K Challenge crew announced

Match racing star joins French Cup team

K-Challenge, French challenger, is proud to announce its design team and its sailing teams for Acts 1-3 of the 32nd America’s Cup

For Act 1 at the core of the sailing team will be Sebastien Col (three French Match Racing champion titles, America’s Cup in 2003, France, Italy and USA champion titles in Melges 24 in 2003 and World runner up in 2002) will be Tactician with Thierry Peponnet at the helm.

"Being part of the K-Challenge is a unique opportunity for me to increase the experience I had during the 2003 America’s Cup," says Col. "Thierry Peponnet’s personality was a very important factor in my choice: he’s very open, determined and his experience is very large, which are, in my opinion, are required qualities to manage this team.

"K-Challenge showed very early its motivation and how determined it was to be part of the 2007 America’s Cup; it has presented interesting plans since the beginning of the campaign. The road is still long to the Cup, and I hope I will also bring a lot to K-Challenge."

Col will be joined by other experienced French sailors: Benoit Briand (three America’s Cup with the French) and Albert Jacobsoone (who has taken part in every America’s Cup campaign since 1983 with French teams then Prada in 2003).

On board, will also be Nicolas Charbonnier in the afterguard (five World and two European titles with 420 and 470 dinghies), Olivier Douillard (several titles in multihullls, America’s Cup in 2003, part of the French Olympic team from 1995 to 2000) and Frederic Brousse (America’s Cup in 2003 and 2000, five multihulls campaigns and participation in The Race, former professional rugby player).

Finally, several international crew members (men and women and English, Swedish, American, Swiss, Danish and New Zealand) as Mikkel Rossberg (who was part of the Swedish Victory Challenge in 2003), Paul Murray, Meg Gaillard, Sean 'Doogie' Couvreux, Peter Merrington and Justin Slattery, will join the team, according to an established programme for the three Acts by Thierry Peponnet and Dawn Riley.

The idea is to test a maximum number of crew during the first three Louis Vuitton Acts and give the opportunity to all to show what they are able to do, with the goal to win their place in the team through 2007.

Thierry Peponnet, double Olympic medallist, K-Challenge Skipper and Helmsman, explains the reasons behind these choices: "Through the selection of crew members, I wanted to gather a motivated and unified team of people from different sailing backgrounds; offshore sailing, multihulls, monohulls, and Olympic dinghies. I wanted to help mixing the French and other cultures for a general improvement.

"I expect from each of us a personal investment in the group, on the physical side as well as on the technical one. Only one question must be in everybody’s mind: 'what can I do more so that the team is stronger to make the boat faster and yet keeping the pleasure there still."

The design team is moving forward with Bernard Nivelt joining the team as Principal Designer. Bernard has the experience of victory in the America’s Cup, as he won it with the American team, Stars & Stripes with Dennis Conner.

Nivelt sums up what has mainly motivated him to join the K-Challenge team: "The team is formed of both young and older international talents who are very motivated and prepared to invest in what will be a difficult fight. We have a technical package which includes our recent acquisition of two boats which saw victory in 2000."

This design team is presented by Dimitri Nicolopoulos, K-Challenge Design Team Coordinator: "The core ideas that were applied to the creation of the K-Challenge design team are talent, open mindness and taking pleasure in what we do. We obviously need talent to develop an America’s Cup Class boat, so an open mind is critical to make sure sailors and designers work together to develop a good boat. Furthermore, enjoyment is key to the team cohesion and efficiency and thus to the best development. I am confident that we gathered a team that mixes experience with people like Bernard Nivelt who already won the Cup, Jacques Fauroux, young talents with Sandrine Lescaudron (VPP) and Guillaume Verdier (designer), experienced again through North Sails and Bruno Dubois, responsible for that part of the programme, industrial rigor with MCube and highly talented and open eyes from Gilles Ollier Design Team at Multiplast who have not only built five ACC boats but designed a string of highly successful large multihulls."

Next step comes at the end of August in Marseilles for the arrival of FRA57, the first K-Challenge boat with which the team will train from 30 August to 4 September.

The boat will be christened on 3 September a t an official ceremony, which will take place in the Vieux Port in Marseilles, before taking the start of the Louis Vuitton Act 1 on 5 September.