Jeremie Beyou had announced the end of its partnership with Maître Coq on his return from the 2016/2017 Vendée Globe. The Breton skipper had been racing under the colours of the Master Poultry since 2012, the year of his second Vendée Globe and had finished 3 e of this 8 e edition of the Vendée Globe, aboard his IMOCA Open 60 IMOCA Open 60. Whoever comes to collect his 4 e victory in the Solitaire du Figaro from next June or aboard the Dongfeng Race Team, in the Volvo Ocean Race in the autumn, is embarking on a new "winning" adventure: the 2020 Vendée Globe, which he will be racing with a new sponsor alongside him.
From now on, Jeremie Beyou is launching his project under the colours of Charal, a subsidiary of the meat producer Bigard, based in Quimperlé. He will be alongside the skipper until the Route du Rhum 2022 and from June 2017 for the Solitaire du Figaro. The skipper is hoping to become the first four-time winner of the Figaro Bénéteau race.
"The Vendée Globe is an extraordinary race. I was lucky enough to finish it in third place. It's not just luck, it's also a lot of work on the part of a whole team and I'm convinced that with the same people and with new partners supporting me in my approach, I'm capable of doing better than third. Charal is the ideal partner to enable me to win the Vendée Globe" said the Finnish skipper.
It's not the first time Charal has accompanied a skipper in his sailing project, as in the early 1990s, the brand was present alongside Olivier de Kersauson on the Jules Verne Trophy.
"Today, the notoriety of Charal, the leading brand on the meat market, is no longer to be built, since we have 97% of assisted notoriety," explains Mathieu Bigard, the General Manager. We communicate through advertising campaigns on TV, in the press and on social networks, but we felt a double need: on the one hand, to speak positively about meat by highlighting values such as vitality and strength, and on the other hand, to get closer to our customers. This is what this partnership will allow us to do. Secondly, our participation in the IMOCA Ocean Masters circuits and the Vendée Globe is perfectly in line with Charal's DNA, which is a high-performance and innovative brand. The company has been behind many innovations, in particular the Hebdopack®, and we launch between 20 and 30 new products a year. We find this spirit of innovation and performance within the IMOCA: at each edition of the Vendée Globe, new generations of more sophisticated boats improve on the previous times. Finally, sailing is also about team spirit, a notion that is very dear to us."
A new IMOCA in Charal's colours
When you say new sponsor, you say new boat! With the 2020 Vendée Globe in his sights, Jeremie Beyou is back on an IMOCA project, which will be launched in the summer of 2018. This new IMOCA hydrofoil boat will be built at the CDK yard in Port-la-Forêt, according to the plans of the VPLP design office. This new 60-foot monohull corresponds to a round-the-world sailing programme, but will also be capable of speed on deckchairs. It is on the Route du Rhum 2018 that skipper Charal will be making his first race tests. Changes will be planned during the sponsorship years to enable the boat to adapt to each race.
"We want to build a modern, high-performance boat," adds Jérémie Beyou, who will be competing in June in the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro in Charal's colours with a fourth historic victory in mind. It's a great adventure on the horizon, the project that the whole team has dreamed of, which is both technologically avant-garde, ambitious in terms of sport, but also human with a great team. We needed to move up to the next level and really aim for victory in the Vendée Globe. Charal is really going to give us the means to achieve our ambitions."
