Sodebo, which has been involved in Ultim for years with Thomas Coville, announced on Wednesday its intention to launch in 2026 on the Ocean Fifty Series circuit with Léonard Legrand as skipper. Sailorz explains how this decision was made.
A committed partner in sailing for 27 years, Sodebo is set to undergo a minor revolution in 2026, as the Vendée-based brand, after Imoca (1998-2001), Orma (2002-2007), the Vendée Globe (major partner since 2004) and large trimarans (since 2008), will be launching into Ocean Fifty. Confirmed last summer, this strategic shift is the result of a process initiated in particular by the boat’s future skipper, Léonard Legrand (31).
Legrand joined Team Sodebo in 2015 as part of a work-study programme in electronics. He explains: “On my return from the delivery trip between Réunion and Lorient, which I took part in after Jules Verne’s attempt at the end of 2020, I told myself that I absolutely wanted to be on the next one. To be legitimate as a sailor alongside Thomas (Coville), I managed to complete two Grand Prix seasons in Ocean Fifty, with Pierre Quiroga and then Baptiste Hulin. I then realised that it was a great tool, both for sport and for PR.”
The man who was then in charge of the electronics and IT department at Team Sodebo convinced Thomas Coville to take him on board Sodebo Ultim 3 last winter for the new Jules Verne attempt (which was abandoned), and on his return he decided to take the plunge: “I went to see Thomas and Greg (Evrard, team manager) to talk to them about my desire to enter the Ocean Fifty class. The timing was pretty good because it came at a time when both Greg and Stephan (Ralaimongo, communications director) were keen to propose new ideas.“
All options considered
Stephan Ralaimongo, who joined Sodebo in June 2024 – one month before Greg Evrard – after a long career at Decathlon, confirms: “I had been working for several months on a new global communications strategy. The sailing project has been led by Thomas and Patricia Brochard for 27 years. Greg and I thought that perhaps it was time for us to take over and imagine the future, knowing that Thomas, at 57, was also thinking about the future. In April, at Thomas’s suggestion, we met at my home in Pointe du Raz, along with Greg and Adrien Servetto (sports and events marketing manager at Sodebo), to think about what we could come up with together.”
The quartet cast a wide net: “We considered everything, including stopping the sailing project,” confirms the latter. We thought about monohull projects, from the Figaro – I’ve always found the Skipper Macif pathway exceptional, for example – to the Vendée Globe, which we ultimately rejected, mainly because the mix of being a partner in the race and a partner in a boat didn’t suit us very well.” The Ocean Fifty option, also pushed by Léonard Legrand, was ultimately chosen. Firstly for strategic reasons: “As we want to get closer to the French public, The Ocean Fifty allows you to go to places where the Ultims don’t go, these latters do transatlantic races and round-the-world trips, but you don’t actually see them very often. Ocean Fifty is also a platform and a circuit that allows a lot of people to sail,” explains the communications director.
Another argument was Thomas Coville’s desire to give Léonard Legrand a leg up: “At Sodebo, we’ve always had this desire to give younger people a chance. We’ve done it in the past with Quentin Delapierre, Corentin Horeau, Quentin Ponroy and Frédéric Denis,” confirms the skipper. It’s difficult for me to separate this story from the one I experienced with Laurent Bourgnon, as the ingredients are the same: I too came to the start to work as a technician on his boat.”
A way of preparing for the future
Once the decision was made, the four men met again in May, this time at Thomas Coville’s home in Locmariaquer, joined by Léonard Legrand and Benjamin Schwartz (who joined Team Sodebo at the end of 2024), to go over the details of the project and prepare its presentation to the three co-presidents of Sodebo. The big meeting was set for 1 July at the company’s headquarters in Montaigu (Vendée). “Everyone had rehearsed their presentation well,” smiles Stephan Ralaimongo. What was the reaction of the three daughters of Mr and Mrs Bougro, founders of Sodebo? “They were happy to see that we were offering them something new, and they also liked the idea of enabling a young talent to achieve his dream,” replied the communications director, adding: “We started the presentation at 10am, and by 11.45am we had the go-ahead in principle.“
“For Sodebo, it’s important to have quality contacts and proximity to as many people as possible, and being present at more races and everywhere with this Ocean Fifty is a step in that direction,” confirms Patricia Brochard, who nevertheless set one condition for this commitment: “That it fits within the same budget” (excluding depreciation of the boat). A sailing budget which, as she told Sailorz in January 2024, amounts to around €4 million per year – a sum that includes the partnership with the Vendée Globe, worth €4.3 million over four years.
Under these conditions, there was no question of building a new boat – which the class’s numerus clausus did not allow anyway – as Team Sodebo acquired Wind of Trust, Christopher Pratt’s Ocean Fifty, currently based in Marseille, in a deal that will be made official in mid-October. This 2009 VPLP-designed, winner of the Route du Rhum in 2014 with Erwan Le Roux, will then set sail for Lorient, where it will undergo four months of upgrades – a new mast will be built – before returning to the Mediterranean in spring 2026 for three Ocean Fifty Series events. “The delivery and these Grands Prix will be a good way to get to grips with the boat before I set off solo on the Drheam Cup, which is a qualifier for the Route du Rhum,” explains Léonard Legrand.
Sodebo will therefore have a double presence in the Route du Rhum with the Ocean Fifty and Thomas Coville’s Ultim, who, with the rise of Benjamin Schwartz, his co-skipper on the Transat Café L’Or, and Léonard Legrand, is “preparing for the future“, as he confides. “He has floated the idea that the Rhum may be his last solo race and that Benjamin could take over for the Arkea Ultim Challenge, but he will decide when the time is right,” smiles Stephan Ralaimongo.
Photo : Martin Kéruzoré / Team Sodebo
