Paul-Henri Dubreuil: “I am delighted with the experience”

When did the Dubreuil group become interested in the Vendée Globe?
I was 18 years old during the first Vendée Globe, I remember it quite vividly, because I accompanied Alain Gautier’s boat at the time. Afterwards, as a Vendéen, knowing the Laurent family well, I have always followed the PRB adventure quite closely. We also had a slight cooperation with the VM group when it sponsored Jean Le Cam (on the Vendée Globe 2008) and since then, I had been requested several timesbut on weakly ambitious projects.

What finally pushed you to take the plunge?
First there was the meeting, completely by chance at a tennis tournament in Vendée, with Sébastien Simon in 2018, just after his victory in the Solitaire du Figaro. I immediately liked him, for his skills, of course, but also for his modesty; At the time, he was quite a shy person, he has since matured. SO, it started with a kind of flash with him which pushed me to accompany him on his first Vendée Globe under the colors of Arkéa Paprec. The race unfortunately ended badly for him (abandon) and was followed by his abrupt dismissal at the end of 2021. I came away from this experience with great frustration.to the extent that I had put in a little money as a minority sponsor, but I had had very little consideration from the two main partners and very little visibility. I then told myself that if I had to go back, it would be by completely mastering the project.

And what was the trigger for this 2024 Vendée Globe?
First of all, Sébastien was good at keeping me regularly informed of what he was doing, which made it possible to keep this project on standby. Then, in May 2023, I had a discussion with a fellow sailing enthusiast who managed to convince me to go. Finally, there was the celebration of the group’s 100th anniversary in 2024. At first, when I told my family about it at a general meeting, they were quite incredulous and suspicious, but they ended up agreeing and I sent a text message to Sébastien on May 19, 2023 asking him if he was still available and if he could find us a boat. He answered yes to both questions, we bought straight away 11th Hour Racing 2who was about to win The Ocean Race. It is finally a simple project, which started very quickly, in the Vendée styleand 100% Dubreuil, since the group owns the boat and assumes the entire operating budget.

The boat was 5 million eurosand as for the annual budget, given that we are a small team, it is approximately 1.5 million per year. It’s a lot of money, but compared to big projects like Charal or Macif, I think it’s about half as much.

Sébastien seems well on his way to finishing on the third step of the podium, is that a surprise to you?
My absolute dream would have been to win the Vendée Globe and I think that if Seb had been able to keep his two foils [il a perdu son foil tribord dans le Grand Sud, NDLR]he would play today with the other two [Charlie Dalin et Yoann Richomme]more the first objective was to finish, the second in the first tenthat was the deal with him. Today, barring disaster, it is largely full. For me, it’s no surprise, I knew he was one of the best skippers on the field, but until now, he had never been able to express all his talent because of technical problems. We had to succeed in finding the alchemy between a very good skipper and a very good boat, in which we invested a lot to make it reliable. After, he still broke the record for distance traveled in 24 hours solo with 615 miles, when he had an ofni caught in the keel, which forced him to turn back; without it, he would have traveled more than 640 miles.

So this Vendée Globe exceeds all your expectations?
In terms of results, yes, and beyond that, the feedback is extremely positive. We are a family holding company, people who are rather discreet and little known – even if some of our brands are, like Air Caraibes. For our 100th anniversary, we wanted to shine a light on the group; we can say that from this point of view, the objective has been largely met, with more than 1,500 press reports to date. We really have reached a milestone in terms of notoriety thanks to this adventure. The other big positive point is for the image of the group in Vendée. As we have a turnover of 3.5 billion, we were seen as local capitalists; with this adventure, I saw the media’s outlook completely change and be nice to me, which was not always the case until now. The fact of having rescued from the difficulty a skipper who, unfortunately and despite his talent, had neither boat nor budget for the Vendée Globe, made us seem like his benefactor. Whatever happens afterwards, we helped to show that Seb was one of the greatest French skippers. For several years, everyone had been saying that he was gifted, he just lacked success, my bet was that the tide would turn in his favor.

We said we would continue until the Route du Rhum 2026. We will see if Seb wants to go back, but for the moment, he does not hide that his goal is to return in 2028 with the objective of victory. We’ll see if we have the means to accompany him, knowing that that means a new boat. My intuition today would be to continue.

Are you interested in The Ocean Race Europe and The Ocean Race?
No, I told Seb that I wanted events with benefits for our brands, I also find that The Ocean Race is a race to break the boat. So, when he returns, he will already be resting, then we will do the Fastnet, the Défi Azimut and the Transat Café L’Or, and we will go all out in 2026 on the Route du Rhum.

Do you find what you like more generally in the world of ocean racing?
Quite. It is an environment of enthusiasts which allows us, with budgets that are certainly significant but relatively reasonable on the scale of our group, to play in the first division in a healthy discipline, not rotten by money or doping. It’s a sport in which it’s the man who, through his routing decisions, his sail choices, his risk-taking, makes the difference, it’s exciting. It’s a bit like the life of a business owner. : we too take risks, more or less profitable options, I find a lot of parallels, I am frankly delighted with the experience!