After two seasons in Class40 under the colours of Zeiss, Timothé Polet (24) is preparing to move up the range, as he launches a new Mach 40.6 designed by Sam Manuard and built by JPS in La Trinité-sur-Mer on Monday 25 November. An opportunity for Tip & Shaft to talk to Nicolas Series, president of Zeiss France, who is committed to working alongside the Norman sailor until the end of 2026.
Launched in 2015 by Axel Capron, a former editor-in-chief of Sports.fr, and Pierre-Yves Lautrou, a past journalist at L’Express, Tip & Shaft represents the informed, unbiased voice commentating and reporting on the world of competitive sailing.
Tip & Shaft develops high value-added, original content delivered to an active, passionate audience via an innovative editorial newsletter. It is distributed each Friday only by email to more than 6,700 subscribers: racers, sponsors, journalists, communicators, manufacturers, agents suppliers and fans of sail racing. It grows consistently and is 50% bigger than on Day 1.
CEO & cofounder
PYL was a journalist at L’Express for 15 years, where he covered not only sailing but also wrote on politics and economics until July 2015. He has been the author of the blog Au Large for a decade.
He is an experienced racer, sailing for many years in the Mini (Mini-Transat 2001) and Class40 (Route du Rhum 2014).
He co-founded Tip & Shaft with Axel Capron in November 2015.
editor-in-chief & cofounder
Starting out as a sports journalist at Teléstar, Axel joined the editorial staff of Sports.fr to cover sailing among other sports, before rising to the role of chief editor.
He was then appointed Newsweb’s sports news editor (Lagardère Active Media Group) until March 2015.
He co-founded Tip & Shaft with Pierre-Yves Lautrou in November 2015.
HEAD OF OPERATIONS
As a media and digital professional with more than 25 years of experience, Frédéric has worked in France and abroad for groups such as Canal + España – Prisa, Telefónica, Music Choice (Warner/Sky), Infospace, the Fox group among others.
He also works as an investor and advisor in start-ups at the crossroads of media and new technologies.
Frédéric Chevance joined Tip & Shaft’s founders in 2020 to support the company in its development.
GRAPHIC DESIGN AND COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT
In charge of graphics and communications, Violette is passionate about board sports and competitive sailing.
Violette joined Tip & Shaft in 2021 as an intern at the end of her Bachelor’s degree, and after two years of work-study, she obtained her Master’s degree from L’Inseec Bordeaux.
She is now pursuing her career within the company, which enables her to combine her passion with her professional life.
Events Project Manager
Passionate about board sports, Hermine has been sailing since she was a little girl, first cruising, then racing since 2018 on different boats (J80, Open 5.70, TF10, etc.).
After graduating from business school, Hermine spent 4 years in project management in a social enterprise.
She joined Tip & Shaft in September 2023 as events project manager.
Events ASSISTANT
A Master’s student in Sports Organization Management, Alexis specializes in event organization. A keen sportsman, he follows competitive sailing closely and sails for pleasure whenever the opportunity arises.
At the age of 14, he took charge of a sporting and musical event welcoming several thousand people each year, giving him an insight into this professional environment.
Alexis joined Tip & Shaft in September 2023 as Event Manager.
Sailorz Project Manager
A lawyer by training, Emilie quickly turned to the publishing sector. She worked for almost 12 years as an editor and then as editorial director at Berger-Levrault.
Originally from La Rochelle and always attracted by the sea, she decided to leave Paris and travel for a year on her sailing boat around the Atlantic.
Emilie joined Tip & Shaft on her return in August 2022 to take charge of Sailorz.
Sales manager
A former high-level 49er athlete, after two Olympic preparations (London 2012 and Rio 2016), Sébastien joined the media world as a commercial for 10 years (in radio and then in outdoor advertising with Clear Channel).
Today he has decided to return to his passion, sailing, by joining Tip & Shaft as a sales manager.
Passionate about sports, he also practices ultra-cycling, finisher of the Race Across France 2500km.
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT EVOLUTION MEDIA
Jean-Christophe has several years of experience in media company management – Avenir France, JCDecaux, France Télévisions Publicité, Phenix Groupe – and launched Evolution Media in 2016.
In particular, he runs a department dedicated to supporting brands in the world of sailing and ocean racing. He has been in charge of the Tip & Shaft advertising network since 2017.
In Into The Wind, the sailors take the time to look back over their course and tell each other all about their long journey, from their beginnings and their galleys to the glory and the top of the podiums…
By exploring their trajectories, Into The Wind seeks to understand how those who go out to sea on a race, for a day, a week, a month or a quarter, alone or with a crew, in the bay or around the world, are built.
Sailors, men or women, are often of few words. By giving them time and letting them talk, Into The Wind has only one objective: to take to sea with them.
Tip & Shaft/Workshops are aimed primarily at project leaders, whether amateurs or professionals, and are run by the best experts in the sector.
Member of
Winner of the Support Fund
to emergence and innovation in the press
of the French Ministry of Culture
Pierre-Yves Lautrou
06 14 72 49 93
pyl@tipandshaft.com
Axel Capron
07 87 07 57 99
axel@tipandshaft.com
Ads Management Evolution Media
Jean-Christophe Chrétien
06 60 46 77 75
jcchretien@evolutionmedia.fr
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