"Bollé is a company with a young dynamic image which reflects Roland and his team’s spirit. Roland appreciates the wide range that Bollé has to offer and also that they are affordable enough to be able to buy more than one pair!"

"Exciting tacking, coming about in the bay...year after year the sails grew in size and the rudders ran deeper below the waterline.
Before he turned fifteen, he was asked if he wanted to become an instructor's assistant.
""That's when I really discovered sailing. A world of sharing, building and mending, passion and the pleasure of teaching...""

Rough ropes, sails stiffened by sea air, salt and wood glue from the workshop and of course the sailing school bar. ""The bar is very important! Capital even! The bar is where we rub shoulders with old seadogs, where you build your own sailing history.""

The bar is where history and tales are swallowed whole...as well as drinks.
""I met Jean Luc Nelias at that sailing school. We were the same age and we both preferred speed on the water to necking back the beers - so we quickly became good friends. I remember our first night race, hanging outboard on our lifelines, soaked to the skin. At the time, we'd decided that it wasn't for us...""
A shared acquaintance was building a boat for the 1981 mini-transatlantic, a competition founded four years earlier by Englishman Bob Salmon who wanted to make a stand against the enormity of the major sailing races at the time.
""They say it's one of the longest transatlantic races because you race 20 footers without assistance. In 83, I decided to race myself. I picked up an old Muscadet (a plywood boat) that was going nowhere on a mudflat near Concarneau and I started preparing it.""

Put it down to a chance friendship or maybe fate, but Michel Desjoyaux, whose father created the Port la Forêt shipyard, turned up to offer Roland his help. Together they learnt the techniques, measurements and preparatory work. This experience and expertise became the foundation upon which the young sailor hoped to build a great sailing future.
""Mich was no doubt the youngest technical director on a racing project! He and his family provided me with a tremendous amount of sporting knowledge, particularly in the mechanical field.""

First Solo transatlantic crossing

And off he went for his first solo transatlantic crossing.
6 days after leaving and on a heavy sea, Roland's boat hit a log which split the Muscadet's hull. Water came inside the little boat and it began to slowly sink below the waves. ""At sea, emotions are more exaggerated. You are all alone for your happiness and your misery and at the dead of night, when you're in the middle of an ocean that is trying hard to invade your little boat, you really feel awful. Luckily it was a Saturday night and I thought of my mates who would be having fun at La Chaumière in Sainte Marine and I thought to myself, there's no way I'm going to die while that lot are having fun!""
Roland fought to save his boat all night and the next day he was picked up by a cargo ship. A few days later he was on land, but all he had was the jumpsuit he was wearing. Some would have given up there and then, but Roland bounced back and called up by the ""bande de baie"" (the bay gang), he joined the Multiplast shipyard where Philippe Jeantot's multi-hull was built.
One year later, still with the ""bande de baie"", he helped set up the CDK shipyard at Port la Forêt.
In 1984, he sailed an ""old horse"" in his first Figaro and in 1985 he won the Tour of Europe with Jeantot and also boarded Tabarly's 80-footer for the Whitbread round-the-world race with crew.
""Eric taught me how to get comfortable on the water. And it was during this round-the-world race that I realised I wanted to become a professional sailor.""
At port in New Zealand, he bumped into Bob Salmon (founder of the mini-transatlantic). He introduced himself once again and tried telling him about his Muscadet, but Roland's English didn't hold up. All he could say was ""I have lost my boat"". Totally broke and with a whisky in his han