SolOceans gets a backer

Encouraging news for 2009 singlehanded round the world race in one designs

During a press conference that took place this morning in the main lecture theatre of the Oceanographical Institute in Paris, Denis Gasquet, the Vice-President of Veolia Environnement, announced the commitment of his company, the world leader in environment services, to back the SolOceans. To recap, the SolOceans is the first singlehanded round the world race that will be sailed on an equal footing in identical One Design monohulls.

The following people were also present around the table of speakers: Jean-Pierre Champion, President of the Fédération Française de Voile (FFV - French Sailing Federation); Fabienne Gaillard, researcher at the Laboratoire de Physique des Océans (Ocean Physics Laboratory - Coriolis Project); Jean-Marie Finot, designer; Michel Desjoyeaux, technical adviser for the Oceanic One Design®; Yvan Griboval, Manager of SailingOne.

The course is France-New Zealand-France and the starting date has been set for 25 October 2009 and will then be run every two years henceforth. The course comprise include two legs, each of about 50-55 days duration, with approximately a month-long stopover in New Zealand.

The 16m Oceanic One Design® monohulls will be built as a series. Each singlehanded sailor and yacht owner will be able to race on equal terms, with identical equipment, including sails. Their budgets will be fixed and under full control.

Today announcement confirmed the sponsorship signed between SailingOne, the company managed by Yvan Griboval, the initiator and organiser of the SolOceans and Veolia Environnement. This sponsorship will focus on three areas:

- Veolia will be the main Sponsor of the SolOceans (in French: SolOcéane), but without taking the name of the event. So the SolOceans will always remain the SolOceans.

- The Oceanic One Design® will bear the official series name of Veolia Oceans®. The Veolia Oceans® construction using prepreg carbon, baked at 90°C, guarantees compliance with the weight and similarity of structural requirements. Hulls and decks will be perfectly identical. The quality and international reputation of the official suppliers as well as the nature of the agreements made with them guarantee reliability, high-performing, top-of-the-range equipment, including North Sails 3DL sails; Harken winches; Lancelin rigging; Karver furlers and NKE electronics will equip the Veolia Oceans® One Designs. They will each be powered by a Nanni Diesel engine.

- Veolia will be fully involved in the OceanoScientific® Programme created by Yvan Griboval (see below) which will now be known as the Veolia OceanoScientific® Campaign. Charged with recording precise environmental data at various places around the globe, thanks to the movements of the Veolia Oceans® fleet, which will sail around little explored lands, the aim of the Veolia OceanoScientific® Campaign is to make this information available to scientists the world over, in order to better understand our planet and thereby protect it.

Veolia

Faced with the changes caused by the growth of human activities and their foreseeable consequences on the planet, Veolia aims to restore and preserve sustainable natural resources through the restoration of industrial wastelands, the development of new fuels, the reduction of greenhouse gases, water and ground pollution abatement, etc. As a matter of priority, Veolia promotes the use of the 'small' water cycle for local authorities or industrial companies, and now works increasingly with public authorities on the 'large' water cycle (protection of groundwater, lakes and rivers), whose balance they guarantee. In this spirit, Veolia will be fully involved in the OceanoScientific® Programme bearing its name and will work in partnership with scientists from all around the world to determine the data required for their work before it is made available through the scientific European Coriolis project.

Veolia OceanoScientific® Campaign

The OceanoScientific® Programme has been set up in close collaboration with SailingOne, the LOCEAN laboratory (Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentation et Approches Numériques - Oceanographic and Climate Laboratory: Experimentation and Digital Approaches) and IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la MER - French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea). Seven surface studies have been identified that can be handled aboard the Veolia Oceans®, subject to preliminary tests: True wind - Strength and Direction; Humidity of air; Atmospheric Pressure; Temperature - Air and Sea; Seawater salinity; Partial Carbon Dioxide Pressure (pCO2) of seawater; Content in oxygen dissolved in seawater.

The scientific European Coriolis project

Initiated by the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales - National Space Study Centre), CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - National Scientific Research Centre), IFREMER, IPEV (Institut Polaire Français Paul-Emile Victor - French Paul-Emile Victor Polar Institute), IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Research and Development Institute), Méteo France (Weather board) and SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine - Marine Hydrographical and Oceanographical Department), the Coriolis project will contribute to the creation of an operational system for the forecasting of oceanic currents and climatic variations.

As partner of the Veolia OceanoScientific® Campaign run during the SolOceans, Coriolis will undertake to distribute the collected data to all scientific projects that desire such information, to world forecasting models for oceanic flow as well as to calibration / validation centres of the European SMOS (Soil Moisture & Ocean Salinity) satellite.

SailingOne and Veolia

Since spring 2003, SailingOne has been involved as advisor and service provider helping Veolia on how to best get involved in the yachting world. Five annual campaigns making people aware of the environment when sailing have been designed and produced by the Ecoles Françaises de Voile (EFV - French Sailing Schools) on the following theme: "I enjoy sailing, love nature and save it". Within this context and in collaboration with the FFVoile, Veolia Environmental Services has rid 143 EFV (French Sailing Schools) of pollution and by processing more than 86 tons of unusable and un-recyclable used equipment (windsurfing boards, hulls of light sailing crafts, life jackets).