Groupe Bel in Egypt

Départ pour les visites de sites en Egypte et en Syrie

By Toutatis! Kito de Pavant and his two partners, Brice de Crisenoy and Hervé Giorsetti, arrived in Alexandria this morning on board the monohull Groupe Bel. This is a unique stopover for this kind of boat, and three days of exploring and exchanging with Bel workers in Egypt have been scheduled.

Since the beginning of the Bel Tchiz Tour in 2007, at the same time, Groupe Bel and her skipper have been running a sports project, with their participation in the major offshore races of the IMOCA Class, and a human project, keeping in close contact with Bel workers throughout the world.

Following England, the Netherlands, and Morocco, the red monohull bearing the image of the La Vache qui Rit® (The Laughing Cow) has just moored in the port of Alexandria, the leading port in Egypt, and will continue its Mediterranean tour in a few days with a stopover at Lattaquie (Syria), then Istanbul (Turkey).

Discover, exchange, share
“Although the Egyptians are great sailors, they are not familiar with this kind of yacht. There obviously a difference between what I experience on board when I’m racing and what the Bel workers experience in Egypt. They only know the Groupe Bel monohull through photos of her and, naturally, it will be great when they see her for real! As for us, we will also be making discoveries thanks to the people who live and work here. This kind of exchange is what make travelling so rich and is what we wanted to create with Bel through this project, which has no frontiers, like the Group itself.”

Request the program!
After two days of sailing in Alexandria with Bel Group workers, it will be the turn of Kito and his crew to leave the boat and visit the Bel factory, located near Cairo. This factory has 950 team members and produces brands such as La Vache qui Rit® (The Laughing Cow), Les Enfants® and Regal Picon®

Thumbprints over here!
Kito is also counting on the Mediterranean stopovers to complete his “Thumbs up!” collection of thumbprints. With 6,300 thumbprints already visible on the monohull’s mast, the skipper is hoping for a new flood of prints in Egypt, Syria and then Turkey. The message has been launched and the count is rising!