DMG MORI Sailing Academy sets new goals for the 2024 season

After a successful Mini 6.50 campaign in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the DMG MORI Sailing Academy is adding a new boat to its fleet, a Figaro Beneteau 3, to participate in the 2024 Figaro Beneteau Racing Season. Laure Galley will be the skipper of the Figaro 3 boat “DMG MORI ACADEMY” while two new skippers will be at the helm of the Mini 6.50 boats built by the DMG MORI Sailing Team in 2021. The DMG MORI Sailing Academy grows with its skippers and accompanies them throughout their offshore sailing careers.

The results speak for themselves. Since founding the Sailing Academy in February 2022 to promote young sailing talent, Laure Galley has made an impressive journey. In 2022 and 2023 she won twice, was on the podium five times and finished in the top 10 in all races except the Mini Transat 2023. She successfully finished the Mini Transat 2023 in an honorable 14^th place. Despite being a top podium contender, problems with her sails caused her to lose positions in the final week of the race. She never gave up and overcame the problems to finish safely in Guadeloupe.

Laure Galley steps down as skipper of the Mini 6.50 and takes the helm of a Figaro Beneteau 3, "DMG MORI ACADEMY" for the 2024 season.

In contrast to the Mini 6.50 boats, where every boat is different, the Figaro Beneteau 3 boats are one design and measure 10.85 m. The strict one design aspect and sail limitation rules keep the level of competition extremely high during the races. It is all about the weather, decision making and the precision of the boat's trim that makes the difference. For Laure Galley it is the logical way to continue in the offshore sailing world.

The 2024 Figaro Beneteau season consists of five major races, the last of which, "La Solitaire du Figaro", is the most important of them all. The famous regatta is a 3-leg race that takes place in late summer. Many successful skippers have taken part in the Solitaire du Figaro.

Laure Galley comments: “With the end of the Mini-Transat, the Mini 6.50 project came to an end for me. These two years have been an amazing adventure along with the DMG MORI Sailing Team. This Mini experience has enhanced my love for sailing, and I am thrilled to be continuing in the Figaro Beneteau 3 class. I am very thankful to DMG MORI for supporting me in this new project and I am looking forward to the first Figaro Beneteau race mid-March.”

Irene Bader, Managing Director DMG MORI Sports Marketing SAS and Member of the Board at DMG MORI says: "It makes us very proud to see the ambition, technological affinity and resilience of Laure Galley and our young talents from the DMG MORI Sailing Academy. From the outset, our aim has been to raise the profile of sailing worldwide and pave the way for the next generation of sailors – and we look forward to seeing how this unique Academy project continues to develop."                                       

New skippers for the Mini 6.50 campaign 

Since its inception in February 2022, the Sailing Academy has grown with its trainees and successfully guided them on their professional path in offshore sailing. With Laure Galley becoming skipper of a Figaro Beneteau 3 and Federico Sampei transferring his acquired skills and knowledge to become a preparator of the IMOCA boat, new skippers will be at the helm of the DMG MORI Sailing Academy Mini 6.50 prototype boats for the 2024 - 2025 season.

DMG MORI Sailing Academy 1 will be skippered by Hajime Kokumai and DMG MORI Sailing Academy 2 will be skippered by Alexandre Demange. Both mini-skippers have been part of the Sailing Academy as co-skippers since 2022, when the young talent program was established. Hajime Kokumai was an Olympic class sailor until 2021, competing for Japan, so his desire to compete in offshore racing was the logical way to become a member of the Academy. Alexandre Demange is a qualified engineer and a top class sailor who has represented France on several occasions during his Olympic career. They will compete in the Mini 6.50 season in 2024 and 2025 with the ultimate goal of racing in the Mini Transat 2025. Three other skippers from Japan will also be joining the DMG MORI Sailing Academy to learn and train in Japan and France.

About the DMG MORI Sailing Team 

Established in 2018, the DMG MORI Sailing Team is a professional offshore racing team based in Lorient, France. The Japanese Skipper Kojiro Shiraishi and the crew successfully mastered the Vendée Globe 2020, which is considered to be the toughest race in the world. With the DMG MORI Sailing Academy, founded in 2022, young talents are empowered to work in offshore sailing and to grow their skills by being part of the DMG MORI Sailing Team.

About DMG MORI 

DMG MORI is a leading global manufacturer of high-precision machine tools and is represented in 43 countries – with 116 sales and service locations, including 17 production plants. In the “Global One Company”, more than 13,000 employees are driving the development of holistic solutions in the manufacturing industry. Our portfolio covers sustainable manufacturing solutions based on the technologies Turning, Milling, Grinding, Boring as well as Ultrasonic, Lasertec and Additive Manufacturing. With technology integration, end-to-end automation and digitization solutions we make it possible to increase productivity and resource efficiency at the same time.