Les Glénans

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Les Glénans is a famous French sailing school, operating as a non-profit organisation. Most of its instructors are volunteers. It was founded in 1947 by Philippe and Hélène Viannay, who had been involved with the French Resistance during World War Two. It's first site was the Glénan archipelago, about 10 nautical miles (20 km) off the coast of southern Brittany. Among its first boats was a 12 meter Bermudian cutter called Sereine, which is now a French listed monument and still sails after having been entirely refurbished in 2005.

Its headquarters are in Paris, France, and it operates five sites in France: Paimpol, l'Ile-d'Arz and l'Archipel (as the Glénan archiplago is referred to by Glénans adepts) in Brittany, Marseillan in Southern France and Bonifacio in Corsica. Sailing can take place in most of the western Medditerranean bassin, the UK, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. It also crosses the Atlantic Ocean and, in the past, went to Iceland.

The Glénans teaches catamaran sailing, dinghy sailing and windsurfing, but 70% of its activity is yachting. Every year 14,000 students and 800 instructors sail 100,000 days.

The fleet of the Glénans consists of a wide variety of boats which are usually adapted specially for the purposes of the school. On the water, these boats are usually recognizable by a red stripe across the mainsail.