How Aluula developed a new material for Imoca spinnakers – Sponsored content

17 September 2026

In November 2025, the victory of Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière in the Transat Café L’Or aboard the Imoca Charal was marked by a discreet innovation that nevertheless caught the eye of specialists: a spinnaker crafted from FA58, an Aluula polyethylene fabric, a new material designed and manufactured in Canada that could well be a game-changer in the world of competitive sailing.

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30 July 2026

Dylan Fletcher : “Portsmouth is a big point in our season”

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The expert media for sail racing

Launched in 2015 by Axel Capron, a former editor-in-chief of Sports.fr, and Pierre-Yves Lautrou, a past journalist at L’Express, Tip & Shaft represents the informed, unbiased voice commentating and reporting on the world of competitive sailing.

Tip & Shaft develops high value-added, original content delivered to an active, passionate audience via an innovative editorial newsletter. It is distributed each Friday only by email to more than 6,700 subscribers: racers, sponsors, journalists, communicators, manufacturers, agents suppliers and fans of sail racing. It grows consistently and is 50% bigger than on Day 1.

November 2015: launch of the Tip & Shaft newsletter.
May 2017: Launch of the Tip & Shaft/Connect conferences, innovative, focused business seminars for sail racing professionals and those interested in high level learning.
December 2017: launch of Tip & Shaft/Workshop, business training, projects and communication skills for sail racing.
October 2018: launch of the international edition in English, in partnership with Andi Robertson.
November 2018: Launch of Into The Wind, Tip & Shaft’s monthly podcast.
January 2019: winners of a Support Fund for Emergence and Media Innovation by French Ministry of Culture.
February 2020 : launch of Wind • Sail Racing Film Festival.

Team

PYL was a journalist at L’Express for 15 years, where he covered not only sailing but also wrote on politics and economics until July 2015. He has been the author of the blog Au Large for a decade.

He is an experienced racer, sailing for many years in the Mini (Mini-Transat 2001) and Class40 (Route du Rhum 2014).

He co-founded Tip & Shaft with Axel Capron in November 2015.

Starting out as a sports journalist at Teléstar, Axel joined the editorial staff of Sports.fr to cover sailing among other sports, before rising to the role of chief editor.

He was then appointed Newsweb’s sports news editor (Lagardère Active Media Group) until March 2015.

He co-founded Tip & Shaft with Pierre-Yves Lautrou in November 2015.

As a media and digital professional with more than 25 years of experience, Frédéric has worked in France and abroad for groups such as Canal + España – Prisa, Telefónica, Music Choice (Warner/Sky), Infospace, the Fox group among others.

He also works as an investor and advisor in start-ups at the crossroads of media and new technologies.

Frédéric Chevance joined Tip & Shaft’s founders in 2020 to support the company in its development.

In charge of graphics and communications, Violette is passionate about board sports and competitive sailing.

Violette joined Tip & Shaft in 2021 as an intern at the end of her Bachelor’s degree, and after two years of work-study, she obtained her Master’s degree from L’Inseec Bordeaux.

She is now pursuing her career within the company, which enables her to combine her passion with her professional life.

Passionate about board sports, Hermine has been sailing since she was a little girl, first cruising, then racing since 2018 on different boats (J80, Open 5.70, TF10, etc.).

After graduating from business school, Hermine spent 4 years in project management in a social enterprise.

She joined Tip & Shaft in September 2023 as events project manager.

A Master’s student in Sports Organization Management, Alexis specializes in event organization. A keen sportsman, he follows competitive sailing closely and sails for pleasure whenever the opportunity arises.

At the age of 14, he took charge of a sporting and musical event welcoming several thousand people each year, giving him an insight into this professional environment.

Alexis joined Tip & Shaft in September 2023 as Event Manager.

A lawyer by training, Emilie quickly turned to the publishing sector. She worked for almost 12 years as an editor and then as editorial director at Berger-Levrault.

Originally from La Rochelle and always attracted by the sea, she decided to leave Paris and travel for a year on her sailing boat around the Atlantic.

Emilie joined Tip & Shaft on her return in August 2022 to take charge of Sailorz.

A former high-level 49er athlete, after two Olympic preparations (London 2012 and Rio 2016), Sébastien joined the media world as a commercial for 10 years (in radio and then in outdoor advertising with Clear Channel).

Today he has decided to return to his passion, sailing, by joining Tip & Shaft as a sales manager.
Passionate about sports, he also practices ultra-cycling, finisher of the Race Across France 2500km.

Jean-Christophe has several years of experience in media company management – Avenir France, JCDecaux, France Télévisions Publicité, Phenix Groupe – and launched Evolution Media in 2016.

In particular, he runs a department dedicated to supporting brands in the world of sailing and ocean racing. He has been in charge of the Tip & Shaft advertising network since 2017.

The podcast of top sailors (in French)

In Into The Wind, the sailors take the time to look back over their course and tell each other all about their long journey, from their beginnings and their galleys to the glory and the top of the podiums…

By exploring their trajectories, Into The Wind seeks to understand how those who go out to sea on a race, for a day, a week, a month or a quarter, alone or with a crew, in the bay or around the world, are built.

Sailors, men or women, are often of few words. By giving them time and letting them talk, Into The Wind has only one objective: to take to sea with them.