Three days after her triumphant arrival in Les Sables d’Olonne, Violette Dorange, 25th in the Vendée Globe, was officially hired as co-skipper of Sam Davies‘ Imoca Initiatives Coeur for the 2025 season. Tip & Shaft tells you how this deal came about.
It didn’t take long for Violette Dorange (23) to bounce back from her first Vendée Globe, which ended on Sunday 9th February in front of more than 50,000 spectators: on Wednesday, the Initiatives Cœur and DeVenir teams announced that Sam Davies and Violette Dorange would be teamed up in 2025 aboard the Brit’s Imoca boat, Manuard design which was launched in 2022.
To understand the genesis of this announcement, we need to go back more than eight years, as Arnaud Dorange, the sailor’s father, recounts: “I met Jean-Michel Nizet (communications director for the Initiatives Cœur project) in 2016, just before their second Vendée Globe with Tanguy de Lamotte, because I wanted to understand how this project worked, which put forward a cause, rather than partners.”
The two men became friends and saw each other regularly at the start of races, while Violette Dorange got to know Sam Davies at the Finistère training centre in Port-la-Forêt, even sailing his Imoca on a training last spring. “Sam is one of the women who inspired Violette to take up ocean racing,” explains Sarah Claudel, in charge of communications and partnerships at DeVenir. “She was also inspired by the Initiatives Cœur model in the way she set up her projects.”
A phone call that changes everything
However, the DeVenir project was far from a smooth ride for the skipper and her entourage, with a very tight overall budget of around €2 million (and still a deficit of around €200,000, according to Arnaud Dorange). Hence the team’s stated ambition – the McDonald’s franchisees have no intention of continuing after the Vendée Globe – to anticipate the next campaign as well as possible, as Sarah Claudel confirms: “The idea, after this rather adventure project, was to come back in four years’ time with a more ambitious project. As Violette really struggled to find partners, we had a lot of discussions with her before she left to find out how she imagined what would happen next, and she gave us her guidelines, the priority being to find other partners and a state-of-the-art foiling boat.”
Some of this work fell to Arnaud Dorange, who explains: “Before the start of the Vendée Globe, I went round the teams to find out which projects were going to continue, which boats were going to be put up for sale so that we could possibly buy one if we found a partner, and what opportunities might present themselves for a role as co-skipper for the Transat Jacques Vabre”. With this list drawn up, as soon as his daughter left Les Sables d’Olonne, he started to talk to a number of teams about their future intentions. In particular, he spoke to MACSF, who were looking for a successor to Isabelle Joschke – “It was a great project,” he comments – before deciding to call Jean-Michel Nizet.
“Initially, it was really a friendly call, and eventually I asked him if there was an opportunity to join the team in 2025. It must have taken us three and a half minutes to agree that it would be great, for lots of reasons, not least a shared vision about our two respective causes, which are quite closely linked, around childhood. We then had to put the question to all the people involved, Sam and Violette first of all, the Initiatives Cœur team manager David Sineau and of course the partners.”
A very quick decision
What were the reactions? Sam Davies, who told us that she wanted to “stick to what she said in the press release”, was “immediately in favour“, according to Franck Vallée, CEO of Initiatives, one of the three partners in the project (along with Vinci Energies and K-Line), while Arnaud Dorange explains: “When I spoke to Violette about it, she was crying with joy. Sam is one of her sailing idols. She had an autographed Roxy T-shirt when she was little; in fact, we can’t seem to find it!”
David Sineau was equally positive: “Firstly, it was consistent with the values of the project, but also, from a sporting point of view, because we’re not in the situation where we’ve just launched a new boat and we need an experienced skipper to teach us how to handle it. In this case, Sam knows her boat inside out, so she’s more interested in sharing her experience.”
As for our partners, they were also quick to sign up: “When Arnaud told us that Violette would love to do the Jacques Vabre with us, we immediately found the idea interesting and in less than 24 hours, we agreed to respond favourably,” confirms Franck Vallée. According to Arnaud Dorange, the speed of the decision “clearly made the difference”, adding: “We had such a hard time and experienced so many emotional ups and downs on this campaign, with yeses turning into noes, that when Initiatives Cœur said OK after two or three days, we didn’t hold back.”
A logical follow-up to
the 2028 Vendée Globe?
The decision was validated in mid-December, putting an end to MACSF’s hopes of attracting Violette Dorange. When approached by Tip & Shaft, the mutual insurance group played nice, saying: “We’re delighted for her and proud to see young women pursuing their sailing adventure. For its part, MACSF, a loyal sponsor committed to ocean racing, is keen to continue its sailing sponsorship and is looking at the options available for boats and skippers with a view to the Vendée Globe 2028.”
Let’s talk about the Vendée Globe 2028: with Sam Davies having announced in Les Sables that the 2024 edition would be his last, will Violette Dorange succeed him in four years time under the colours of Initiatives Cœur, which would be the logical continuation of the association between the two sailors this year? “Maybe,” replies Franck Vallée, “but we’ll have to see if the project lasts. Personally, I hope so, but you know as well as I do that there are purely financial issues at stake, which go beyond the desire. We’re having meetings in March on the subject, so it’s a case of one day at a time.”
The Dorange clan are equally cautious: “It would be difficult to say no [to a possible offer for the Vendée 2008, editor’s note],” comments the father. “We’re already going to see how the year goes, one thing at a time and it wouldn’t be very fair to Sam, who is committed to Initiatives Cœur until the end of 2025, to put the cart before the horse.” So everything will be decided in the coming months, but one thing is certain: given the impact of Violette Dorange’s arrival, which has been featured this week in all the major national media, the youngest competitor in the 2024 race should have less difficulties – if any were needed – finding partners to get back into the race in 2028.
Photo : Vincent Curutchet / Alea
