of Hawaii, where she had been abandoned since 2015. She was structurally intact, but had been completely stripped of all her equipment…

Then a real race against time began for Gabriel: he had to get *L’Hydroptère* out of Hawaii as quickly as possible to prevent her from being seized again. To do so, he had to fully re-equip her so she could cross the Pacific autonomously and reach San Francisco, where Chris had a shipyard.

On November 2, 2019, *L’Hydroptère* was finally ready to depart. Skippered by Mike Price, she set sail on her Transpacific crossing. On the evening of November 18, 2019, *L’Hydroptère* passed under the Golden Gate and moored at the Sugar Dock shipyard in Richmond, in San Francisco Bay.

Then the dismantling of *L’Hydroptère* began to start the refit. A plan that would soon be disrupted by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic…

Thanks to an article in the French sailing magazine *Voiles & Voiliers*, Gabriel was put in contact with Airbus, which made its vessels available to bring *L’Hydroptère* back to France.
The first of the three required trips took place in February 2021. The exceptional transports were carried out by the IDEA group, and the lifting operations by ADEKMA Levage.
In March 2023, all of *L’Hydroptère* was finally brought together in Nantes, in a building made available by SECO MARINE, a company in the FETIS group:

The renovation project for L'Hydroptère can now begin. Eric Rambaud, who has 25 years of experience in aerospace composites and manufacturing, is joining the project as technical director.