IYC Appoints New Director of Yacht Management in Europe

Fabien Roché has been appointed by IYC as their Director of Yacht Management-Europe, a newly created position based in the company’s Monaco office. 


He joins André Peens the Director of Yacht Management who is based in Fort Lauderdale.


Fabien started his ‘career’ at sea at the tender age of 3, living on a sailboat and taking educational correspondence courses to go through school. The world’s oceans became his playground: first the Mediterranean at age 7 and 8; then the Atlantic (age 10); followed by the whole Caribbean from Venezuela to the Virgin Islands. Upon completing his A-levels in the U.K., Fabien passed his first Commercial Maritime license in 1987; the second followed a year later. He then sailed for a humanitarian organisation and was responsible for navigation, electrics and engineering.

Landing at Réunion Island, Fabien Roché skippered his first charter yacht at age 19. He worked on charter and private yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean until the early 1990s. He resumed his studies at the Merchant Marine Academy in Nantes, France, obtaining his Master’s license in 1996.

Fabien has built much of his maritime skills on yachts, most recently Indian Empress and Felicita West as well as sail and power cruise ships and (to a lesser extent) on commercial ships


His years of experience embraces expedition yachting and cruising all over the world, including

  • Antarctica
  • The Arctic
  • The Amazon and Orinoco rivers
  • Great Lakes
  • Caribbean
  • Baltic Sea
  • North & Western Europe
  • Mediterranean
  • Red Sea
  • Indian Ocean
  • Central and South America
  • South-East Asia