With one month to go before the start of the Transat Café L’Or, which he will be competing in for the second time in a row with Audrey Ogereau, Erwan Le Roux is taking part this week in Lorient in the 24h Ultim, the fourth edition of which welcomes 4 Ultims and 10 Ocean Fiftys – the race starts on Saturday morning. This is an opportunity to talk to the skipper of Koesio, who is also heavily involved in the offshore racing centre project in La Rochelle, where he moved in 2024.
We’ve seen you very active lately promoting the offshore racing centre in La Rochelle, which seemed to have been abandoned again last year. Can you tell us what’s going on?
There have indeed been several projects, including requests for funding to redevelop the Chef de Baie site, which – given the state of public finances – have not been successful. Nevertheless, the infrastructure already exists, so rather than asking for public money, I knocked on every door – the urban community, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the fishing port, the commercial port – to see what solutions could be found so that I could set up with my boat on this site. And as I went along, I realised that when I talked about operational aspects, there were no obstacles, as long as I didn’t ask for money. We will certainly need some money one day if we want to develop a real hub, but at this stage, we are talking about an ambition, we don’t have to put £2 million on the table – the last budget that was proposed. Today, we just need to free up some land belonging to the CCI to set up our hangars, subject of course to an AOT (authorisation for temporary occupation of public space) to establish a framework for use.
And have you managed to convince your interlocutors?
Last summer, we were able to refit the boat on a quay in Chef de Baie. Yannick (Bestaven), who shares my approach, said to me: “You need to organise an event around this to get politicians’ attention, because there has never been a shipyard on this site before.” So I sent out invitations for the launch on 4 September, and I don’t know what happened, but a week before, the CCI released some land, and then the urban community decided to improve the boat facilities with a second pontoon in the future… Even before my speech, we had answers! So the project is back on track. This week, I had an initial meeting with the CCI to define the outline of my future building. It’s a real step forward, and we should be able to submit a building permit application early next year!
What are the advantages of this site? And how many teams could it accommodate?
It’s an incredible nautical stadium, unlike any other. Admittedly, the sea is brownish and it’s an industrial site, but you’re in a deep-water port with direct access to the sea, no channel or roadstead, and perfect sailing conditions: the thermal wind kicks in at 1 p.m., and by 3 p.m. you have 18-20 knots. The place would be just perfect for hosting SailGP with the possibility of installing stands, there is an exceptional potential. The ambition is not to have ten Imocas in two years’ time, but rather to tell sailors and teams that if they have a serious project, there is now space to accommodate them with the possibility of building hangars, which is becoming increasingly rare in southern Brittany. And there is another significant factor, which is that it could attract young people who sail and/or study in La Rochelle. Until now, there was no future for them there, but if we welcome more and more projects, it will give them prospects; in fact, since the beginning of September, I have received a lot of applications.
“Winning the Route du Rhum in 2030”
Is this project a way for you to plan for the next stage of your career?
Absolutely. My ambition is clearly to stop racing in one, two or three years’ time, to set up a racing team and host several projects in Chef de Baie. Ideally, I would like to see a second division Imoca at the start of the 2028 Vendée Globe, potentially one or two Class40s, one or two Figaros and one or two Minis, and of course Audrey (Ogereau) in the Ocean Fifty class. Today, we have a partnership with Koesio until the end of 2026, we’ll see what happens next, but we would like to keep the boat and find the money to keep her going. Because her goal is not to win the Route du Rhum in 2026, but to be at the start and finish. However, I am convinced that she has what it takes to win in 2030. Now, we don’t want to put pressure on her, we’re supporting her in this direction and she will always have the right to say no. I’m in a good position to gauge the mental strain and commitment involved in a solo transatlantic race on this type of boat. It’s hard to sail for ten days with the sheet in your hand!
Do you think she is capable of sailing your Ocean Fifty solo today?
If you ask her, she’ll say no. Sometimes she tells me she’d like to connect a hard drive to my brain and make a backup so that the transmission is faster! It’s difficult because, for financial reasons, she can’t be with us 100% of the time, so we have to try to maximise the time we spend together. Now, we mustn’t try to rush things. We have a roadmap to help her climb the ranks, and the goal is for her to be ready for the Drheam Cup next July [a qualifier for the Route du Rhum, editor’s note] and then for the Route du Rhum three months later.
Before that, there is the 24h Ultim this weekend and, above all, the Transat Café L’Or at the end of October. Would you say that you are clearly among the favourites?
Yes, you could say that: we’re top of the Ocean Fifty Series rankings, which means we’ve done well in the first races of the season, so we’ll try to maintain that level of performance. Now, a transatlantic race is a different exercise and first you have to finish, which we didn’t manage to do in 2023. So the biggest battle will be against ourselves. We need to make the boat reliable, find the right settings and the right attack curve, unlike last time when we pushed too hard and ended up having to bring the boat back to port. If we manage to sail a good course, enjoy ourselves and finish, we’ll probably be close to a good result.
Photo : Vincent Olivaud
