Pooling resources within teams: together it's everything!

"Are you going to sell your boat?" For a while, this question has been asked  to the TR Racing team after the last Vendée Globe. And with a good reason: the team has announced its intention to launch the construction of a new IMOCA and Thomas Ruyant had demonstraded the full potential of LinkedOut, one of the major protagonists of the last Vendée Globe (4th on the line, 6th in the Vendée Globe). However, the team has decided to keep its monohull. 

"We knew we had a high-performing boat on our hands, explains Thomas Gaveriaux, Managing director of TR Racing. We wanted keep it long as possible, especially as we thought it might be interesting to help develop the new boat". Moreover, with the Vendée Globe 2024 campaign so intense and the level of competition so high, we had to “find ways to be ultra-competitive in this environment”. The idea of running two boats was a natural one. “We felt that it could bring us a lot of benefits".

One year later, there are two boats named the Vulnerable (Thomas Ruyant's boat and Sam Goodchild's) with the legendary round-the-world race in their sights. Behind the names of the boats, there's the idea on the part of partner Advens, of stepping behind societal commitments. “We're a team with two boats and two committed skippers, like a company with multiple projects.” Except the boat captain and the functions essential to each boat, the other positions are pooled. We don't divide our resources in half, but it contributes to a form of optimization,” assures Thomas Gaveriaux. When you have to hire one more person, you ask fewer questions". 
 

Two new and identical imoca boats

Jean Le Cam et Eric Bellion have also pooled their projects in many ways. This joint effort began with the design phase of their new boats: the two sailors' straight-daggerboard IMOCA boats, Tout commence en Finistère - Armor-lux and Stand As One, are identical. They worked hand in hand with David Raison's architectural firm, who were designing his first IMOCA. Moreover, the boats were built in the same mold, one after the other. The pooling of resources and skills has continued, and continues today with the optimization of the boats for the Vendée Globe.

This pooling is also effective in other teams: Charal and TeamWork - Team SNEF, although each team has its own sponsors and sources of funding. Here again, everything began with the construction of a new boat, Charal 2 in Jérémie Beyou's quest for Vendée Globe victory. "Quite quickly, we thought it might be relevant for the previous boat to be associated with the current project", explains Jean-Sébastien Chenier-Proteau. "On the one hand, it allows us to increase the team's activities but also to be more efficient in our quest for performance". 

The sponsor TeamWork and its skipper Justine Mettraux, now joined by the SNEF group, were interested. The boat was therefore sold to this shipowner, with each team having five technicians and one boat captain. However, the management, logistics and performance-related resources are pooled. "It was particulary beneficial for us, remembers Justine Mettraux who had just three months to prepare for the Route du Rhum 2022. When you set up an IMOCA project, it simplifies everything to be associated with an existing project in terms of human resources, facilities and workshops". 

This pooling benefits both TeamWork-Team SNEF and Charal.  “An IMOCA team always requires more highly specialized skills,” says Jean-Sébastien Chenier-Proteau. It also means we always have two models to compare ourselves with, which is very interesting for development and performance research. In this field, we can move twice as fast". 

However, there are times when you can break out in a cold sweat. In the last Transat Jacques Vabre, Justine Mettraux opted for a very northerly strategy, which for a long time proved more successful than the route taken by the favorites, including Jérémie Beyou. Jean-Sébastien Chenier-Proteau prefers to laugh about it: “It just goes to show that, despite all our links, there's no common strategy between us. The two teams share weather briefings before the start of the races and debriefings once they've finished. We're transparent in our approach and our conclusions, adds Jean-Sébastien. What's more, we do not have one but two debriefings at the end of the races, so there can be two very distinct options!” Justine agrees: “We did a joint weather preparation before the start and we saw that the option existed. There was no tension at all. At sea, everyone does their own thing!".

At TR Racing, the enthusiasm is identical. "These are two projects that we're working on hand-in-hand, that we're building together,” smiles Thomas Gaveriaux. Having two highly competitive sailors trickles down to the whole team and enriches everyone". And it's possible that this model will inspire others. “I wouldn't be surprised to see it develop further in the future. We could further optimize the model with two boats of the same generation, like a Formula 1 team,” says Jean-Sébastien Chenier-Proteau. Justine Mettraux concludes: “I see nothing but advantages in moving towards this kind of model. It's more efficient, technically more effective and economically more interesting. And, above all, it allows us to improve!".