Areva Challenge match race program

The French America's Cup team

During August, the team-members of Areva Challenge will be using their summer break to take part in several match racing events:

August 2-6: International French Match Racing Regatta in Pornichet (Grade 1).
The crew will be Sebastien Col, Christophe André, Gilles Favennec and Teva Plichart.

August 8-14: Danish Open, an event on the World Match Racing Tour (Grade 1).
The crew will be the same as in Pornichet, with the addition of Jean-François Cuzon who comes to reinforce the team.

August 15-20: St. Moritz Match Race, an event on the World Match Racing Tour (Grade 1). The crew will be Sebastien Col, Christophe André, and Jean-François Cuzon.

August 28-September 3: Trieste Match Race (Grade 2). Sailed in 15m boats, there are seven America’s Cup teams invited to participate this year in a regatta that always has a lot of excitement.

The Areva Challenge crew will be Sebastien Col, Thierry Peponnet, Albert Jacobsoone, Gilles Favennec, Frederic Lemaistre, Matt Cornwell or Doogie Couvreux, Olivier Douillard, and Tanguy Cariou.

The goal of the first three regattas will be for Sebastien Col to continue working on his match racing skills as helmsman, a position which he will fill on the Areva Challenge ACC Boat beginning in September.

The team Sebastien Col is taking to Pornichet is the same team he was victorious with in the Marseilles International Match Race. Using the same crew will allow him to begin with a reference point dating back to their victory last March.

12 teams will be present in this match racing regatta, sailed on First Class 8 boats. The opportunity of Sebastien Col will include Philippe Presti, Ian Williams, Mathieu Richard, Damien Iehl and Paolo Cian. Racing begins on Thursday August 3, after a training day on Wednesday.

For the Danish Open, Jean-François Cuzon, member of the Areva Challenge afterguard (navigator) will join the team to reinforce its strength.

Sebastien Col has moved up to third place in the ISAF (International Sailing Federation) match racing rankings. He gained one place and now sits just behind two Australians: Peter Gilmour in first, and James Spithill in second.