Interview Yann Dollo: CDK, 40 years in the service of performance Arnaud C., October 14 2024November 4 2024 On 11th September, CDK celebrated its fortieth birthday in Lorient. This gave us an opportunity to talk to its deputy managing director, Yann Dollo about the future and the past of the yard that was set up in 1984 by Gaëtan Gouerou, Jean Le Cam and Hubert Desjoyeaux. Can you give us a picture of what CDK is like at the age of 40? Today, CDK is one of the leaders in the manufacture of large scale high-performance composite parts, thanks to the quite extraordinary size of its ovens and curing units. The group has a total turnover of between 13 and 15 million euros, employs 125 people, including 100 in Brittany, with the rest including the C3 Technologies teams in La Rochelle, a company acquired in late 2022. We are about to double our production area in Lorient with two new docks being opened in the spring of 2025. At the start was the yard set up due to demand or intuition? Forty years ago, the high performance composites we know today were just beginning to appear. It was the age of pioneers. When you were an ocean racer back then, it wasn’t a career, but a passion and you often had to get your hands dirty. So to begin with, it was the story of three friends, Gaëtan Gouerou, Jean Le Cam and Hubert Desjoyeaux, who simply wanted to build a boat that would allow them to sail more quickly than their friends in the nearby bay. So, they set up a boatyard to build the boat on which they intended to sail. It wasn’t a matter of intuition at all. Can you give us the names of four boats that for you have marked the history of CDK? I would begin with Bagages Superior, the boat built for Alain Gautier for the second Vendée Globe, as this was our first win in the race, so that was bound to leave its mark. After that, we won four others. Then, there was the Formule 40, Biscuits Cantreau 3, which was the first time we saw a trimaran sail up on one float. To achieve that, we needed boats that were extremely rigid, which marked the arrival of preg (pre-preg cooking). Then, there was Banque Populaire V of course. She was much more than just a boat and a complete new direction for CDK. A new production unit was set up in Lorient, but we didn’t realise then what those premises would offer the yard. Just now, we were talking about intuition, but back then, you needed to be a visionary to know what would happen after the construction of Banque Populaire V. Philippe Facque (former managing director) had the intuition that the site would develop thanks to this incredible environment. Finally, even if not as revolutionary, Imoca Macif, because it was the start of our work with François Gabart and his team, which would take us to the Ultims then to the first foil being made for an Ultim. That too was a key moment in the development of CDK. How do you imagine CDK in 40 years from now? I think that in forty years from now, CDK will have capitalized on what the yard has developed in the area of high performance composites since its creation, including the facilities, to match requirements way beyond ocean racing. Today, when we are asked if we are able to make 70m high masts for cargo sailing ships, it is not something we run away from. It’s like when we are asked to make 2 tonne foils for passenger vessels. So, in forty years from now, I really hope we will still be a leading player in ocean racing, as that is part of our DNA – it represents 85% of our turnover today – but 30-40% of our turnover will be on industrial projects for other types of vessel (defence, passenger transport, freight…), renewable marine energies, offshore wind farms… But there will also be big pleasure sailing boats, which will replace motorized super yachts. This is a market that is opening up thanks to everything we have done with Ultim boats. Competitive Sailing Offshore racing