Discover the Leyton Sailing Team

Giving meaning to performance: A bearer of dreams and adventures, sailing is also one which involve continous innovation and cutting edge technology. By crossing the oceans and seas of the world with our incredible skippers Arthur Le Vaillant (2018-2020) and Sam Goodchild (2019-present), we want to support our clients, employees and partners on their quest for performance and excellence. We also recognise the need for awareness and responsibility and our commitment to this project reflects our desire to come together to conserve our planet and its oceans.

Our Sailing Team

Sam Goodchild, Leyton Sailing Team skipper

33 years old – Skipper

Now a specialist in ocean racing, both multihull and monohull, with a crew or solo, Sam Goodchild has gained a great deal of sailing experience in recent years and has built up a solid background. Skipper at Leyton since 2019, he now sails on board the Ocean Fifty, a challenging and powerful trimaran. This English skipper lived with his family on a boat until the age of 10. He moved to France in 2011 to specialise in ocean racing

Meet Sam

Aymeric Chappelier, Leyton Sailing Team manager

42 years old – Team Manager

Aymeric is the Team Leyton manager. He is an engineer and naval architect, but also an excellent racer. The French sailor made his debut in Mini before moving on to Class40. He then acquired a great deal of experience in the Ocean Fifty and took on the role of crew member for the Pro Sailing Tour and also co-skipper for the Transat Jacques Vabre

The Leyton Sailing Team crew for the 2022 Pro Sailing Tour

A successful team by their side

The Leyton team also has a Team Manager, a logistics manager, a trainer, and several other talented team members for crew sailing, without these people nothing would be possible

Meet the team

The team’s highlights

Our successes

Relive the events that have shaped the Leyton Sailing adventure through the commitment and successes of our Team.

Leyton Finishes 3rd Into Martinique

Sam Goodchild and Aymeric Chapellier on Leyton finished the Transat Jacques Vabre into Fort de France, Martinique. The Anglo-French duo staged a significant comeback after being 283 miles behind the leaders at the Cape Verde islands racing a new course for this 15th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre.

Leyton, winner of the 2021 Pro Sailing Tour

The Leyton Sailing Team has completed the Grand Slam of the first season of the Pro Sailing Tour. After winning the Brest, La Rochelle and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria episodes, Sam and his crew won the Final Rush. A great achievement for our British skipper’s first year in the Ocean50.

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Sustainable Organisations Summit 2021 – Marseille

In July 2021, the 2nd Sustainable Organisations Summit was held in Marseille, France. Over the course of a week, Leyton brought together stakeholders who wanted to discuss various sustainable development issues. It was also an opportunity to receive and reward the winning startups of the Sustainable Innovation Challenge who presented their projects

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Launch of the new Ocean Fifty Leyton

After a long winter in the shipyard and decked out in her new colours, the new Ocean FIfty Leyton was launched in March in La Trinité sur Mer in the company of its skipper, Sam Goodchild and the whole team. The British sailor is taking the helm of the trimaran for this new season, the highlight of which will be the Transat Jacques Vabre this autumn

2019 European tour

We arranged a tour of Europe (England, France, Italy, and Spain) with our Figaro Bénéteau 3 for public relations and client events to highlight the group’s commitment to sustainable projects and ocean preservation.

Route du Rhum 2018

We were delighted with 4th place for Arthur Le Vaillant’s 1st Route du Rhum – what a performance!

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Project engagements

A project consistent with the Group’s commitments

All the actions and activities of the team are consistent with the values of the Leyton Group. That is to say solidarity and excellence, but also the preservation of the environment by using our sailing project as a catalyst for good practices and initiatives focussed on working together to create a more sustainable world.

A project as a catalyst for innovation

The Ocean Fifty Leyton acts as an innovation laboratory by carrying on board flexible organic solar panels developed by the start-up Héole. It also encourages the emergence of innovative projects through the Sustainable Organisations Challenge

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Leyton x The Magenta Project

As part of the group’s commitment to gender equality, the team has teamed up with the Magenta Project, an organisation that promotes the integration of women into the world of competitive sailing, to create a series of training sessions exclusively for women. These courses offer women sailors coastal and offshore sailing with Sam Goodchild and his crew on board the Ocean50, as well as a series of workshops and seminars led by guests from the world of sport

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in the fight against Covid-19.

We asked Leyton Group employees to nominate their friends and family who had gone above and beyond during the Covid-19 crisis. All the nominees will now have a symbolic place on board the Multi50, accompany the Team during their outings at sea, as the 200 employee ‘heroes’ have their names inscribed on the boat’s sails

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Carbon footprint and boat offset

In 2018, for the 1st time in the nautical sector, our energy transition teams wanted to achieve the carbon footprint of our Class40. This was shared with as many people as possible to enable each participant to understand and act in order to reduce the carbon impact of the construction and use of these racing boats. Without this being the purpose of this study, we have chosen to compensate for this impact by planting trees with Reforest’Action.

Our Sailing Partners

We are lucky to have a pool of committed financial and technical partners alongside the team.