Éric Péron: an eclectic sailor


The navigator Éric Péron sets off this Saturday at 2 p.m. on the 1000 miles of Sables, the first solo race of the season in complicated weather conditions, under the colors of French Touch Oceans Club, a brand he created and which brings together its partners under the same banner. Portrait.

Monohull, multihull, single-handed, crewed: everything suits this brilliant jack-of-all-trades from the moment he sails. The skipper with the affable smile fell into sailing from birth, his parents moreover met during a regatta. Éric Péron grew up in Pays Bigouden, in southern Finistère, bathed by the Celtic Sea to the west and the Bay of Biscay to the south. He discovered sailing thanks to the Optimist at the age of 8, during a summer internship in Loctudy. “I was afraid of the waves the first day,” he explains. I persevered and I liked it. Quickly spotted by the French Sailing Federation, he participated in youth events before reaching an international level in the Olympics. From then on, he criss-crossed the bodies of water and the seas in competition. Éric monopolizes the podiums in the 470 dinghy, in the Nacra 17, etc.

At the dawn of his 20th birthday, he is opening a new chapter, that of offshore racing. “I loved adventure and Olympism no longer suited me, explains the navigator. » No more tacking between buoys. Like an irrepressible desire to see beyond the horizon. Éric Péron hangs out on the pontoons in search of great projects. A successful conversion for this sports enthusiast of all kinds. He starts in Figaro class. In 2006, he sailed with Armel Le Cléac’h, aboard his Imoca Brit Air, an offshore racing yacht nearly 18 meters long. Eight years later, the sailor joined the Dongfeng crew, skippered by Charles Caudrelier in the Volvo Ocean Race. They spend more than eight months traveling the seas of the globe. 45,000 miles traveled and a 3th unhooked place. Another podium in 2017, at the end of the Transat Jacques Vabre with Morgan Lagravière. He recorded a total of one circumnavigation and around twenty transatlantic races.

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This offshore racing leader for several years is entering a new stage in his career in Ocean Fifty. “I wanted to change support and these trimarans bring together a lot of qualities with a complete circuit for a budget within the reach of French Touch Oceans Club”, he explains. Éric Péron relies on an innovative sponsorship solution that he designed and implemented himself. In 2019, dropped by his sponsor when he was about to take part in the last Vendée Globe, Éric proposed to 4 partners, ready to support him, to create a group that would bring them together under a single banner, through a strong brand, bearer of shared values ​​and identity. French Touch Oceans Club brings together companies from all sectors: manufacturing, crafts, engineering, service provision, etc., in order to promote and enhance French know-how. Both a high-level athlete and an entrepreneur, Éric runs several hares at the same time in order to find the necessary financing.

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A thousand leagues from the archetypal Breton sailor

“We are constantly looking for members, in commercial canvassing. In sight: the next Route du Rhum, which will leave Saint-Malo on November 6, 2022, towards Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe. To help the skipper in this new project, the Rennes-based company Komilfo, which specializes in awnings and closures, is joining him as title partner. “The company is completely in line with the values ​​that French Touch advocates. The next few years promise to be rich in races for Éric Péron, who would like to continue in trimaran until 2024. that we can potentially have good years. We are trying to create long-term sponsorship, he adds. If it works, there’s no reason for us to stop. »

Éric Péron cherishes the moments on land, surrounded by his Ouessant sheep.

© Ronan Gladu

The former “Prince of Brittany”, with whom Lionel Lemonchois won the Route du Rhum in 2010, is patient for the time being at the port of the Château de Brest, a hundred kilometers from the home of Éric Péron. This 41-year-old Breton lives near La Torche, in Finistère, where he has created his “little corner of paradise”. A thousand leagues from the archetype of the Breton sailor, Éric cherishes the moments on land, surrounded by his Ouessant sheep. “I like taking care of my house, seeing this peaceful and well-kept environment. He also allows himself a few hikes in the mountains, far from the tumult of the ski lifts. The fact remains that the navigator never strays too long from the spray and its rocky outcrop. With this maxim: “Do not have limits”, which he follows scrupulously, Éric wishes to prove to new generations the importance of pursuing their dreams… whatever the cost.



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