In 1968, 3 Edhec’s students established the Course Croisière EDHEC. Jean-Luc Picot, Francis Prat et Pierre Jouanet aspired to make the sport they are passionate about more popular. The goal is quickly achieved: the Course Croisiere Edhec leaves its mark in the nautic world. Since 1970, it has been known as an European sport event welcoming all European great schools. Some competitors collected tens of thousands of euros to rent their boat or to be skipped by a professional.
Among those famous sailors that competed during the Course Croisière EDHEC, can be found Eric Tabarly, Alain Colas, Franck Cammas, Olivier de Kersauson, Vincent Riou, Jean Le Cam, Marc Thiercelin, Yves Parlier, Marc Pajot, Yann Eliès, Yvan Bourgnon, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, or even Jimmy Pahun.
For its 10th anniversary in 1979, crews of the Course Croisière EDHEC stopped for the first time in a foreign country in Guernsey , England. In the following years, competitors of the Sea Trophy sailed in a new path ie the Cherbourg – Cowes – Cherbourg
. They competed against each other while sailing across the English Channel. In 1975, the Organization changed its name EDHEC Sailing Cup
to Course Croisière EDHEC
.Two years later, the French Sailing Federation started to supervise the race, which helped gathering all competitors around the event. The record of participation in the Sea Trophy was reached in 1987 with 347 boats in competition.
Over years, members of the Course Croisière EDHEC aspired to welcome a diversity of sports. Since 1994, the CCE has launched a new Trophy, the Land Trophy. It is a multisport raid in the home port composed of mountain biking, canoeing, orienteering and archery and even, when the weather allowed it, climbing. In 2007 a new Trophy, the Sand Trophy was created : It included 3 competitions of Beach Volley, Beach rugby and Beach Soccer. An obstacle course, the Mud Contest, was organized between competitors of the Land and Sand Trophy.
In 2012 , at La Rochelle , an archery event was staged at the Château de la Roche Courbon. A new Trophy was created to promote dinghy sailing, which is the Kite Trophy. Its name then changed to Air Trophy for the 44th edition. It was composed of 2 main activities: Kitesurf Contest et le Windsurf Contest. The KiteSurf contest was held on the first weekend of the event and gathered 50 competitors divided into 3 to 5 members teams. The WindSurf Contest was a long-distance competition that took place in 2014 on a water basin. 60 participants competed against each other in freestyle race and wave contests with RS:One board models. The Air Trophy ended in 2016 for logistical reasons and unpredictable weather
In 2023, the Earth and Sand Trophies were transformed in the Earth Défi, the Beach-Soccer and the Beach-Rugby. Reflecting the very DNA of these institutions - respect for the environment, sportsmanship, festivity - the Challenges are renewed each year to offer new and dynamic offerings.
For each edition, the event Course Croisière EDHEC is sponsored by a new character who has generally a sailing background. It allows the CCE to introduce great names of sailing to many students, to democratize sailing for this young audience. Sponsorship by sports personalities or politicians make it possible for the Organization to share its core values meaning boldness, ambition, commitment, self-improvement, and finally a taste for wilderness.
"I am happy to welcome this new edition of the EDHEC Cruise Race, which reflects the spirit of enterprise and the determination of a homogeneous team and gives a growing number the opportunity to taste the games of the open sea."
course croisière edhec ( CCE ), 1er évenement sportif étudiant d’europe
