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First-rate team leaders
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| Since 1993 and Eric Tabarly, no French team has participated in this crewed round the world with stopovers, which was created
in 1973 under the name of the "Whitbread", but the boat owner Groupama has decided... to join the Volvo Ocean Race for the
next two editions alongside Franck Cammas and his team.
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| Made public a few days before the second attempt to conquer the Jules Verne Trophy, last November, this commitment marks the
return of a French boat to the world's top ocean race, in the wake of France's finest talent of the day, Tabarly, Viant, Poupon,
Gabbay, Péan as well as Loizeau.
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 Supported since 1998 by Groupama, the performances of Franck Cammas and his crews have stood out in multihull sailing, with
six ORMA World Champion title wins, victory in the double and crewed ocean races at least once - solely single-handed races
escaping his clutches - before racking up seven records, the most recent of which was the prestigious Jules Verne Trophy on
20th March 2010 aboard Groupama 3.
Capped in this way, the sailor from Aix-en-Provence in southern France, now based
in Lorient, Brittany, is now discovering the joys of sailing aboard a monohull after twelve years spent flying hulls across
the oceans.
In committing to the Volvo Ocean Race with Groupama, what lies ahead is primarily an extremely high level
international competition, which will see Franck Cammas vying with competitors from New Zealand, America, Spain, Italy and
Ireland, for whom crewed sailing is a must and solo sailing deemed as madness.
Aware of the cultural disparity between
the French and the Anglo-Saxons in the architectural domain, the skipper of Groupama has been quick to gather around him an
experienced international team, opting for Franco-Argentinian Juan Koujoumdjian, winning architect in the past two runnings
of the Volvo Ocean Race, to design the future Groupama 4.
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 In Lorient the former Défi building, which has played host to the French America's Cup team in its time, today houses the
Groupama base where forty five people live and breathe with just one word on their minds: performance.
Whether they
are engineers, master sailmakers, architects, designers, sailors, logistics technicians, chefs, physical trainers, physiotherapists,
laminators, préparateurs or managers, they are at the service of the Groupama team and its main objective: the Volvo Ocean
Race 2011 - 2012.
At its head, Franck Cammas is stamping out a steady pace. Supported by Stéphane Guilbaud, team
manager, the Groupama skipper is actively participating in the design of the future boat and making the strategic and technical
decisions related to what his team works on hour upon hour. The rest of his time is spent sailing as he has long been convinced
that it's on the water, in contact with the elements, that races are won. Switching effortlessly between Groupama 3, Groupama
70 or the one-design catamaran Groupama 40, not to mention preparation for the Route du Rhum-La Banque Postale aboard a Groupama
3 reconfigured for solo sailing, Franck Cammas' appetite for competition is insatiable. However this comes as no surprise
to Groupama which has faithfully supported him for over twelve years.
To prepare for the Volvo Ocean Race in the
best possible conditions, Franck has created an entourage of first-rate team leaders: Ben Wright (Aus) in the shore team,
Damian Foxall (Irl) as boat manager, Loïc Dorez in the design office, Luc Gellusseau for sails and the regulations, as well
as Hervé Le Quilliec in logistics.
So that a boat fitted out by Groupama, a creative, humanist, lasting EuropeanFrench
insurance and banking group, is in a position to win the Volvo Ocean Race for the first time.
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