History of the Organization
It all began in 1994...

In 1989, Marc Mollo, a designer at Comex company in Marseille and a motorbike fanatic, was knocked over by a car. His spinal cord was fractured, which led to paraplegy. While he was undergoing physical therapy at Renée Sabran hospital, he met Philippe Marin who had also become paraplegic from an accident.
When they left the physical therapy centre, both tried to get back to their daily lives. Philippe Marin discovered wheelchair basketball and Marc Mollo sailing on a 3.60m single-handed keel boat. Then Philippe Marin, who wished to meet people, resumed his studies at the university of cinema (although actually he is into music and plays the djembe drum).
Marc, who was a student at Axe Sud School of Graphic Design, started dreaming of able-bodied and disabled people sailing side by side, which seemed impossible in the nineties.
«As I was convalescing at Sabran Hospital, I witnessed a seriously disabled young man from Italy lose his self-sufficiency. His wheelchair was stopped by a one-centimeter-high step. At that time he felt totally disabled, stuck, dependent. Another man who used a wheelchair, and for whom that step was not much of a problem, came and helped him. The young man from Italy had been coping quite well on his own until he came upon that step.»
«Disability occurs when the environment is not adapted.»
So Marc created Voiles au Large, a non-profit organization, in 1994.

He first met Yves Brayda Brun, a femoral amputee with whom he shares a passion for sailing, when they both sailed in a regatta. They soon planned to buy a boat together. And then, Philippe joined them.

(Mr Basso is an influential figure of the CMV – Centre Municipal de Voile), Marc chose to buy a Gib Sea 106 he made available to the organization. The deck plan of this sailboat is very suitable for paraplegics because it allows them to move about on their buttocks.
The first times the sailors of Voiles au Large put out to sea, Philippe Marin joined them.
Our three sailors with disabilities were taught basic rules by a CMV instructor, then formed a crew and sailed in famous Marseille regattas, such as The SNIM, Massilia or Caducée regattas.
The competitors got used to seeing sailors leaving their wheelchairs on the dock to go and defy bad weather conditions.
Voiles au Large claim the right to take part in all the regattas but their main purpose is to open new horizons to the persons who have become disabled from accidents.
Thanks to the media coverage of events such as Marc, Philippe and Yves sailing across the Atlantic, to the meetings in physical therapy centres and to the sailboat trips on open days, they have been restoring the confidence of children, men and women who thought that, because of their disability, their dreams of freedom would never come true.