Superyacht TARA arrives in Paris

November 26, 2012

Sailing yacht Tara is currently visiting Paris in order to attend a number of forums as well as networks to promote solutions and marine policies needed to ensure a future for our blue planet. The 36-metre superyacht Tara is a breathtaking explorer, constructed by the French builder, Societe Francaise De Construction Naval (SFCN), in 1989 under the name ‘Antarctica’.

Expedition yacht Tara anchored at the Pont Alexandre III in Paris - Photo credit: J. Girardot / Sea & Co

In recent years, Tara Expeditions has been invited to national and international policy meetings concerning the ocean, for example “Le Grenelle de la Mer” in France, or the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development organized by the UN.

Aiming to bring together as many interested parties as possible, Tiara Expeditions are proposing a series of debates, meetings, and film projections on these specific issues.

Expedition yacht Tara and the exhibition in Paris - Photo credit: J. Girardot / Sea and Co

MEETINGS and DEBATES

– The series begins on November 27 at 18:30 with the meeting:
“Towards a ‘Blue Society’: The ocean at the heart of sustainable development” attended by: Philippe Valette (director of Nausicaa), Catherine Chabaud (sailor, member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council), Ludovic Frère-Escoffier (Sea for Society).

– Then December 11 at 18:30
“The potential of bio-marine resources in a sustainable economy of the sea”.

– January 8 at 18:30
“The integrated management of water: pollution, plastic and impact on ocean health and coastal areas” with Green Cross (The Surfrider Foundation) and also Serge Orru, Bruno du Montet and Nicolas Imbert.

– January 15 at 18:30
“Climate change, geopolitics and management of the Arctic high seas”.

– January 18 at 18:30: High Seas an evening debate, co-hosted with IDDRI.

Superyacht Tara docked next to the Pont Alexandre III - Photo credit: J. Girardot / Sea and Co

FILM PROJECTIONS

– December 6 at 18:30
“Tara Oceans, the Secret World” (with film director Michael Pitiot). Viewed from the sky, the Earth is blue. But what do we really know about the world’s oceans? What lives there? Attempting to answer these questions, a team of scientists embarked on the superyacht Tara to explore the almost unknown world of plankton and its millions of different organisms. One thing is certain: these oceanic species play a vital role in the life of the planet.

– Friday the 14th of December at 18:30
“Tara, Journey to the Heart of the Climate Machine” (attended by director of Tara Arctic Etienne Bourgois, and coordinator of the Damocles research program Jean Claude Gascard). This film was made in extreme conditions and recounts daily life during this unique expedition. Tara Expeditions discovers how the crew, trapped in the ice aboard expedition yacht Tara, fought a battle against the cold, with endless nights or constant daylight exposure; movements of ice sheets and storms that regularly destroyed equipment; the threat of bears. But beyond this feat, the film shows that the scientific mission has revealed a reality much more alarming than expected for the climate of the planet.

– December 20 at 18:30
“Man on Land” (attended by the director Ariane Michel) At the edge of a frozen sea, a boat approaches land. Strange human silhouettes appear. Ice, stones and animals of Greenland witness from their unchanging world, the passage of scientists who have come for a summer to study them.

– January 17 at 18:30
“Mountains of Silence” (attended by Daniel Buffard, president of the Mountains of Silence Association and Catherine Chabaud). 2005 – a group of deaf people accompanied by sailors and mountain climbers on a forty-day expedition, following in the footsteps of legendary Sir Ernest Shackleton, legendary character in the conquest of the poles, who in 1914, saved his crew from death. Led by the sailor Catherine Chabaud and mountain guide Paul Pellecuer, the group of deaf people set sail aboard Tara yacht from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia, then hike and ski from King Haakoon Bay on the west coast to Stromness on the east coast. Beyond courage and endurance, the film highlights an intimate human adventure: non-deaf people entering the world of the deaf by learning to communicate in sign language.

– January 24 at 18:30
“The last dream of Sir Peter Blake” by Sir Peter Blake, legendary sailor killed in the Amazon, dreamed of going to the Arctic, the realm of the polar bear, threatened by global warming. As a tribute to their captain, former teammates decided to accomplish his last dream by embarking on the legendary polar sailing yacht Tara for a unique expedition.