Vendée Globe 2020 100% CDK Technologies podium

A podium 100% made in CDK Technologies!
In the early hours of this morning, Yannick Bestaven was the third skipper to cross the finish line, yet he secures the crown in this 9th edition of the Vendée Globe. Indeed, the 10hrs15, which were awarded to him for diverting to and participating in the search for Kévin Escoffier, places him on the highest step of the podium. After a top-flight passage through the Southern Ocean, which saw him round the symbolic Cape Horn in pole position, this major success comes as a just reward for what was a highly intelligent race sailed by the native of Saint Nazaire.

This victory treats the CDK Technologies yard to the 4th consecutive win by a boat created within its infrastructure. In fact, the current Maître CoQ IV was launched in 2015 under the colours of Safran. She was the first new generation IMOCA, in line with the 2013 class measurement, which introduced the concept of foils to racing monohulls. Designed by VPLP & Guillaume Verdier, she was one of 6 new boats launched for the Vendée Globe 2016.

On the second step of the podium, we find Apivia skippered by Charlie Dalin, another boat built by CDK Technologies. The most consistent leader of the race, Apivia crosses the finish line first.
Launched in August 2019, Apivia forms part of the latest generation of IMOCAs, which were built with a view to the Vendée Globe 2020. Designed by Guillaume Verdier with striking architectural options, she’s the first boat to be built entirely at CDK Technologies’ Lorient base thanks to the installation of a giant, latest-generation oven. Supported in his project by François Gabart’s Mer Concept team (winner of the Vendée Globe in 2012 on MACIF, also built by CDK Technologies) and following on from his victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019, Charlie Dalin knows he has prize-winning boat in every sense.

Thomas Normand, CEO of MerConcept / Team Apivia: “Charlie has rounded off this Vendée Globe in the most wonderful way. It’s been an incredible race to follow, as much as a result of its intensity as its twists and turns. Apivia, which was built at CDK Technologies, and has proven both her potential and her reliability on several occasions, enabled Charlie to play at the front of the pack throughout this  Vendée Globe. We are all very proud of the race Charlie has sailed and we are grateful for the work accomplished on the boat during her construction by all the associates at CDK Technologies, who brought their skills and generosity to the fore in this project.”

This fantastic podium is completed by Louis Burton’s Bureau Vallée 2. Launched in 2015 in the colours of Banque Populaire VIII, this VPLP - Guillaume Verdier design was originally helmed by Armel le Cléac’h through until his victory in the Vendée Globe 2016, where he set the record for the event that still stands today. Taken over in 2017 by Louis Burton, it is in the colours of Bureau Vallée that the boat has this year completed a second circumnavigation of the globe. The 3rd attempt at this feat by Louis Burton, it is unquestionably his finest.

The Vendée Hall of Fame by CDK Technologies
This 9th edition of the Vendée Globe is exceptional for CDK Technologies. Out of the 33 boats at the start, ten have passed through the expert hands of the one hundred or so employees at CDK Technologies, which equates to nearly a third of the fleet. Four of them were new boats (out of the eight latest-generation boats signed up this year) and 8 were foilers.
These 10 boats were launched between 2007 and 2020:
Yes We Cam (2007), PRB (2009), Initiatives Cœur (2010), Banque Populaire X (2011), Maître CoQ IV and Bureau Vallée 2 (2015), Charal (2018), Arkea Paprec and Apivia (2019) and Corum l’Epargne (2020).

It’s a great source of pride for the yard to have contributed in this way to the excitement of what has been a truly epic Vendée Globe, which is among the most hotly-contested of all time, where the outcome proved to be impossible to predict right the way to the wire and even beyond. This sentiment is all the stronger when you look back at the list of achievements boasted by the boats that have come out of the yard over what is nearly three decades now.
Maître CoQ IV’s victory is the fifth in 9 editions for a boat built at CDK Technologies:
-    Bagages Superior with Alain Gautier in 1992
-    Foncia with Michel Desjoyeaux in 2008
-    MACIF with François Gabart in 2012
-    Banque Populaire VIII with Armel Le Cléac’h in 2016
-    Maître CoQ IV with Yannick Bestaven in 2020

And ultimately it’s CDK which comes out on top: MULTI 50, IMOCA or ULTIME, 35 years of success
With monohulls or multihulls, 50 to 100-footers, CDK Technologies walks on water! The 5 victories in the Vendée Globe, 4 of which have been consecutive, complemented by victories in the Route du Rhum, the Transat Jacques Vabre, The Transat and multiple records with giant trimarans, speak volumes about the yard’s expertise. A real hive of activity, where everyone knows exactly what needs to be done to manufacture and assemble all the parts that make up these high-tech jigsaw puzzles, the yard is primarily the communion between cutting-edge innovation and targeted expertise, between specialist skills and collaborative work.
These exceptional results in offshore racing are not down to mere chance, rather they are testament to the tried and tested, innovative, developed skills passed around in-house. They are also down to major investments to equip themselves with tooling that sets them apart from other yards, such as large-scale ovens and autoclaves. These are investments for the sphere of competitive sailing and, thanks to today’s transfers of know-how, they are now finding concrete expression in industry, in Defence and in aeronautics.

Though CDK Technologies stands out as a reference protagonist in offshore sailing, it is an entire sector which has been able to develop over recent years around competitive sailing in the now famous “Bretagne Sailing Valley”©. Indeed, this concentration of innovative protagonists geared towards the sea, groups together over 200 companies, 2,300 employees and is worth nearly €350 M.

Yann Dollo, Assistant General Manager of CDK Technologies: “Our industry is demonstrating a great ability for bouncing back, despite the current health crisis. In fact, 2020 didn’t suffer any form of rupture in the development of our business within the yard. Though our sporting successes give us a deep sense of pride, ultimately our finest achievement is to have been able to reinforce our human capital in 2020 with a growth in workforce of over 10%. Competitive sailing and the vision of the future it can bring to on-the-water mobility, are charting a thrilling course for us going forward.”