Team Vendee Formation: transforming passion into careers
Benjamin Dutreux and Thomas Cardrin, skippers with Team Vendée Formation, finished 9th and 10th in this year’s Solitaire URGO Le Figaro, highlighting the success of this unique approach to sport and training. For his first participation in the Figaro Beneteau circuit (offshore racing), Thomas Cardrin also won the Rookie Class.
While the Vendee region is France’s leading boatbuilding hub, thanks in particular to Groupe Beneteau, Team Vendee Formation has set itself a goal to professionalize the passion for sailing among its young skippers and technicians. The motto “A race is good, a career is better” reflects this ambition and the results with the 2018 event has proven this.
Thomas Cardrin, Team Vendée Formation, Rookie Class winner
In 2013, Team Vendee - now Team Vendee Formation - was launched with active support from the Beneteau Foundation, the St Gilles Croix de Vie region and various partners. It stands out through its unique approach to training for both sport and careers in competition sailing, all within the framework of a registered charity. Young people who want to pursue a career in the sailing world are able to receive support from seasoned experts, enabling them to develop their sports and professional skills. From technical roles to skippers, Team Vendee Formation helps future talents to flourish, while contributing to the development of boating expertise in the Vendee region.
Prize draw winners
The 49th Solitaire URGO Le Figaro event marked the end of an era as the Figaro Beneteau 2 will be giving way to its successor and a completely new boat, the Figaro Beneteau 3. Its farewell sail on Sunday September 16, 2018 was a truly emotional moment for the crews. We wanted our teams to be able to be part of this farewell event and organized an in-house prize draw. The winners were able to enjoy this final official sail on board this racing yacht designed by our teams. They joined the skippers Benjamin Dutreux and Thomas Cardrin on the Team Vendee Formation boats. According to the latest news, the Figaro Beneteau 2s were happily setting off for new adventures and have already linked up with sailing enthusiasts keen to offer them a sporty retirement.
Learn more about Team Vendée Formation at https://teamvendeeformation.com/
About Groupe Beneteau
Founded in Vendée 140 years ago by Benjamin Bénéteau, Groupe Beneteau is today a world leader in the boating industry. With an international industrial presence spanning 16 production sites and a worldwide commercial network, the Group generated revenue of €1 billion in 2024 and has a workforce of more than 6500 employees mainly in France, United States, Poland, Italy, Portugal, and Tunisia.
True to its mission – Bringing dreams to water – Groupe Beneteau designs and builds boats and services to make every experience on the water truly unique. Through its nine brands, its Boat division offers more than 135 boat models craft to meet the diverse needs and sailing projects of its customers, whether sailing or motoring, monohull or catamaran . Through its Boating Solutions division, the Groupe Beneteau is also involved in services covering daily or weekly boat hire, marinas, the digital sector and financing.
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