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Before you buy your ticket, it's best to know what you're looking for: a museum, technical immersion, a glimpse of the ocean racing center, or a place for family maritime activities.
Understand what you're really visiting, whether it's a museum, a simulator, or the entrance to the site
The Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly is located in the former submarine base on the 23-hectare Keroman site, with glass and metal architecture by Jacques Ferrier. It serves as the tourist gateway to Lorient La Base, with an information point and a shared ticket office on the ground floor, changing the logic of the visit: visitors no longer come just for the exhibition, but also to organize their day on site.
For a yachtsman, the benefits are twofold. On the one hand, there's a 2,000 m² indoor tour focusing on ocean racing, boats and sailing preparation. On the other, access to the pontoons and related visits, such as the ocean racing center, the submarine Flore S645, or the K3 blockhouse. The advantage is the density of content on a single stretch of water, with a maritime frontage of around 1,200 meters.
See racing boats up close, without confusing spectacle with pontoon reality
The ocean racing cluster is described as a very active whole, with permanent teams, skippers of several nationalities, and a competitive fleet divided between Ultim, Imoca, Class40, and other classes. On the pontoons, you may come across well-known names and projects, but the reality of a preparation site also means sheds, technical areas, logistics, and periods when everyone is on site or on convoy duty.
For visitors, the benefits are clear: get up close to the boats, understand the organization of a racing base, and put a face on the trades, from preparation to maintenance.
Put into words the technical aspects of foils, keel, rig and safety before the start
One of the strengths of the course is that it takes the public through subjects that many amateur sailors come across without necessarily formalizing them: foils, keels, rigging, the differences between monohulls and trimarans, and above all, preparation before casting off.
The "embarking" section focuses on navigation tools, weather, GPS, maps, organization and safety. For yachtsmen, this is the passage that can make the link between ocean racing and cruising, as the basic reflexes remain the same: anticipate, prepare, check, and know how to give up. The advantage is educational, with interactive supports, digital planisphere, logbooks and handling devices.
Helping families navigate between Cité des Moussaillons and workshops, without drowning parents
Since October 2024, a new 1,000 m², 4-level facility targets 2 to 12 year-olds, with 48 devices and two motor skills courses, one for 2 to 6 year-olds, the other for 7 to 12 year-olds. There's also a 200 m² children's stopover for 2-6 year-olds, with balance games, sound riddles, wind devices and an arrival in the saloon of a real sailboat.
For a family, the advantage is simple: keep the kids busy with maritime content, not just "looking at boats". And for parents who are sailors, it's often a way of introducing vocabulary such as wind, balance and maneuvering, without a lecture.
TyRoll, 4D, and winch efforts, in search of sensations without kidding yourself
The TyRoll starts from the Tour des Vents, an activity launched in spring 2020, with 350 meters of line, a platform 40 meters above the water, and a speed announced at 60 km/h. Accessible to people weighing between 25 and 110 kg, the activity is supervised, in groups of around 12 people. It's less about sailing than flying over the water, but the nautical interest is there, and the view over the harbor and the Lorient La Base facilities gives a sense of the site.
Inside, the dynamic 4D "Ocean Ride" cinema and the areas for handling, hoisting, winching and steering are aimed at the physical experience. The advantage is that you quickly realize that maneuvering requires energy, and that a racing deck is not a living room.
Linking the Tabarly legacy to visible boats, Pen Duick at the pontoon and race story
The site features an area dedicated to Éric Tabarly, around 150 m², with a reconstructed Pen Duick II cabin, personal objects and archives. Above all, the Pen Duick, Pen Duick, Pen Duick II, Pen Duick III, Pen Duick V, Pen Duick VI, are announced moored to the pontoons, with a wintering shed on site.
For a yachtsman, the advantage is to have a concrete historical anchor point, moving from a story to a real boat. The risk is in reducing Tabarly to a showcase. However, the dossier recalls precise milestones: the solo transatlantic race won in 1964 on Pen Duick II, in 27 days 23 hours and 56 minutes, and the installation in Lorient of the museographical project, with a Cité opened in 2008, followed by a renewal of the route in 2015. And if you want a phrase to keep in mind, this one, attributed to the dossier, sums up the sailor's media imprint, " Tabarly put a sail in the heart of every Frenchman ".
Hosting professional events at the water's edge: useful, but not without logistical constraints
The Cité de la Voile also serves as a tool for business tourism, with a 132-seat auditorium, modular spaces, meeting rooms, a hall that can be used in season, and evening privatizations. For professionals, the immediate proximity of the pontoons, boats and infrastructures of the ocean racing center is of great interest, adding content to seminars, guided tours, treasure hunts and embarkations.
Practical information and useful tips
The Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly opens every day during school vacations, from 10am to 6pm, and from 10am to 7pm during the summer school vacations. The TyRoll is advertised at 11 euros, the ride under sail is available from 1.20 m, and the site also offers guided tours and family workshops.
And you, when you visit an ocean racing site, what do you look for first, the boat, the technique, or the story that goes with the pontoon?
