A documentary charting the unglamorous, intensely human work of preparing for a blue-water passage is heading to cinema screens across France. Groupe Beneteau's catamaran brand Excess has announced 3000 MILES, a film that follows two families through the weeks before one of offshore sailing's most celebrated events.
That event is the ARC, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, widely regarded as the benchmark transatlantic rally challenge. The film's two central crews are distinct in their backgrounds. A Dutch couple with three children prepare aboard an Excess 11, while a French-South African couple take on the same challenge from the helm of an Excess 14. What connects them is the ocean ahead and the enormous task of getting ready for it.
3000 MILES makes a deliberate choice to begin well before the start line. Filmed over several weeks during the preparation phase, it draws viewers into a world of provisioning decisions, technical problem-solving, and skills training, alongside the quieter emotional work of committing to something genuinely demanding. Doubt and excitement sit side by side. Children must find an unfamiliar rhythm of life afloat. Gradually, across both families, something shifts. The Atlantic stops feeling like an abstraction and starts feeling like a real destination.
The teaser for 3000 MILES will screen across 50 cinemas in France between February and April 2026, as part of the Sailorz Film Festival. Excess has chosen the festival as the venue for this first public unveiling of the film. The complete documentary is scheduled for release in April 2026 across Excess platforms.
Excess was established in September 2019 as a catamaran brand within Groupe Beneteau, with a range that currently spans 11 to 14 metres. The brand's character is rooted in a deliberately unconventional approach to design, combining clean lines with an emphasis on both comfort and performance. As the brand describes its philosophy, this is not about disruption for its own sake, but about embedding a different way of thinking into the design process from the outset. The boats that result are built for sailors who want genuine performance on the water without sacrificing the liveability that makes extended passages possible.
