Twice a year, around a hundred Outremer owners and future owners spend a week in La Grande-Motte to learn what the boat won’t do for them. As part of the ‘Progress’ stage of the Outremer Ready program, the O’Week is included in the price of every new Outremer.

At three o’clock in the morning, the wind picks up. Whoever is on watch must reduce the sail area without waking the others. On an Outremer, this moment is bound to happen sooner or later, whether you’re sailing as a couple, with friends or with a crew. Our owners sail without a professional crew. Everyone on board must therefore be able to take in a reef at night, restart an engine and read a weather report.

The boat is not enough

“An excellent catamaran is not enough to sail around the world. What stands between the dream and the departure is rarely the boat. It’s confidence.”

Rodolphe Cadoret – Marketing Director, Outremer

O’Week was created in 2018 to build that trust. Eight years on, more than 1,000 sailors from over 15 countries have taken part, with around a hundred attending each event. More than 40 % of them are women.

Two O’Week places are included in the price of every new Outremer. It is not an option; it is part of the boat. Our promise is to turn distance into freedom, and that freedom requires preparation. Our responsibility therefore does not end with delivery.

A stage in the Outremer Ready program

Outremer Ready supports every long-distance cruising project through four stages: get ready, make progress, set sail, return. O’Week forms part of the second stage. This is when the project ceases to be theoretical: you sail, you make mistakes, you try again, alongside crews who are also preparing for their own departures.

“There is time between buying the boat and taking delivery. We use it to train you.”

Camille Allard – Sailing Experience Manager

A week at sea and ashore

At sea, you’ll sail on other ‘Outremer’ yachts from the fleet, similar to your own, alongside the boat builders and sailors who have circumnavigated the globe. Moving from one boat to another, you’ll compare settings and recognise the same manoeuvring principles. You’ll practise reefing, harbour manoeuvres and downwind sailing, until you know how to rig, hoist and strike the spinnaker. Everyone takes a turn at the helm.

Ashore, you’ll learn about diesel mechanics, electricity, electronics, marine meteorology, safety, seamanship, boat maintenance and even maritime medicine. The programmes are delivered in French and English. A three-day session reserved for women also allows participants to find their feet before the main week begins.

Nobody comes here to be celebrated

O’Week isn’t just any gathering of owners. People don’t come here to be feted; they come to learn. And much of what is learnt here isn’t on the programme. In the evenings – often late into the night – owners talk to other owners. Those returning from a round-the-world trip tell those setting off in six months’ time what broke, what held up, and what they would do differently.

The words of future owners

Paul and Mondira are from Memphis, Tennessee. Their Outremer 52 will take them on the Grand Large Yachting World Odyssey 2029. Earlier in the week, Mondira took part in the three-day session reserved for women, where everyone does everything themselves, including manoeuvres she’d never done on board before.

“When I came to the O’Week, I felt much more comfortable in the sailing classes. I didn’t feel disadvantaged at all.”

Mondira – Future Outremer 52 owner

“Demystifying the spinnaker was a real accomplishment for me.”

Paul – Futur Outremer 52 owner

“The training’s fantastic, but what really brings us back is all the friends we’ve made here. And we always learn something new.”

Chris & Anne – Futures Outremer 4X owners

“I learnt so many new skills that, even after so many years of sailing, I didn’t know.”

Eyal & Yael – Futures Outremer 52 owners

The dream now has a departure date

Seated round the table, every dream already has a departure date. Some are coming back for a second O’Week; others will meet up again later at the same mooring, on the other side of the ocean.

You arrive with a plan. You leave with the confidence to set sail, friends from the jetty and a departure date.

→ Watch the O’Week aftermovie