Second in my review of the companies that sponsor IMOCA 60’s in the Vendee Globe

Akena Vérandas & Skipper Arnaud Boissières

Once again this Info gathered is gathered from the Internet so Caveat Emptor

Akena Vérandas is a manufacturer of Verandas…
They are headquartered in the Vendee Region of France-half way down the eastern end of the Bay of Biscay. In fact Google map shows them about 20 miles inland from Les Sable D’lonne and apparently about a block from Rue Eric Tabarly. Yes Toto, the French DO take their sailing heroes seriously. The basin in St. Malo where the boats are gathered for the start of the Route du Rhumb is named for Paul Vatine a Norman lost at sea in the Transat Jacques Vabre in1999.
A brief news bite about A.V posted the site of the Lyon Economic Development site reads as follows. (I think Aderly is the district in which Lyon is sited).
“Convinced of the importance of developing its team spirit around a non work-related event, Akena Vérandas has decided to sponsor Arnaud Boissières who is competing in the Vendée Globe 2008-2009 (my highlight) boat race, bearing the colors of company. The race began on November 9th.
The company began sponsoring skippers of the Vendée Globe back in 2004-2005. Akena Vérandas is the leading manufacturer of verandas in France, with about 80,000 installations a year and 60 million Euros in sales in 2007. The company is continuing its development strategy with the opening of 10 new shops a year through 2010. To meet its needs for expansion, Akena took advantage of Aderly’s assistance to set up a branch to open soon in the Lyon area, in the town of Saint-Priest. Established in 1981, the company is now present all over France.”
Other more recent information I have found says that they have 100,000 installations, have 75 sales offices all over the country with 8 technical centers and have 650 employees.
They further say on their various links that they sponsored their first entry for the Vendee 2004 with Raphaël Dinelli as skipper and although Dinelli did not finish, or count as a finisher, Akena re-up’d, as noted above, again in 2008 this time with Arnaud Boissières as Skipper. Boissières had finished 7th in the Transat, formerly the O.S.T.A.R., earlier in 2008 aboard A.V.
Not only does A.V. sponsor sailing but several other sports too including Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Cycling and a kind of athletic team (may be race walking) set up as a charity the proceeds of which go to children who are ill.
Arnaud appears to like the number 7. Not only was this his finish place in The Artemis Transat 2008 but also in the 2008/9 Vendee Globe, The Transat Jacques Vabre later in 2009 with Vincent Riou and his finish in the Route du Rhumb in 2010.
So what is interesting here is you have a company with sales of 60 million Euros (OK 5 years ago and the 2008 economic black hole not withstanding) investing, what might be a good chunk of their advertising budget, in a long distance ocean race. Not just once but their sponsorship is on going, even after on their first outing when the boat did not even rank as a finisher. They must have gotten what  they wanted from it because they signed up again in 2008/9 and now again in 2012 AND their guys have not won anything-Yet-The boat they bought is the old PRB, winner in 2008/9.
And these guys build verandas. It is not like they sell a “gotta have”consumer product in demand around the world–or something with deeper pockets, like a bank or insurance company (I’ll get to them-I am going by skipper’s second name alphabetically) AND they keep doing it….

There is hope yet for US solo sailing I reckon.

Last Saturday dawned sunny and mild in Newport. Yet before we had slurped our first sip of coffee, 6 hours to the east, 20 intrepid souls were making their way to sea to start a 3-4 month adventure that makes climbing Mt. Everest look like a nice stroll in the hills.

I refer of course to the Vendee Globe. Not to disparage those who have attained the Summit of Everest, all 3,000 of them, this number according to Rich Wilson, the second all time US finisher in this race in 2008/9 but Wilson further cites 50 as the number of souls who have made non-stop solo circumnavigations.

Engaged and attracted as I am to all the issues that surround sailing alone or short-handed I am following the Vendee pretty closely. As part of my personal “pre game” show I sat with the entry list for a while and contemplated just what the depth of this event is beyond the pictures in the Sailing Magazines and You tube.

Late on Saturday morning I watched 90 minutes of Daily Motion replay of the preparations to the start with commentary by  three time circumnavigatrix Dee Caffari. Her impressive CV includes–once around the “wrong way” crewed, once wrong way, same boat-modified for solo (setting a new record to boot) & once the right way on IMOCA 60 Aviva in the 2008 Vendee Globe. For those of us used to watching solo races start with all the boat’s being late for the start, one measure of just how competitive this race has become was the five boats breaking the start, it looked more  like a J-105 one design start than 20 fire breathing 60 footers with only one person aboard.

As I have mused on elsewhere, the logistics and mechanics of the Vendee Globe are impressive.

A minimum of 3 months physically alone: When was the last time you had 24 hours alone?
A serious lack of sleep perhaps 5 hrs in 24 on a good day

FOOD
Just think for instance of going to the store to buy food for the next three months- Meaning you cannot go to the store until, oh say after Valentine’s day, 2013.

And you do not have a fridge or freezer, no oven, no hot water unless you boil it on your one burner stove.

Several competitors have reported on the physicality of a simple maneuver like hoisting the (450#) mainsail.   Most of the spars are in the 95 foot high range with a 2:1 halyard. Rich Wilson relates in his fascinating book on his completion in the 2008/9 race of simply hoisting the main after shaking out ONE REEF required 175 turns in low gear. So when you are next at a venue where the Harken guys have their mock up grinder pedestal try putting 175 turns on it and see how you feel afterwards.

We live in a world now, at least the first and second worlds, where we are in contact with others all the time almost constantly-I read of people sleeping with their smart phones in their hands……We have 24/7 Customer Service lines, for recreational boaters, especially powerboat operators, there is Sea Tow and related services. If at sea, well the Coasties will always (I suppose) be there.

Much has been made in the last election of the concept of self reliance and responsibility, that we are masters of our destiny. Sailing is one of the last arenas where this is really true and the Vendee Globe is the highest test of this philosophy.   Stop for a minute and contemplate the last time where you were completely responsible for what was going on in your life, totally alone in the middle of nowhere with the likelihood of anyone coming to your assistance pretty thin. Unless we are at sea, this condition is in fact pretty difficult to get into, certainly in the US.

And consider for a moment the simple act of getting to the starting line in this Uber-Maxi-Ultra-Marathon. Even an old, used IMOCA 60, and there are several for sale on the internet boat sales sites for, in many cases, under US$300,000 a number that is I think well within the financial scope of many US yachtsman. But that is just the start.

There is the finding of a couple of competent guys to run the boat, move it around, coordinate with you and the yard and so on-Boat Captains in other words. There is fundraising-For a professional single handed racing event in the US, well that is possibly the only thing harder than the race itself. There is getting the boat to a location, in the US where the artisans skilled in the equipment these boats require are available and in the same time zone as you. Then there is the usual refit. Rod rigging out, Composite in, an interior re-do, updated performance meters, Autopilots, cordage, deck layout systems, Autopilots, safety kit, Sails, the list goes on as anyone who has even bought a used 38 foot cruising boat is intimately familiar with. If I was doing it I would want to have the two guys be a minimum of 50K a year guys who know what they are doing, so right there is $100,000 right at of the bat. You get the idea. The good news is there is in fact a remarkable history of excellent return on investment on these campaigns. The Vendee Globe is arguably better, certainly less cash cost than the Volvo and the Americas Cup.

With the telecommunications available today the sailors never actually sail out of sight over the horizon and reappear 4 months later as was the case from the 1960’s through the late 1980’s.

But at the end of the day, it is what the skipper is made of, to what depths he (and they are almost with few exceptions universally men) can plumb the depths of the will, resourcefulness: the Stuff of Heroes, almost at the Greek Tragedy level.