SolOceans - News - Start of the round the world Reconnaissance Tour in Caen la mer (11/26/2007)

Start of the round the world Reconnaissance Tour in Caen la mer

Monday November 26th 2007 News RSS

Caen la mer urban area will be the start port of the first Veolia Oceans^® one-design heading for Wellington, the Capital of New Zealand, as part of the round the world Reconnaissance Tour of the two legs of the SolOceans. The decision was made official this morning with the signature of an agreement between Synergia, the agency in charge of the economic development of Caen la mer urban area and SailingOne, the company designer and organiser of the SolOceans, in the presence of Luc Duncombe, President of Caen la mer urban area.

Departure from Caen la mer (Lower Normandy) - November 27th, 2007 From left to right : Luc Duncombe, President of Caen la mer urban area ; Yvan Griboval, CEO of SailingOne and creator and designer of the SolOceans ; Pascal Merat, Synergia project manager.
Free of rights for press use.

“The SolOceans is a major nautical event for the international radiance of our urban area”, declared Luc Duncombe this morning from the Champlain reception room of Caen la mer urban area, “but it is also a promotion vehicle for the nautical industry of our area. Beyond the event itself, the installation along Caen New Basin of the equipment and maintenance site for the Veolia Oceans^®one-design part of the competition enlightens the numerous assets we have. It was important to seize the opportunity of a close association with this sport, nautical and industrial project. The SolOceans will become an ambassador of the dynamism of the urban area”.

“After having associated the SolOceans to Cherbourg-Octeville on the Lower Normandy area, it is important today to make official the support of Caen la mer urban area”, declared Yvan Griboval, CEO of SailingOne and designer of the SolOceans. “We can now fully illustrate the “Made in Normandy” concept of the Veolia Oceans^® one-design, specially created to take part to the SolOceans, with a hull built at Cherbourg-Octeville by JMV industries and equipped in Caen in particular with V1D2 assistance. Thus we will install the equipment, preparation and maintenance site in the Port of Caen. The one-design will come back there every year for a general check up. We will also check that the one-design concept is perfectly respected, in order for each Veolia Oceans^®one-design to stay strictly identical to the other one-design of the series”.

Jean-François Le Querler, President of Synergia, reminded that: “We created the Norlandia Program in order to promote and support the development of Caen nautical industry. Thus we are happy that the SolOceans, which exactly comes within our objectives reinforces this pole of activity wich has a strong potential. We would like that the installation of the event, of SailingOne company and of the maintenance site of the Veolia Oceans^® one-design, strengthen the attraction of our area in terms of reception capacity for companies specialised in oceanic races in particular and water sports in general”.

Let us recall that the SolOceans is the first single-handed oceanic round the world race which will be sailed on equal footing on totally identical sixteen-metre (52.5feet) high-tech one-design monohulls. This class has been named Veolia Oceans^® after the Main Sponsor of the SolOceans race, Veolia Environmental Services. The round the world tour will leave Caen la mer urban area for a stopover in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and a return in Cherbourg-Octeville. The first start will be on the 25th October 2009 and the SolOceans will then be run every two years (2011, 2013, 2015…).

The start of the first leg of the round the world Reconnaissance Tour is set for Sunday 16th December in Caen la mer (Lower Normandy) towards Wellington (New Zealand) through Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and Leeuwin (Australia). The second leg will link Wellington and Cherbourg-Octeville (Lower Normandy) through Cape Horn (South America). Each leg will take between 50 to 55 days of sailing.