Roland Jourdain
- Nationality
- France
- Born
- 28 April 1964(62 years old)
- Gender
- Man
Biography
Born in Quimper in 1964, Roland Jourdain, known as "Bilou", began offshore racing in the 1980s, sailing the 1985 Whitbread with Éric Tabarly and the 1989 edition on Fazisi. He then made his name in the Figaro circuit (winning the 1994 Transat AG2R with Jean Le Cam and several Solitaire top-six finishes) and in ORMA multihulls, winning the 1995 Transat Jacques-Vabre.
In IMOCA he finished 3rd in the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe aboard Sill, won the 2001 Transat Jacques-Vabre with Gaël Le Cléac'h, then the 2006 Route du Rhum on Sill et Veolia and the 2010 edition on Veolia Environnement. He retired from the 2004-2005 Vendée Globe with keel damage and from the 2008-2009 edition, while 2nd, after losing his keel bulb.
He returned to multihulls with a MOD 70 (winning the 2011 Fastnet Race in the multihull category) until sponsor Veolia withdrew in 2012. He founded Kaïros, a bio-composites design office, and the Kaïros Sailing team, which ran Morgan Lagravière's Safran monohull for the 2016 Vendée Globe.
In 2022 he finished 2nd in the Rhum Multi class of the Route du Rhum aboard We Explore, a catamaran built with 50% flax fibre. He co-founded the Explore endowment fund with Sophie Vercelletto, served on the Brittany regional council from 2015 and was made Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2025.
Boats
Timeline
Boats, teams, races and records, year by year.
2010
SkipperThe sailor in command of the boat, responsible for it in the race.See in the glossary · 2010
Freelance.com · IMOCA
1964
28 April 1964
Born
Classes raced
Page reliability
4 sources · updated 6 Oct 2026