Sailing's most bizarre sponsor

Arnaud Boissières talks about his next Vendee Globe campaign

In France, they have some unusual sponsors of sailing. Aside from the various regions (Aquitaine, Charente Maritime, Nord Pas du Calais, Langedou Roussillon, etc) we have or have had nuclear companies (Areva), defence contractors (DCNS, Safran), supermarkets (Geant, Leclerc), food (Fleury Michon - cold meats, Sodebo – pizzas, Bonduelle – tinned veg) as well as car manufacturers (Suzuki, Lada), banks (Banque Populaire), insurance companies (Groupama) and property companies (Foncia). But for the last two Vendee Globes and, surprisingly, a company that in these hard economic times is forging ahead straight into its third campaign for the solo non-stop round the world race is one that makes…verandas. Yes, those glass clad lean-tos for your house.
Akena Verandas first sponsored Raphael Dinelli in the 2004 Vendee Globe, but for the last race changed allegiance to up and coming solo sailor Arnaud Boissières. Now on their third go and still with Boissières, they have acquired the Farr-designed PRB, that Vincent Riou sailed in the last Vendee Globe, their first potentially race-winning boat, with the aim of having Boissières sail it in the 2012-3 Vendee Globe.



“Akena Verandas are based near Les Sables d’Olonne, which is why they choose an Open 60,” explains Boissières. Vendee-based companies such as Akena, as well as PRB and Sodebo, are keen to support their region’s top sporting event. “The boss of Akena Verandas is a friend of the boss of PRB and one time the boss of PRB, Jean-Jacques Laurent said to Mr Chabot [head of Akena Verandas] ‘try to do the Vendee Globe - it is like a drug’. And for the business, inside the company it gives them a big trip, they never sail, they only have sailed with me and throughout the Vendee Globe they were following me.”

According to Boissières, Akena Verandas employ 550 people, which is more than PRB, although PRB, which makes the cladding for houses, is the bigger company. Akena sell verandas all across France, but only in France, although they are looking to expand into Belgium next year. To fund an IMOCA Open 60 campaign they must sell a lot of verandas.

Their sponsorship, Boissières explains, is effectively bucking the recession. “My boss says that ‘in France the economy is very difficult, so I want to prove that my company is okay.’ For the guys who work in the company it is very good because when they come to work, they think it is cool, ‘I know I will be paid because they have bought a boat’. I know the guys in the company and they think it is good. Akena is a little family and I am the little boy in that family. I go to the company all the time, sometimes just to show them the latest photos - what we do inside the boat, what we do to the mast, etc . And they are very interested.”

Personally Boissières heralds from Arcachon further to the south in the Aquitaine region, where the sailing legend is of course Yves Parlier, who’s greatness shone both on Boissières and on fellow Open 60 skipper Yannick Bestaven, who sailed Parlier’s 1996 generation Open 60, Aquitaine Innovations in the last Vendee Globe. Setting out on their path towards the Vendee, both Boissières and Bestaven took to Minis and both competed twice in the Mini Transat (1999 and 2001) aboard their self-built Seb Magnen designs, on the second occasion Bestaven winning and Boissières coming third. Boissières then moved into the Figaro for three years, where he admits he didn’t perform that well, before being accepted on board the maxi-trimaran Geronimo by her cantankerous skipper/legend Olivier de Kersauson, for Tracy Edwards’ Oryx Quest round the world race out of Qatar in 2005. In case you are wondering, de Kersauson is now living in Ratatea in French Polynesia while Geronimo is up for sale.

Boissières made the leap into the IMOCA class with the help of French financier and anglophile, Jean-Philippe Chomette. Chomette, readers may remember owned a Open 60-style boat called Solune in which he set the fully crewed monohull record around the British Isles in 2005 (read about this here). It was Solune’s record that was recently beaten by Dee Caffari and her all-female crew on board Aviva. Boissières was recruited to skipper Solune during this time, he and Chomette becoming firm friends. As a step up into the IMOCA class it was Chomette who ultimately ending up buying the Finot-designed former Sodebo/ VMI Open 60 that Sebastien Josse had raced in the 2004-5 Vendee Globe and Thomas Coville in the race before that.

“Jean-Philippe bought VMI and said we would do the Transat Jacques Vabre together, but if you find a sponsor you can do the Vendee Globe,” recalls Boissières. And so he was launched headlong into the IMOCA class ultimately ending up seventh in this last Vendee Globe, after spending much time racing around the world against Dee Caffari.

Since then Boissières has moved on as Akena Verandas chose to up their involvement with the IMOCA class by acquiring one of the hot boats from the 2008-9 race: Vincent Riou’s PRB. Chomette is not financially involved with the new boat, but he and Boissières remain close friends. Chomette came sailing on board recently in the first event in the new boat - the Trophee SNSM when both Riou and Jean le Cam featured in the crew.

They acquired PRB, rather than building new, says Boissières mainly to get a boat to campaign now rather than for reasons of cost. Boissières says they paid “less than 2 million Euros” to buy PRB, whereas to build new it is more like 3-3.5 million Euros, but they have spent considerably more on top, re-rigging it with a new JMV-built, CDK finished wingmast, following PRB’s dismasting in the Vendee Globe, and getting a new North France sail wardrobe. In addition Boissières admits that personally he is not ready to take on a new build and for Akena it is better to have a boat now that he is able to develop further with her old skipper Vincent Riou (who himself is having a new PRB built, this time a Verdier design built from Safran’s mould, as is Jean le Cam).
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In addition to the new mast and sails, to save weight they have removed the canting chart table arrangement (‘le maison’) Riou had installed down below and have also reduced the capacity of the forward water ballast tank by 500lt. Riou was back on board for the Rolex Fastnet Race, where they finished sixth (the boat won in 2007) and will be sailing with Boissières in this autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre.

During the Artemis Challenge during Cowes Week, we sailed with Akena Verandas and we won’t go into how well we did. With us on board were some teenagers from A Chacun Son Everest, a charity set up by Dr Christine Janin to assist children suffering from cancer. Boissières can relate to this having himself suffered from cancer at the devasting age of 17, but having recovered. Four of the children had made the trip up from Les Sables d’Olonne with him in 25 knots…

The boat

The new Akena Verandas was sailed by Vincent Riou in the last Vendee Globe and was doing well until Riou went to the rescue of Jean le Cam ultimately resulting in the boat being dismasted as they tried to make it to land. Riou himself obviously won the Vendee Globe in 2004-5 and in the race before that had run the technical side of Michel Desjoyeaux’s campaign. The boat is a Farr designed sistership to Desjoyeaux 2008-9 Vendee Globe winner Foncia and includes just as much of the tweaky stuff.

See photos of the kit over the next few pages....