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Paris (Department and Municipality, France): Yacht clubs and rowing clubs

Cercle de la Voile de Paris
Union des Plaisanciers Français
Union Nationale pour la Course au Large
Rowing-Club

See also:

Cercle de la Voile de Paris

by Ivan Sache

Cercle de la Voile de Paris (CVP) was founded in 1868, when Cercle des Voiliers de la Basse-Seine merged with Cercle des Yachts de Paris.

CVP was initially located in Argenteuil, a port on the Seine downriver from Paris which was a main center of recreational and sport boating at that time, and has been very often illustrated by the Impressionnist painters. In 1893, the yacht club moved further downstream to Les Mureaux, where it is still located. Les Mureaux is now a main center of aerospace science.

The most important success of CVP was the gold medal won by its member Jacques Lebrun in the Olympic Games of Los Angeles (1932).

CVP includes now more than 300 members, and has kept its social seat in Paris.

The flag of CVP is red with a white lozenge touching the edges of the flag and a blue star in the middle. It was designed at the end of the XIXth century by the painter Morel-Fatio, who was the curator of the Marine Museum in Paris.

Source: CVP website

by Ivan Sache

The burgee of CVP can be seen for instance in the Grand Larousse du XXe Siècle (1928).

Ivan Sache, 12 May 2001

Union des Plaisanciers Français

by Ivan Sache

Union des Plaisanciers Français was created in Paris in 1962 for the national promotion of coastal and deep-sea sailing cruises. The motto of the club is Naviguez plus loin avec l'UPF (Sail further with UPF).

The burgee of UPF is blue with a white border and a white star.

Source: UPF website

Ivan Sache, 17 December 2004

Union Nationale pour la Course au Large

by Ivan Sache

Union Nationale pour la Course au Larg (UNCL) was founded in 1971 by the merging of Union Nationale des Croiseurs (founded in 1913 by René de Saint-Père) and Groupement pour la Course au Large (founded in 1960 by Alain Maupas). Current membership is about 1,000.

UNCL formed an association with Royal Ocean Racing Club (United Kingdom) to establish international rules for open sea racing. The two clubs invented the CHS burden, replaced in 1999 by the IR2000 burden.

UNCL represented France in the America's Cup in 2000 and 2003. In 2000, the boat 6e Sens reached the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. In 2003, Areva could not reach the semi-finals. UNCL was severely criticized for its race tactics and mostly for the choice of the sponsor. Areva is the consortium that rules in a rather opaque way the nuclear energy industry in France. Greenpeace campaigned against Areva and the New Zealanders did not really welcome the boat.

The burgee of UNCL is quartered blue-red-blue-red by a white cross. A white disc charged with an eight-ray yellow wind rose is placed over the cross.

Source: UNCL website

Ivan Sache, 25 January 2004

Rowing-Club

by Ivan Sache

The first rowing regattas took place in Paris in 1834, and were won by the famous "six" owned by Prince of Joinville. In 1853, the teams from the boats Eva and Velleda founded together Société des Régates ParisiennesChampionnat de la Seine. The very same year, Duke of Albuféra founded the Paris Rowing-Club. The two clubs merged in 1865 into Rowing-Club. The new club set up the first classifications of the race boats according to their length and width and the first race rules. Viscount of Châteauvillard was the first captain-coach of Rowing-Club. His yawl Duc de Framboisie remained undefeated in France for four years. Rowing-Club also won most of the regattas organized during the International Exhibition of 1867. Two years later, the glorious "four" Miss Aurore won 139 races in a single year.

After the 1870 war, several clubs seceded from Rowing-Club: Cercle Nautique de France (1875), Société Nautique de la Marne (1876), Société d'Encouragement du Sport Nautique (1879), and Société Nautique de la Basse-Seine.
Rowing-Club kept friendly links with Société Nautique de la Marne, and both clubs organized the Rowing-Marne contest. In the first European Championships (1904), the Rowing-Marne mixed eight won the title, and defended it victoriously the next year. In 1903, Rowing-Club celebrated its 50th anniversary with the European title won in skiff by d'Heilly. The eight from Rowing-Club won the Thames Challenge Cup in Henley in 1912.

Between the two World Wars, the rowers from Rowing-Club won several national and international competitions and took part to the Olympic Games. The double-scull team Jacquet-Giriat, bronze medalist in the European Championships in 1935, was finalist in Berlin (1936).
After the Liberation, Rowing-Club maintained its level, winning the inter-club championship in 1946 and several other national titles. The pair-oar Havlick-Rivière won the bronze in the European Championships in 1947.
In spring 1953, Rowing-Club celebrated its centenary with international regattas organized in Paris and placed under the patronage of the President of the Republic.
In 1968, the _Rowing-Club_ moved its headquarters to a new, modern base located in Saint-Ouen, north of Paris.

The burgee of the Rowing-Club is vertically divided blue-red with the white letters R and C in the blue and the red stripe, respectively. These are the colours of Paris.

Source: RC website

Ivan Sache, 18 December 2004