Director of Planète Racing, the organisation that has managed the Imoca Initiatives Cœur project for the past twelve years, David Sineau announced this week hat the partnership will come to an end at the end of the 2025 season. He explains his decision to Tip & Shaft.
Can you start by explaining how the Initiatives Cœur project is managed?
Initially, Planète Racing was the structure that Tanguy de Lamotte used to manage his projects from the time he started sailing in Mini Class. He still had it when he sailed his first Globe in 2012, but it wasn’t very active, because the project was managed directly by his sponsor, Initiatives. When I arrived at the end of 2013, I helped him put the finishing touches to the discussions with K-Line: he wanted to return to the Vendée with a slightly better boat, which meant greater resources and a co-partner. This meant that the project would no longer be managed by one of the sponsors, but by an independent structure, which became Planète Racing, which he then asked me to manage. We then brought in Vinci Energies in 2017, Tanguy remained the owner of the structure until 2021, so I ended up taking it over and today it coordinates the whole project: it has the sponsorship contracts with the three partners, recruits the team and the skippers, owns the building in Lorient, leases the boat to the owners and subcontracts the communications to Initiatives.
What is the annual budget for running such a team?
I’m not supposed to divulge the figures for the project, but we’ve always kept to a fairly modest team size – there are seven of us today – and therefore reasonable budgets, which I’m quite proud of. Let’s just say that a team like that, with a serious technical project, without depreciation of the boat, costs from one and a half million euros a year, which is pretty tight.
You announced that the collaboration with the partners in the Initiatives Cœur project would be coming to an end at the end of the year.
It’s coming to an end because, for twelve years, we have always tried to build momentum from one campaign to the next: We started in 2014 with the acquisition of a more recent Imoca – Louis Duc’s current boat – which we have considerably optimised. We continued with the purchase of Maître CoQ from Jérémie Beyou, which we have again developed considerably, being one of the first Imoca boats to install large foils. And for the Vendée Globe 2024, we had the opportunity to build a boat in the moulds of Armel Tripon’s former boat, by deciding to do as many things as possible in-house. So with the team, we still want the next campaign to bring something more demanding, more difficult and more ambitious, both technically and from a sporting point of view, whereas the Initiatives Cœur project today is perhaps more focused on communication – which I’m not criticising – and has the desire, in terms of organisation, to return to an internal structure by setting up its own team.
“Violette has everything it takes
a great project”
Is this stop also linked to Sam Davies’ decision not to set off again on a Vendée Globe campaign and the arrival of Violette Dorange this year?
No, not at all, because Sam had in any case announced at the end of the Vendée Globe that she wanted to stop solo sailing. Now, I don’t know what she intends to do at the end of the year, that’s up to her. She has clearly expressed her desire to support a project to give her the benefit of her experience, and I also know that she is very attached to the cause and that she wants to continue to defend the values of Mécénat Chirurgie cardiaque. As for Violette, the fact that we no longer have exactly the same goals with Initiatives Cœur has nothing to do with her arrival – quite the opposite! I’m getting to know her, she’s great, she’s someone who, in my opinion, has everything, in terms of mindset, background, desire and skills, to make a great project, she hits the ground running and has a great rapport with the team. As far as an ambitious project in sporting terms is concerned, I and my team would be delighted to support her if the opportunity arose!
What are Planète Racing’s ambitions from now on?
We’d love to host the project of a skipper who has big ambitions for the next Vendée Globe. I think it’s interesting to commit sponsors to relatively long-term projects, as we know that the cost of boats is tending to increase and the longer you commit, the more you de-risk the investment. So ideally, we’d like to support a skipper and a sponsor who want to build a successful project for the next Vendée Globe and The Ocean Race after that. We might even be able to pass the project on to a young skipper, who we would then take to the next Vendée Globe as a rookie. It’s a roadmap that has sporting ambition, tells different stories and reduces the risks for a sponsor.
“Ending on a high note”
The ambition is to stay absolutely in the Imoca class? Could you support a Class40, Ocean Fifty or Ultim project?
I think a Class40 project would be too small for a team like ours, it wouldn’t make economic sense, or else it would be alongside a main activity. As for the Ultim, why not? Now, with the Imoca, we have real expertise to put forward: we have a team that has demonstrated quite a few things, we haven’t abandoned a single race in three years, with a new boat, built largely in-house and whose construction wasn’t an easy ride, it’s still a great success. We also proved with our podium finish in the CIC Transat that we were capable of playing with the best. We also have a very high-quality building, the best location at La Base in Lorient, which was designed to accommodate first-rate projects and which we’ve taken to the next level. I’m talking to international groups and brands, and there are countries that are keen to come to The Ocean Race, but may be faced with the problem of “where do we start?”, because today it’s all done in France with their rules. We can be a considerable accelerator for an international project by making the sporting and technical side of things much more fluid for a newcomer. That’s perhaps where we can add the most value.
Are you already in discussions?
Yes, with a few skippers and brands, but it’s all very open. There are also skippers who want to start in the class and ask me to help them with their sponsorship meetings, because a partner needs to be reassured that if he goes, he’ll be entrusting a budget to someone who knows how to deliver. That gives the skipper credibility.
Before looking ahead, there’s a story to finish. What are Team Initiatives Cœur’s sporting objectives this year, particularly in the Transat Café L’Or?
We’re not going to hide the fact that we were a little disappointed with the Vendée Globe, so the Transat Café L’Or is an opportunity, with the boat we’ve brought to a certain level of performance, to finish on a high note. Four years ago, it was extremely important, because after retiring from the Vendée Globe, Sam and Nico Lunven finished 5th, battling all the way with the latest generation boats, which validated our work over the previous four years. A number of skippers and teams really stepped up their game during the last Vendée Globe and I don’t think it’s as easy to keep up with the best teams as it was in 2024.
Photo : Olivier Blanchet
