NZL60 arrives in Spain

Plus K-Challenge's Thierry Peponnet reviews their crew selection process

K-Challenge has just received its second boat : FRA 60 (ex-NZL 60, winner of the America's Cup in 2000).

The boat has just arrived from New Zealand, and has joined FRA 57 on the K-Challenge base in Gandia, Spain where the work to modify one of the boats to the version 5 of the America's Cup Rule will be undertaken by the design team this winter.

Tests and training will start again in Gandia at the end of February/beginning of March, before the team return to Valencia in June to take part to the Louis Vuitton Act 4.

K-Challenge will also be part of several events over the winter while the sailing development team selected after the tests during the three first Louis Vuitton Acts will be presented at the time of the Paris Boat Show, at the beginning of December.

Thierry Peponnet, K-Challenge’s Skipper, returned from this year's Louis Vuitton Acts 2004 to make an objective analysis on the sailing team selection: "The beginning of the season at the Louis Vuitton Act 1 in Marseille has been busy for our team, as we received the boat very late, the preparation was only six training days, and the first regattas were raced in extreme sailing conditions for IACC boats. But the team got well organised and managed to do well.

"The two training weeks planned in Valencia before the Louis Vuitton Acts 2 & 3 were very important to manage the change of team members on board and to work on the weaknesses identified during the Act 1 :

- Managing the boat during the starts; coordination between the helmsman and the trimmers when the boat stops and starts again, timing before the start, afterguard’s internal communication, communication between the helmsman and the bow man, etc…
- Driving of the boat: operations on the boat, mainsail, genoa, trim tab adjustments optimisation for a better balance at helm.
- Manoeuvres: decision process in the afterguard, timings, team member coordination, laylines, etc…
- Tactics: distribution of the roles, information circulation, clearness in the decision-making.
- Logistics: management of the unforeseen events on the water, boat maintenance, damage limitation.

"35 team members have been tested during those three Acts, and the mixing of the French and Anglo-Saxon cultures has been very successful. K-Challenge was first seen as an outsider from the 'second division', but I feel that we have quickly won the respect from our competitors : K-Challenge has become a challenger that the big teams have to be careful of.

Our goal for 2005: manage our rise to the first division successfully…”