François Gabart announced on Thursday his intention to set off next September on a three-year round-the-world family voyage on a cruising catamaran. In his absence, he will entrust the management of his company MerConcept to a duo formed by Cécile Andrieu and Thibault Garin, Tip & Shaft tells you more.
The news doesn’t really come as a surprise, as François Gabart had been telling his personal and professional entourage for several months, but he made it official on Thursday: from next summer, François Gabart will embark on a three-year round-the-world catamaran voyage with his family – his partner and his three children, aged 13, 7 and 5.
It was a life choice that he announced to the MerConcept teams a year ago and carefully considered: “I was lucky enough to travel by boat with my family when I was a kid, and it’s still an important part of my life,” he tells Tip & Shaft. It’s always been in the back of my mind to do it myself when I have children. I feel this is the right time to do it, for myself and for MerConcept.” And the man who had already organized the handover of his role as skipper of the Ultim SVR-Lazartigue to Tom Laperche added: “This trip will enable me to take a step back and come back in three years’ time with a different energy, a different view of the company, to continue to support it over the very long term, I’ll have more added value having had this moment of hindsight.”
Concretely, the departure will be this summer, with a first passage in Scandinavia – the eldest of his three boys lives in Norway with his mother -, a return to Concarneau in September, before “an Atlantic crossing at roughly the same time as the Transat Café L’Or, 2026 in the Pacific, New Zealand the following winter, the Indian in 2027, South Africa in the winter of 2027/2028 and then back up the Atlantic”.
“Cécile and Thibault are
very complementary”
This long-haul voyage led François Gabart to organize his replacement for three years at the head of MerConcept, the company he founded in 2006 to support his ocean racing projects. Since then, the company has grown considerably, with 70 employees and sales of 14 million euros – 60% in ocean racing, 30% in construction and 10% in marine mobility. His choice to lead the company in his absence has been made internally, with the appointment of a duo consisting of Cécile Andrieu, 37, until now director of ocean racing projects, and Thibault Garin, 39, deputy managing director, who joined MerConcept in 2022 and 2020 respectively.
“It was a fairly natural choice,” comments the 2012 Vendée Globe winner. Cécile and Thibault have had very structuring roles in the company for three and five years, so it’s a huge advantage to have continuity in our knowledge of the structure, the teams and our ecosystem. As I’m well aware of how complex it is to run a company alone, I found it very interesting to chose a duo. I know that Cécile and Thibault are capable of working, thinking and deciding together, and they also have the enormous advantage of being very complementary. When I made the list of what MerConcept needed, they ticked all the boxes.”
What do the future co-directors think abut this change? “I’m honored, proud and grateful to take on the role of co-CEO,” says Thibault Garin. Cécile and I know each other well, and we complement each other very well, so I have no doubt that things are going to go very well, and that we’ll be running a company that‘s built on a very solid foundation.” Under the new organization, which was announced to employees last Tuesday and will be implemented in June, he will be responsible in particular for managing the teams and technical resources to “ensure that we meet our commitments in terms of deadlines, quality and performance”.
Cécile Andrieu, for her part, will be “responsible for MerConcept’s CSR DNA and innovation”, for relations with partners, customers and the media, and for the company’s development, although she adds: “It’s not a division of tasks, but a co-direction. So far, Thibault and I have been pretty much in sync on the company’s strategy, and we have lots of ideas for further development over the next three years. We want to be in agreement with each other, and that’s also the course François has set for us.” Asked about his role during his round-the-world trip, this latter explains: “The idea is not to spend twelve hours a day on video calls, nor am I going to cut the line. Thibault and Cécile will be able to lean on me when they need to. There’s a fine balance to be struck between helping them when they need it and leaving them in charge of operations and decision-making. We’ve set ourselves a course for the next few years, and they have all the cards in their hands to unfold that plan.”
Room for a second Imoca
The plan in question? As far as ocean racing is concerned, it’s clear: “To be present on the Route du Rhum 2030 in the three flagship classes, Ultim, Imoca and Ocean Fifty,” answers Cécile Andrieu. This already means renewing existing contracts, which expire in the summer of 2027 for the Ultim SVR Lazartigue, and at the end of 2026 for the Imoca Macif Santé Prévoyance and the Ocean Fifty Upwind by MerConcept. “Our big challenges are to continue to win races and keep our sponsors happy, so that we can look forward to four more years,” she says. Before adding: “Today, we’re open to a second Imoca project. We’re in the process of defining with Charlie (Dalin) the type of profile with whom it could work well, there’s a chemistry to be found, bearing in mind that until now, we’ve been in a non-competitive situation with three boats from different classes, we want to keep the right balance.”
This second project, which would require “an investment in terms of space”, would also feed the construction division of MerConcept, which has just delivered Elodie Bonafous’ Imoca Horizon 29. “We’d love to do another Imoca in 2026,” confirms Thibault Garin, who, when asked if MerConcept has any ambition one day to build a 60-footer from scratch, replies: “No, because we don’t have the will to invest in ovens or autoclaves, and we’re happy to share the work with local yards and subcontractors.” He adds, however, that the technical teams are currently working “Ultim rudders and rudder parts, and on parts for a project which is moving a little further away from ocean racing, and which will enable us to have an interesting business for 2025″.
Finally, on maritime mobility, he explains: “We have developed skills in two main areas, namely sail propulsion, with Vela [a company co-founded by François Gabart, editor’s note] and a project we are in the process of signing with a major player in the field, and the installation of foils on workboats. We’re currently more in the prospecting and R&D phase, we’re starting to be known for this activity, the aim is to develop this five-person entity.”
Asked about the sales target for the next three years, Cécile Andrieu replies: “Our ambition is to continue growing towards sales of around 15 million euros. The course set with François is that of a healthy, break-even company, with profits earmarked for investment in industrial facilities, prospecting and R&D.” When he returns in the summer of 2028 at the age of 45, could François Gabart return to ocean racing as a skipper? “I don’t know. I don’t want to hold anything back. Someone remarked to me recently that Jean Le Cam did his first Vendée Globe at the age I’ll be in three years’ time, so if it turns out that I’m going to do six Vendée Globes after that, anything’s possible!“
Photo : Qaptur/MerConcept
