Acts 2 and 3 - meet the teams

We look at the eight campaigns that will sail the America's Cup latest series in Valencia

K-CHALLENGE

Yacht Club: Cercle de la Voile de Paris
Country: France
Syndicate Established: 2002
Sail Numbers: FRA 57
Syndicate Head: Stephan Kandler
Skipper: Thierry Peponnet
Afterguard: Sebastian Col, Simon Fisher, Nicolas Charbonnier
2007 Design Team: Dimitri Nicolopoulos, Bernard Nivelt , Guillaume Verdier

The K-Challenge was born in 2002, before the previous edition of the America’s Cup had even started, when two businessmen, Ortwin Kandler and Stephan Kandler, started the project with sailor Dawn Riley. K-Challenge is a multicultural and multitalented team determined to capture the America’s Cup and take it to France.

To that end, the team has secured the winning boats and designs from the 2000 America’s Cup from Team New Zealand. K-Challenge has bought NZL-57, and leased the Cup-winning NZL-60, to jump start its campaign.

In addition, the team has acquired all of the intellectual property and design technology from the 2000-generation Team New Zealand campaign, giving it insight to an America’s Cup winning design.

Skipper Thierry Peponnet has the experience of two previous America’s Cup campaigns under his belt, and won a Gold Medal in the 1988 and a Bronze Medal in 1984 Olympic Games. He has over 10 years of international level match racing to his credit, along with numerous big boat championships.

K-Challenge can also rely on the vast experience of Team General Manager Dawn Riley, who won the America’s Cup in 1992 as part of the America³ team, and was heavily involved with American teams in 1995 and 2000. Riley has also competed in two Whitbread Round the World Races.

K-Challenge finished in fifth place at Act One in Marseille.


Le Defi

Yacht Club: Union Nationale pour la Course au Large
Country: France
Syndicate Established: 1996
Sail Numbers: FRA 69, FRA 79
Syndicate Head: Luc Gellusseau
Skipper: Phillipe Presti
2007 Design Team: Yaka Design Team
Afterguard: Philippe Mourniac, Pierre Mas

Le Defi are preparing for their third consecutive America’s Cup competition in 2007. Founded in 1996, Le Defi qualified for the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals in 1999, with a well campaigned, one-boat programme. But Le Defi was eliminated at the Quarter Final stage from the most recent Louis Vuitton Cup in 2002, after funding issues reduced its preparation time.

Xavier de Lesquen, Pierre Mas and Luc Gellusseau are the three principals of Le Defi. The trio have guided France’s America’s Cup hopes for the last two events. Phillipe Presti has two Olympic campaigns behind him, in the Finn class in 1996 and the Soling in 2000. He is also one of France’s most respected Star sailors.

Members of the team have been competing on the match racing tour to keep their skills sharp and much of the Le Defi team has been working from its technical base in Lorient since the conclusion of the last campaign.

One advantage Le Defi holds over many other teams is that both of its boats are from the same mould, allowing for a rigid testing programme. The team is currently committed to sailing in the first three Acts of the 32nd America’s Cup, with a full challenge planned when complete funding is in place.

Le Defi finished in fourth place at the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act.

+ 39
Yacht Club: Circolo Vela Gargnano
Country: Italy (ITA)
Syndicate Established: 2004
Sail Numbers: ITA 59
Syndicate Head: Lorenzo Rizzardi
Skipper: Luca Devoti
Designer: Giovanni Ceccarelli
Afterguard: Iain Percy (Helmsman)

The Italian +39, (formerly the Clan Des Team), through the Circolo Vela Gargnano (CVG) was the first challenger to join the Oracle BMW Racing team in challenging Alinghi for the 32nd America’s Cup. The Defending yacht club, the Société Nautique de Genève, accepted the challenge from the CVG on the 25th March, 2004. Lorenzo Rizzardi is President of the challenging yacht club and Head of Syndicate for +39.

While +39 is a new player on the America’s Cup stage, it has plenty of experience in international yachting. The leaders of this team on the water are rivals from the Finn class in the 2000 Olympic Games. +39 skipper Luca Devoti earned a silver medal behind gold medalist Iain Percy of Great Britain in Sydney, but the two have joined forces here.

Other world champions to join + 39: the Frenchman Xavier Rohart, Star Class world champion in 2003 and Bronze medallist at the Olympics in Athens; Spaniard Rafael Trujillo, second in the Finn world championship in 2003, Andrew (Bart) Simpson, third at the Finn world championship in 2003 and from France Pascal Rambeau, Star world champion in 2003. The wisdom of putting so many Olympic sailors on an America's Cup Class boat remains to be seen.

Giovanni Ceccarelli, will be the designer for the team. He designed Mascalzone Latino for one of the two Italian challengers in 2002/2003. Ceccarelli will have a team composed of both Italian and International design experts and he will count utilise the experience of Prof. Giovanni Lombardi, a teacher of aerospace engineering at the University of Pisa.

+39 have acquired the 1999 boat formerly known as Be Happy that was much modified after it was acquired by Alinghi prior to the last Cup as a training platform. +39 didn’t sail in the first Louis Vuitton Act in Marseille as much of their crew was involved in the Olympics. Acts 2 and 3 will be their debut as an America’s Cup challenger.


LUNA ROSSA
Yacht Club: Yacht Club Italiano
Country: Italy
Syndicate Established: 1997
Sail Numbers: ITA-74, ITA-80
Syndicate Head / Skipper: Francesco de Angelis
Helmsman: James Spithill
Syndicate Designer: Bruce Nelson

Luna Rossa is a continuation of Patricio Bertelli's former Prada team that first entered the America's Cup arena in the 1999 Louis Vuitton Cup. That first effort was very successful, and on 6 February 2000, the swift, sleek and stylish Luna Rossa boat, skippered by Francesco de Angelis, crossed the finish line ahead of AmericaOne in the ninth and final race, to win the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series and the right to race Team New Zealand for the America's Cup.

But in the America's Cup Match, the Italian team was overpowered by the strong Kiwi defence. De Angelis and his squad were swept aside by Team New Zealand. Immediately following the final race, the Yacht Club Punta Ala, which the team represented at that time, became the Challenger of Record for the 2003 America's Cup.

The 2002-2003 campaign was not as successful compared with the first effort. Early in the Louis Vuitton Cup the team felt its boats were too slow, and made major modifications. But it was in vain, and Luna Rossa was eliminated in the Semi Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis proved his America's Cup mettle in the first campaign in the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup Final. Trailing AmericaOne 4-3, de Angelis won the final two races of that thrilling nine-race series to claim the Louis Vuitton Cup. His determination, skill, and modest demeanour made him an instant hero in New Zealand, and at home in Italy. He is a five time world champion across three different boat classes.

Although the Luna Rossa team didn't make its challenge official until August, 2004, it was the first team to set up a base in Valencia, and trained there for over three months in the spring and early summer of 2004. Luna Rossa will make its debut in Acts 2 and 3 in Valencia in October 2004. Earlier this year the team recruited a number of key personnel from the former OneWorld challenge including the McKee brother, helmsman James Spithill and Spithill's loyal lieutenants Ben Durham, Joey Newton and Andy Fethers.


EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND
Yacht Club: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
Country: New Zealand
Syndicate Established: 1993
Sail Numbers: NZL 81, NZL 82
Syndicate Head: Grant Dalton
Skipper: Dean Barker
2007 Design Team: Emirates Team New Zealand / Andy Claughton coordinator

New Zealand has a relatively long history in the modern era of the America’s Cup. But while the country began competing for the Cup in 1986/1987, the current Emirates Team New Zealand can trace its roots back directly to the winning challenge in 1995.

Learning from earlier efforts, the 1995 Team New Zealand, led by Kiwi round the world racing legend Sir Peter Blake, ran one of the strongest campaigns in the long history of the America’s Cup. This team relied on Blake’s leadership, design-guru Tom Schnackenberg’s brilliant design team and the steady hand of Russell Coutts on the helm to dominate the rest of the challengers, and sweep the America’s Cup Match 5-0. It was an overpowering display of how to do everything right.

For the first defence of the Cup in Auckland in 2000, Team New Zealand was again far too powerful a team for its opponents. While the Italian Prada challenge appeared strong, they were no match for Team New Zealand. Skipper Russell Coutts won the first four matches before handing the wheel over to his understudy, a 24-year old Dean Barker, who completed the sweep. With Barker representing a new generation, Team New Zealand looked to be secure for years to come.

But shortly after the successful defence, Russell Coutts, along with many others, left Team New Zealand for a new challenge with Alinghi. Barker, now skipper, was also thrust into a management role, as was designer Tom Schnackenberg. Perhaps to compensate for what was suddenly a young and relatively inexperienced sailing team, the Kiwis gambled on a radical new hull design and came up with the 'hula appendage'.

The result was a disappointment. Team New Zealand had to withdraw from the first race due to equipment failures. It suffered a heartbreaking loss in a close second race, and then broke its mast in the fourth contest. Alinghi, with Coutts at the helm, swept Team New Zealand 5-0 to take the Cup to Europe.

The re-born Emirates Team New Zealand, has many parallels with the 1995 team. Once again, a strong leader from the world of offshore sailing, Grant Dalton, has come in to lead the team. The Kiwis can boast some of the strongest sailors and yacht designers in the world, and will come into the 32nd America’s Cup motivated to prove they are a world class sailing team. Aside from Barker and Dalton, their afterguard now includes Laser and Finn Gold medallist Ben Ainslie and American Terry Hutchinson, most recently tactician on the Farr 40 World Champion, Barking Mad.

Emirates Team New Zealand finished third in Marseille.


TEAM SHOSHOLOZA - SOUTH AFRICAN AMERICA’S CUP CHALLENGE
Yacht Club: Royal Cape Yacht Club
Country: Republic of South Africa
Syndicate Established: 2003
Sail Numbers: RSA 48
Syndicate Head: Captain Salvatore Sarno
Skipper: Geoff Meek
2007 Design Team Leader: Jason Ker

The South African Challenge was formed in Cape Town by Captain Salvatore Sarno, Chairman of the Durban-based branch of the Mediterranean Shipping Company, with the goal of bringing the America’s Cup to Africa. This is the first time an African America’s Cup challenge has been accepted.

The sailing team is proudly South African, and Shosholoza is planning to recruit sailors from the local area, including a number of graduates from the Izivunguvungu MSC Foundation for Youth sail training school, in Simonstown, just up the coast from Cape Town. The school will be used as a filter system for the development team for the Challenge.

The team name, Shosholoza, is a word with roots deep in South African culture. It is a worksong with a long history with mine workers, and others engaged in hard, physical labour. As a word, it is understood to mean, ‘go forward’ or ‘make way’, an appropriate sentiment for an America’s Cup team. The song was used to great effect by the home South African crowd in the 1995 Rugby World Cup that was won by the South African team over New Zealand (the Kiwis had a better year on the water, winning the America’s Cup for the first time that same year).

Skipper Geoff Meek is generally acknowledged as one of South Africa’s best yachtsmen, and has claimed victory in international events like the Fastnet Race, the Sydney to Hobart, the Sardinia Cup and the Southern Cross Cup, among others. He is supported by former GBR Challenge helm Andy Green, as well as Sailing Manager Paul Standbridge, who brings his experience from the 2003 GBR Challenge for the America’s Cup.

The Shosholoza Challenge has already been working for several months from its base in Cape Town. It has purchased one of Prada’s 2000-generation America’s Cup Class boat, and has been training off Cape Town.

Shosholoza raced for the first time in Marseille and finished in sixth position.


TEAM ALINGHI
32nd America’s Cup Defender

Defending Yacht Club: Société Nautique de Genève
Country: Switzerland (SUI)
Syndicate Established: 2000
Sail Numbers: SUI 64, SUI 75
Boat Names: Alinghi
Syndicate Head: Ernesto Bertarelli
Skipper / Helmsman: Jochen Schuemann, Peter Holmberg
Designers: Rolf Vrolijk, Michael Richelson and Manuel Ruiz de Elvira and the Alinghi design team
Afterguard: Brad Butterworth, Murray Jones, Juan Vila, Jordi Calafat

Team Alinghi was formed in the summer of 2000 and charged with the ambitious task of winning the America's Cup. On 2 March 2003, this mission was remarkably accomplished with Alinghi beating Team New Zealand to win the 31st America's Cup 5-0. With this victory, Alinghi brings the America's Cup to Europe for the first time in 152 years.

Team Alinghi is an international sailing team based in Switzerland. It carries the colours of the yacht club, Société Nautique de Genève. Team Alinghi's vision is to "win the 32nd America's Cup, earn respect and recognition as a world class sports team, while sharing its passion for sailing."

Ernesto Bertarelli, CEO of Serono Intl. SA, is the principal behind Alinghi, as well as an integral part of the sailing team, serving as navigator.

Renowned America's Cup veteran Grant Simmer is Team General Manager and also oversees the Design Team. The sailing team is led by Olympic legend Jochen Schuemann. As Sports Director of Alinghi, Schuemann can count on many top sailors including Brad Butterworth and Peter Holmberg, to name just a few of the outstanding members of Team Alinghi. With the much flaunted departure of Russell Coutts, who led the team for his third America's Cup victory in 2003, Peter Holmberg has now taken over the helm while Butterworth is filling Coutts' shoes from a management, team leadership standpoint.

Alinghi earned a second place finish in the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act.

BMW ORACLE RACING
32nd America’s Cup Challenger of Record

Yacht Club: Golden Gate Yacht Club
Country: USA
Syndicate Established: 2000
Sail Numbers: USA 76, USA 71
Syndicate head: Larry Ellison
CEO and Skipper: Chris Dickson
Helmsman: Gavin Brady
Designer: BMW Oracle Racing Design Team
Afterguard: Larry Ellison, Steve Hayles, John Kostecki, Bertrand Pacé

The BMW Oracle Racing Team is an international team comprised of people from 15 different nations all focused on one goal: to win the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007. Blending technology and team work, BMW Oracle Racing is striving to close the gap on the America’s Cup Defender.

Formed in the spring of 2000 by Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of leading global software company Oracle Corporation, the team then known as Oracle BMW Racing, had a strong performance in 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand, advancing to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, before bowing out to Alinghi, the eventual America’s Cup winner. The result was all the more remarkable for the numerous key leaders changes to the sailing team, including Peter Holmberg and Paul Cayard over the course of their campaign.

Chris Dickson, who has sailed with Ellison throughout many big-boat campaigns, was eventually installed as skipper, and put in charge of the sailing programme after the team suffered a disappointing string of losses in the early rounds. It was Dickson who then led the team to 11 consecutive victories and onto the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. For the 32nd America’s Cup, Dickson has been put in charge of all aspects of the team from Day One, a move that should make the BMW Oracle Racing squad tough to beat.

As Challenger of Record, the BMW Oracle Racing team will work with Team Alinghi on developing the new era of the event in Europe, and Ellison has ensured the team will be in a strong position to challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup. Aside from being Challenge of Record, the team are the only one to have maintained an active training since the last Louis Vuitton Challenger series.

The race crew has been developing over the past year and now features an extremely talented and experienced afterguard that works well together. In addition to Dickson and Ellison, New Zealander Gavin Brady is at the helm with American Volvo Ocean Race winner John Kostecki calling tactics, British navigator Steve Hayles and Bertrand Pacé also in the afterguard and training helmsman. The international crew, a mix of previous America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winners and other champions, is motivated and focused on 2007.

BMW Oracle Racing won the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act.