80,000 visitors at the Grand Pavois La Rochelle 2021

Grand Pavois La Rochelle 2021 © Veronique Largeau / GPO

A high-quality visitor profile there to see the 800 or so international brands and 750 boats on show. Following this edition, which could be described as much-awaited and very successful, Grand Pavois La Rochelle confirms that it is a show for business, a show for new products, an event reflecting future trends in water sports, and a reference show for French, European and international water sports.

Alain Pochon (President of Grand Pavois Organisation):

Satisfaction...

"This 2021 edition has been very satisfying for the Grand Pavois Organisation's Board of Directors. All the water sport professionals represented closed this 49th edition with many sales and well-filled order books. We concluded this edition with 80,000 visitors, including a large number of high-quality visitors from abroad and, above all, first-time buyers, which underlines the true ambition of our event, namely the promotion of new trends, practices and products."

Acknowledgements...

"We wish to thank the Minister for the Sea, Annick Girardin, for spending Thursday at the show. The Minister was extremely available and met with many professionals and discussed issues relating to the ports of the future, mooring, regulations, and more. Our thanks also to Her Excellency Adraia Balta, the Ambassador of Greece to France, for her presence during the inauguration of the Greece hall, and Yannick Bestaven, the winner of the Vendée Globe and patron of our event, who was present aboard his Imoca."

New fittings...

"There were also many sea trials which continues to be an undeniable strength for our event. I recall that more than 150 boats were available to test from 10 am to 7 pm and that, after 5.30 pm the pontoons were opened to allow the other brands to take to the sea. Our new layout, with the removal of the large halls, appears to be in line with the needs of professionals and visitors and we are already thinking about how to establish it in the long-term. Finally, I wish to thank all our public and private partners who attended: the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the department of Charente-Maritime and the CDA La Rochelle, not to mention the Municipality of La Rochelle for all the works carried at our site and at the new visitors' car park. It is our duty to offer new fittings and improvements to our event every year and it is thanks to this collaboration that we are able to continually upgrade our event."

Disappointment...

"The only cloud in the sky was the cancellation of certain events owing to the poor weather conditions, including Grand Pavois Fishing and our first edition of Paddle Jam. But this will be for some other time because 37 boats from international brands were registered for Grand Pavois Fishing and more than 90 participants had signed up for our Paddle event. Indeed, we will be proposing this event in spring next year. The National competitions (editor's note: WindFoil, WingFoil and ETF26) took place but were also affected by the bad weather on Saturday. We would like to thank the competitors and the Pôles France centres for their presence, as well as the French Sailing Federation and the two organising clubs, namely the Centre Nautique d'Angoulins and the Rochelle-Nautique."

Focus on the 50th edition

"We were delighted to have Greece as our Guest country of Honour 2021. Tahiti and the islands of the Pacific will by our guests in 2022. It was a great honour to have announced this on the first day of the show and we are sure that it will be one of the highlights of next year's edition. No need to mention the fact that 2022 will rather special because we will be celebrating the 50th edition of the Grand Pavois La Rochelle and we are already working on this anniversary edition which we hope will be festive and convivial. A highly symbolic edition that should allow us to extend our thanks to the world of water sports and all its professionals who have placed their trust in us for the past 50 years."