Ct has become a habit and almost a tradition since 1989, the date of the first Vendée Globe. Indeed, every four years, the Interîles company, whose headquarters is based in La Rochelle, transports thousands of passengers aboard its boats so that they can follow the start of the sea event as closely as possible. After a 2020 edition truncated by Covid, the company sees things big for 2024 and plans to make available on site this Sunday no more and no less than 16 boats out of the 21 in its fleet, a figure never reached before.
This total includes the company's cruise ships as well as three sailing catamarans. “Our boats measure from 16 to 30 meters, can hold 50 to 300 passengers and are capable of sailing at 12 to 20 knots,” explains Damien Courcaud, general manager (DG) of Interîles and the Compagnie Vendéenne. “We have advantages because we are already based on Ile d’Yeu, Fromentine, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Les Sables-d’Olonne. We have a mechanical workshop in Sables-d'Olonne, we are the closest shipowner. »
For the big departure, it is the Vendée tourism organization which organizes trips at sea for an essentially individual clientele. In this context, it rents boats from the La Rochelle company. A package including a place on board the ship, a catering package, the presence of a sailing specialist and even accommodation is then offered. “We also have boats rented by the Sables-d’Olonne tourist office which does the same thing and opens an individual ticket office. Finally, some of our boats are chartered by companies sponsoring the race or an Imoca, such as Dubreuil (Sébastien Simon), Macif (Charlie Dalin), or even DMG Mori (Kojiro Shiraishi),” lists the general director. Add to this two other boats entirely privatized for the press and the media and you simply obtain a third of the fleet of accompanying ships for the departure (50 boats in total).
70 employees on site
Suffice to say that there will be people on the Interîles boats at the departure but also at the arrival in a few months. “We will participate in the feedback of the first competitors and even perhaps the last ones who are just as deserving because they will have spent more time at sea,” insists the CEO. The biggest deadline remains this Sunday, November 10 at 1:02 p.m. The Interîles company will mobilize nearly 70 employees on site. “We will have 60 sailors with two or three crew members per boat as well as 10 staff (marketing, technical, etc.). The weather seems favorable but there will be so many people at the start that we will first have to be safe, both for the passengers and the crew members,” adds Damien.
Furthermore and as part of its ecological approach, the company will fuel two of its boats for the first time with HVO100 biofuel, an alternative fuel made from vegetable, residual or waste oils. “We are currently in the technical testing phase because we sail a little less in winter. This is not going to revolutionize everything but it has a tendency to reduce our carbon footprint, just like the new use of the three catamarans. »
Although the Interîles company is used to carrying out this exercise every four years, it always remains a major challenge for the teams. “We have done every Vendée Globe since 1989. My father, Philippe (Courcaud), was there during the first edition. He showed me photos in recent days (smile). It's always a hell of an adventure. We have been working for a good month, we contact the sailors every day, we monitor their diplomas, training, availability. We should have between 2,000 and 3,000 passengers on our boats. In a few hours, we will accompany 40 skippers who have set off to travel around the world for two or three months,” enthuses the boss.
A company founded in 1988
Since 1988, the Interîles company has offered boat departures from La Rochelle, the island of Ré (Saint-Martin-de-Ré), the island of Oléron (Boyardville and Saint-Denis d'Oléron) and La Tranche- sur-Mer (Vendée). These small cruises allow you to explore Fort Boyard and the three islands of the department in a few hours or a day. Since 2005, the La Rochelle company has merged with the Vendée company. For more than twenty-five years, this has been providing connections to the island of Yeu from Fromentine, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie and Barbâtre.
