French star to join iShares Cup

Former Tornado Olympic sailor and ORMA 60 skipper Fredn le Peutrec to compete at Hyeres

Fred Le Peutrec is to join the iShares Extreme 40 team as their local celebrity sailor at the forthcoming iShares Cup event in Hyères, France over 13-15 June.

The Frenchman from Vannes, Brittany, will be at the second fixture of the 2008 iShares Cup calendar sailing with British skipper Hugh Styles, boat captain Hugh Fletcher, 19-year-old bowman Adam Piggott and Dutch trimmer, Gerhard Van Geest on the iShares boat.

The Frenchman who most recently has been part of Franck Cammas' Groupama 3 crew is eagerly anticipating his first experience on board the Extreme 40s and racing in front of a home crowd: "It will be great to compete as part of the iShares team, especially at home in France. I'm sure we'll get a lot of support and I am really looking forward to experiencing these amazing boats after all I've heard about them."

Raised in the Olympic school, Fred has a wealth of sailing experience, which includes an 11 year stint as helmsman for the French Tornado sailing team. During this period, he picked up sixth place at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, third and fourth places at the 1992 and 1998 World Championships respectively and captured the Tornado French Championships title four times.

One of the finest helmsmen around, Fred is a renowned and talented tactician with many offshore campaigns to his name. He enjoyed victory in The Race with Grant Dalton aboard Club Med as helmsman in 2001 and was then selected to skipper the ORMA 60 trimaran Bayer CropScience from 2002-2003.

He went on to skipper the 60ft trimaran Gitana 11 to three victories between 2004 and 2006 and finished second in the ORMA World championships and the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2005.

Most recently, in 2007, Fred was helmsman of the 105ft trimaran Groupama 3 on their Jules Verne round the world attempt, as well as on their successful attempt on the outright west to east transatlantic record.

iShares Skipper, Hugh Styles added, "To have Fred taking part in the iShares Cup with us is fantastic. I've known him for years, he's a high calibre sailor and will fit in really well with our crew. Hopefully he'll have some good local knowledge too which will give us an added advantage, not to mention the local support he will no doubt attract."