Between Switzerland and Brittany, between the Caribbean and Canada, between rain gear and project presentations: if you’ve been trying to keep up with Alan Roura these past few months, you’ve had to demonstrate endurance, adaptability, and tenacity! With that inexhaustible energy that is his trademark, the sailor from Geneva continues to rack up the miles, leave his mark, and create opportunities, paving the way for new Swiss talent to set sail tomorrow.
During the race, there’s the roar of the waves pounding the carbon hull. The starting gun, the clatter of winches turning at full speed. The whistling foils, the instructions exchanged, the rustling of the sails being hoisted, the alarms that seem to ring endlessly. There are the heartbeats pounding in unison with the effort, and the breaths quickening in this rush of adrenaline.
On land, it’s a battle that makes far less noise, but requires just as much discipline and commitment. The battle to bring the Swiss Offshore Team’s dream to life and set sail in September 2026 for The Ocean Race Atlantic, followed by The Ocean Race in 2027. The holy grail of a crewed round-the-world race, with Swiss sailors of varying levels of offshore experience, exactly fifty years after the epic journey of the man who inspired so many Swiss dreams: Pierre Fehlmann on the Whitbread.
Alan Roura continues to champion this project tirelessly, building on the adventure launched in the summer of 2025 on The Ocean Race Europe, which allowed sailors like Mathis Bourgnon, Jessica Berthoud, Felix Oberle, and Lucie De Gennes to take their very first steps among the IMOCA elite.
“This first trial run was so positive and has brought us so much as a team,” says the sailor from Geneva. “Sharing, passing on knowledge, and unity—the core values of this dream—are at the heart of Swiss identity and what Switzerland has to offer the world. We have real talent, but the pipeline has been lost between the lake and the ocean. We need to build bridges to launch careers, so that other Swiss sailors can shine on the open seas in the future.”
With humility, the three-time Vendée Globe finisher, aged just 33, does not place himself “at the center of the project as the veteran who has everything to teach others—quite the opposite. I believe we can all grow from this experience, myself first and foremost, and that is why this dream is so close to my heart. I just want to put my visibility and experience to work for a much bigger cause, and give others the chance I had.”
A contagious enthusiasm that has been spreading over the past few months. “We’re scheduling more and more meetings, and the feedback has been very positive,” says Aurélia Mouraud, the project’s co-founder in charge of marketing and partnerships. “We already have our first commitments; we’re not starting from scratch, but the coming weeks will be crucial in shaping the rest of the story. We believe in it because our experience now allows us to offer a turnkey project with significant potential for visibility, serving Switzerland and its youth.”
Resolutely optimistic—or at least convinced that “every difficulty encountered should be an opportunity for new progress”—the Geneva-based sailor thus continues his quest on land, yet without losing his connection to the ocean.
Driven by a constant desire to challenge himself, Alan Roura has taken on more and more sailing assignments, starting with a role as co-skipper on the RORC Caribbean 600 aboard an older-generation Volvo 70 launched in 2008. “It was my first time participating in this legendary race, so that alone was an amazing experience,” says the eternal enthusiast, who has long crisscrossed this part of the world on the family’s monohull. The boat wasn’t really in racing condition—we had a leak, a fire broke out, and no way to set a sail on the bowsprit… That’s part of ocean racing, too—it’s a school of resourcefulness, it forces you to be versatile, and it reminded me of where I come from! On a personal level, it was also a wonderful experience; there were fifteen of us on board, which always makes for some great stories to tell!”
In May, Alan Roura took a different, untested route to deliver the IMOCA Canada Ocean Racing yacht from Lorient to Quebec City. “It was a great opportunity to sail this latest-generation boat, which finished thirdin the 2024 Vendée Globe with Sébastien Simon,” the sailor notes. “It’s both an extremely demanding boat and, at the same time, incredibly easy to handle because you don’t have to push it that hard to make it go really fast—it’s impressive! And again, I’d never sailed in that direction toward the St. Lawrence before; it was an incredible natural spectacle.”
Finally, Alan Roura’s latest sailing commitment is a bit more familiar to him. For the sixth time, the Genevan will take the starting line at the Bol d’Or on Saturday, June 6, as skipper of the Libera Carondimonio, last year’s surprise winner in the monohull class! “It’s a truly atypical boat, a real sight to see on Lake Geneva, but I love stories that are out of the ordinary—the ones that let you pull off some nice moves even when no one expects it—so I immediately said yes to their invitation! It’s a young crew there too, so just like what we do with the Swiss Offshore Team, I’ll try to bring my own experience to the table and keep learning on completely different types of boats.”
A philosophy of humanity and sportsmanship in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas: “It is more beautiful to enlighten than merely to shine; likewise, it is more beautiful to share with others what one has contemplated than merely to contemplate it oneself.”
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