SolOceans

SolOceans is a new concept for yachting, where the yachts are standard and skipper performance is the key distinction between competitors. Do you have any research that indicates the level of potential skipper interest / demand for such a concept, particularly on a solo basis? If not research, any feedback you have received from potentially interested parties?

The SolOceans is the first and sole long distance oceanic race sailed on an equal footing on perfectly identical one-design monohulls: Oceanic One Design^®. It therefore also is the first single-handed round-the-world race sailed in such exceptional sports conditions.

The SolOceans is thus an "ultimate race", name given by our New Zealander interlocutors. Men and women will only be ranked according to human factors. For example, the sponsor's budget will not be a determining factor in the ranking of the SolOceans. It is our credo.

The SolOceans' philosophy is closer to the philosophy of an athletics competition than that of a Formula One Grand Prix or a WRC rally. Thanks to the SolOceans, oceanic sailing will exclusively be considered from the human side of sports.

Before announcing the creation of the SolOceans and the Oceanic One Design^®, we spent about fourteen months consulting skippers of all origins in order to collect their opinion. Their enthusiasm for the concept defined above was the decisive factor that definitely persuaded us to carry out the project.

All the consulted skippers cited five strengths of the SolOceans:

1. Sixteen-metre high-tech, high-performance monohulls, all perfectly identical;
2. Controlled and restrained costs / budgets affordable for middle sized firms and sponsors;
3. Possibility of taking part in the SolOceans without needing a big technical support team;
4. No need for technical development, neither on the yachts nor on the sails since they all are identical;
5. The SolOceans is raced every two years with approximately a 50-day long leg per year.

To conclude: The number of interested skippers is way above what we had initially expected.

The other existing single-handed (or crewed) oceanic races, as well as the ones scheduled in 2007-2008 are more "complicated" than the SolOceans.

Indeed, all the actual or future oceanic races require: a lot of money, a design team (several people) to imagine the prototype, a technical team to prepare and develop the prototype, a team of specialists to develop the sails, long hours of work on the construction site to modify the hull and equipments of the prototype each year between each race. Yet, the value of the one-off decreases as years go by, as does the capital invested by the sponsor or the skipper - who often owns his racing yacht.

Considering all this, the SolOceans attracts six kinds of skippers:

1. Young specialists of single-handed offshore sailing who would like to experience their first round-the-world race. More particularly, they are skippers of the Mini 6.5 Class who are, to date, several hundred in the world. These skippers have never raced around the world;
2. Specialists of offshore team racing or quite notorious oceanic solo-sailors with an impressive sailing CV. These sailors still want to take part in professional oceanic races, but do not wish to get involved anymore in campaigns as hectic as those of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Velux Five Oceans, the Vendée Globe or the Barcelona World Race, for example…;
3. Specialists of ocean racing who do not manage to take part in the existing offshore races because they can not afford / gather the sizeable budgets required for races such as the Volvo Ocean Race, the Velux Five Oceans, the Vendée Globe or the Barcelona World Race;
4. Crewmen in oceanic races who would like to fulfil their own project and become skippers but who cannot do it yet because of the financial and technical conditions required that are often inaccessible for most of them nowadays;
5. Specialists of Olympic Sailing who would like to lead a real professional career once their amateur sports career is over. They want to carry out and run their own project. Competing on an equal footing within a limited budget is the main factor that appeals to them;
6. Specialists of the America's Cup who would like to lead and carry out their own sporting project;

We are already in touch with skippers from: France, England, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Italy, Spain and Ukraine. However, we have not yet launched the promotion campaign for skippers and sponsors beyond the French borders, scheduled to start in spring 2007.

At the time being, we are already able to build and sell at least eight to ten Oceanic One Design^® monohulls for the first SolOceans (2009-2010). Our aim is to build twelve yachts. We might build more than twelve yachts, but fifteen at most.

We are planning to allot about 40% to 60% of the Oceanic One Design^® fleet to non-French skippers.

What initiatives will you take to attract the interest and attention of skippers globally?

First of all, in order to promote the SolOceans and the Oceanic One Design^®, we use the traditional promotion means: website, world-wide sailing specialist press campaigns, direct contact with skippers, direct contact with skippers associations, direct contact with yacht holders associations and monohull oceanic racers, etc…

We have started these promotional approaches autumn 2005, i.e. four years before the start of the first SolOceans, which is quite exceptional for an oceanic race. Generally, the promotion is usually initiated the year of the start or 18 to 24 months earlier.

In addition to these traditional methods, we have three further significant means of promotion of the SolOceans and Oceanic One Design^®:

Firstly, the SolOceans is the first oceanic race that will have a genuine warm up two years prior to the start. This means that in October 2007 one or maybe two Oceanic One Design^® monohulls will leave the official French starting port for Auckland or Wellington New Zealand, port they should reach around the 15th of December. They will then leave New Zealand around January 17th/20th 2008 and return to the French official arrival port.

In order to perfectly test sail the Oceanic One Design^® monohulls in the same round-the-world sailing conditions as the SolOceans and in order to allow a greater number of skippers to sail the Oceanic One Design^® in such conditions in 2007-2008, there will be two sailors per monohull. Some will only sail one leg and thus increase even more the number of those who will be able to try the Oceanic One Design^® in the real conditions of the SolOceans.

Once in New Zealand, approximately between December 20th 2007 and January 15th 2008, New Zealander and Australian skippers will be invited to sail on the Oceanic One Design^® and public relation campaigns will be carried out for firms interested in sponsoring a New Zealander skipper.

Secondly, in order to promote the Oceanic One Design^® and the SolOceans, an international racing calendar is in the process of being elaborated for the 2008 season with a famous single-handed oceanic race between England and the United States of America as well as a return transoceanic race from New York to France. The Oceanic One Design^® monohulls will probably also compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Northern hemisphere most renowned offshore sailing race in the world and in the Semaine des Voiles de Saint-Tropez (France), and then in the Rolex Middle Sea Race (Malta) at the end of the season.

Thirdly, during each race in which the first Oceanic One Design^® monohulls will take part, a one-design will specially be kept for local skippers of the visited countries in order for them to discover this one-design and for us to present the SolOceans in optimum conditions. Between two different competitions, an Oceanic One Design^® will stopover in big ports abroad (Canada, Spain, Italy, for example) in order to present the Oceanic One Design^® as well as the SolOceans to local skippers. English, American, Canadian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch, Greek and Ukrainian skippers are directly concerned.

Each of these three exceptional promotion phases of the Oceanic One Design^® and the SolOceans will benefit from guaranteed international media coverage.

It is the first time in international ocean racing history that such a worldwide promotion campaign of a new yacht and race will be carried out.

How many yachts are you expecting to take part in the first SolOceans (2009), and what is the projected growth rate for subsequent events?

The number of Oceanic One Design^® monohulls that will take part in the SolOceans 2009-2010 depends on our construction capacity.

At present, we are sure that the number of clients we have, ready to buy the Oceanic One Design^® monohulls is higher than the number of yachts we will be able to build before summer 2009.

Regarding the first SolOceans (2009-2010), if the worst case should occur, we will be able to build eight Oceanic One Design^® monohulls ready to line up on October 25th 2009. This already encompasses a higher number of competitors than had the later Volvo Ocean Race that welcomed seven competitors who enjoyed varying fortunes since only five officially completed the course. Nevertheless the Volvo Ocean Race has benefited from worldwide media coverage and its success is internationally held in high esteem.

With regards to low estimates, we will be able to build ten Oceanic One Design^® monohulls.

In accordance with our actual planning, we should build twelve Oceanic One Design^® monohulls.

If we manage to optimize our production pace, we will be able to build more than twelve units. However, we sure will not be able to build over fifteen Oceanic One Design^® monohulls for the first SolOceans.

Regarding the second Solo-Oceans (2011-2012), our aim is to have a fifteen to twenty Oceanic One Design^® monohull line-up.

Regarding the following races, we are still wondering which course to follow. For security reasons, we are not sure whether to limit the number of participants to twenty or to twenty-five. Should we limit the number of participants to fifteen in order to create a rather elitist philosophy of the SolOceans? Should we put no limit at all? Should we encourage the participation and aim thirty or more solo-sailors? We are not able to answer these questions at the moment. The answers will also depend on the hosting capacities of the start/arrival ports of the SolOceans in France and in New Zealand.

As we actually control 100% of the Oceanic One Design^® Class regulations, as well as the race instructions of the SolOceans, this decision will be taken in concert with the representatives of the French and New Zealander hosting ports of the SolOceans after one or two races. We will then submit this SolOceans development proposal to the concerned sports federations. Once they have finished consulting each other and eventually making alterations to our proposal, the federations will ratify a collective decision.

Would potential growth in the event be impacted or constrained by other races, such as the new Global Ocean Challenge and Barcelona World Race?

Our perception of the possible "competition" with other races regarding the SolOceans rests on three parameters based on a thirty-year long experience in the world of sailing races:

Firstly, the more traditional oceanic races there are, i.e., in which you have to possess a costly prototype, the more the number of skippers interested by such races increases. In the same way, the number of sponsors also increases.

The bigger the number of skippers and sponsors interested in single-handed or short-handed (two-man crew) is, the bigger is the number of potential competitors for the SolOceans. This is positively automatic and mathematic.

Indeed, as explained above, races such as the Global Ocean Challenge or the Barcelona World Race are opened to various yachts depending on a rating, from the smallest to the biggest: Class 40' (12.20m), IMOCA 50' (15.20m) and IMOCA 60'(18.20m).

Yachts aiming the victory in competitions reserved for these categories are mainly one-offs. Yet, these prototypes require substantial budgets. To expect a good ranking, you necessarily need a recent and top-of-the-range prototype at your disposal even though the very young Class 40' has not yet gone into this approach - according to our information, it should not be long.

A good prototype is expensive to design and build, and needs to be regularly upgraded and changed if you wish to stay at the top high performance. Such budgets are hard - almost impossible - to control since at the start of a racing season, it is impossible to know which new improvements will be required to adapt to the most performing yachts, i.e. those with the biggest running costs. These budgets are thus logically constantly increasing, without any real limit, despite the good will of oceanic race directors - who, as a matter of fact, have no means to limit these rises.

Yet, regarding the SolOceans, we are aware of the problem and are willing to do everything we can to prevent these drawbacks from occurring. That is the reason why we have chosen to be altogether: generator of the SolOceans; designer and constructor of the Oceanic One Design^®; at the head of the Oceanic One Design^® Class programme and regulations; in charge of the controls of the perfectly identical one-design quality as well as in charge of the technical developments we will carry out - and us alone - each year on each Oceanic One Design^®. These technical developments will be comprised in a special budget allowance, fixed and identical for all the Oceanic One Design^® monohulls.

Therefore, we will draft a contract with each skipper and yacht-owner / sponsor, contract in which on the one hand we will guarantee the perfectly identical one-design quality and sports conditions for each competitor and, on the other hand, we will guarantee strictly controlled running costs of the Oceanic One Design^®, thus preventing them from increasing.

With regards to the SolOceans concept, we are happy to remind you that the salary of the skipper is the sole cost that can increase, according to his achievements and to his sponsors / partners. This is a concept Anglo-Saxon skippers are really keen on and used to and that French skippers find more and more interesting.

Secondly, the Oceanic One Design^® and the SolOceans is part of the single-handed oceanic racing field among which the superior category in terms of size, IMOCA 60', i.e. monohull prototypes of the Velux Five Oceans, the Vendée Globe and of the Barcelona World Race.

If the oceanic racing field were a train, we could consider the 60 feet monohull prototype category and its IMOCA 60' competitions as the locomotive, and the Oceanic One Design^® Class, as the first carriage of the train, just beneath IMOCA 60'.

Therefore, the more powerful the locomotive, the faster the train and thus the "wealthier" all the carriages are. The development of the IMOCA 60' category is therefore very advantageous for the development of the SolOceans and the Oceanic One Design^® monohulls.

In the same way, the more the categories beneath the Oceanic One Design^® Class expand, i.e. the category IMOCA 50' and the new Class 40', the more skippers and sponsors will be interested in the SolOceans. In the single-handed international oceanic racing field, the fishpond / number of potential skippers and sponsors candidates to the SolOceans increases regularly thanks to the development of these smaller sized categories than the Oceanic One Design^® Class.

We should also note that taking part in (or organizing) a non-stop race is financially the cheapest for all the actors. It is the case for the Barcelona World Race and the Vendée Globe. Organising an oceanic race with one stopover, such as the SolOceans, is more expensive than a non-stop race but generates a lot more media coverage. There indeed are two departures, two arrivals and one general ranking. A race with several stopovers such as the Velux Five Oceans and the Global Ocean Challenge, generates even more media coverage but the entry and running costs are much more expensive to the detriment of the whole value for money.

The expand of the Class 40' as well as the organization of the Global Ocean Challenge - whose Managing Director actually asked for a lot of information about the concept of the SolOceans and Oceanic One Design^® in October-November 2005 before announcing the creation of his race - is thus another reason to be very happy about the SolOceans and the development of the Oceanic One Design^®. We wish him good luck in his undertaking insofar as, in the long run, it will work towards promoting the SolOceans and the Oceanic One Design^®.

The third reason why we are happy to see the expansion of round the world oceanic races is the considerable work that has been achieved by the race organizers and PR agents of each competing team with the media.

Renowned international media are therefore receptive to these round the world sailing competitions and it is easy to imagine, given the talent of the organizers and the skills of the PR agents of each competing team, that the appeal of these round the planet races will be substantial and will grow in the following years. This is our analysis with regard to the evolutions that have occurred since 1968 as far as adventures and oceanic races are concerned.

However, there is only one single-handed round the world race in which men and women will compete on an equal footing, thus giving greater importance to emotion rather than yachts' technological differences: the SolOceans.

We therefore think that the work that has been achieved by the race organizers and PR agents of each competing team with the press regarding these new races as well as the existing ones, will necessarily efficiently benefit, and in a perennial way, to the worldwide promotion of the SolOceans and Oceanic One Design^®.

Where are you currently in terms of your selection process and negotiations with the French and New Zealander ports that will host the SolOceans?

First of all, please note that the choice of the host port is based on a vast number of technical criteria with regard to such an international event that will rapidly increase in importance according to one race every two years, i.e. a departure or an arrival per year and per port, French and New Zealander. As a matter of fact, this rhythm will start from autumn 2007 onwards with the launch of the warm-up, the round the world reconnaissance on the course of the SolOceans.

Among these criteria that will help us choose, the most important one is the genuine enthusiasm we expect from elected representatives and officials of the concerned ports. In our point of view, it represents the best guarantee we can have of succeeding, the master trump as far as the durability of the SolOceans is concerned, and the ideal situation in order to optimize the promotion of the site and its specificities in every field.

Regarding the choice of the port that will host the start and finish of the SolOceans in France, we are in progress. There are still four ports in competition located either on the English Channel or on the Atlantic coast. We have decided not to choose any Mediterranean ports.

Among these four short listed selected ports, one of them is particularly distinguishing itself a little more each day by the enthusiasm of the majority of elected representatives and key actors with whom we would collaborate for the success of the SolOceans.

We have undertaken with each of the four sites, that the production unit in which the Oceanic One Design^® will be constructed as well as the maintenance site, be set up in the area of the port that will host the SolOceans.

This idea appeals to all our interlocutors in charge of the contacted regional and local authorities, but is also quite constraining as the manufacturing of the tooling (moulds) of the Oceanic One Design^® has already started - as scheduled - and the construction of the first Oceanic One Design^® unit is meant to begin at the very start of next year. The final decision as far as the choice of the production site is concerned, is yet becoming an urgent matter.

Yet, our approach is quite delicate because of the choice of buildings (1 500 square metres for the construction + 2 000 square metres for the maintenance) that are either available but in a location that does not suit us much, either in areas we really like but that we have to construct, or already existing buildings, rightly located but too small…

However, one of those four sites really gathers a majority of advantages, not only with regard to the construction and the maintenance of the Oceanic One Design^® but also with regard to the development of the SolOceans and the benefit its French and foreign partners can acquire. It would also be a prestigious site for a twinning with the New Zealander host port, since History has already brought together these two parts of the world. The negotiations with the regional and local authorities of this site have well started and we should have taken our final decision within the following weeks, maybe even before the end of the year.

We therefore consider to be on time planning wise regarding the designation of the official French port of the SolOceans, practically three years prior to the start of the first race (October 25th, 2009), and less than a year before the launch of the warm-up (October 25th, 2007).

During the press conference of the official launch of the SolOceans, at the French sailing Federation's headquarters in Paris, Bridget Gee, representing the Embassy of New Zealand in France had been interviewed by the Agence France Presse (French national pres agency) regarding the designation of the New Zealander port. She had bet that New Zealanders would be quicker to take their decision than the French. This friendly bet is still on… and is poised to be won by the Kiwis, by a couple of weeks or so.

Answers collected with Yvan Griboval in Paris, November 22nd, 2006