K-Challenge announce design team

Some old faces return for the French campaign for the 34th America's Cup

After having presented on March 27 its key sailing team members and its program, K-Challenge continues its preparation for the 34th America's Cup with the announcement of the key members of its Design Team.

In the heart of the Design Team are once again both Dimitri Nicolopoulos, Technical Director and member of the Executive Committee, and Bernard Nivelt, Principal Architect, who were already part of the last K-Challenge campaign for the 32nd America's Cup.

In addition to Nivelt and Nicolopoulos, Alan Cattelliot, Aero- and Hydro-dynamics Engineer, (who worked for several years at Multiplast in particular), will join K-Challenge to reinforce the Design Team. Cattelliot will be in charge of the work on the hydrodynamics and VPP..

"The last campaign was for us the opportunity to create a strong and powerful team. Besides some of us were recruited by teams for the 33rd America's Cup," explains Nicolopoulos. "Today, the legal process and the implied delay for the 34th America's Cup gives us the means to start it all again with the same core team, and to prepare the basics efficiently.

"Stephan Kandler understood that it is of a primary importance to invest in the design methods now, as it allows us to get ahead and to take the lead. Sebastien Col also completely agrees with this method and works on the gathering of a sailing team which will be capable of developing the team's boats.

"Last but not least, Sebastien Josse, although he does not come from the match racing world, proved that he was able to manage a group of young and multinational sailors during the last Volvo Ocean Race. Lots of them were eventually recruited by America's Cup's teams."

Sebastien Col continues: "What I really like is the concept of continuity for the Design Team. The experience we've had with Dimitri and Bernard makes it possible to start again on common ground. My role will be to set up for them a group of sailors able to work with the Design Team via key positions on board (in particular with sailors who are good technicians in the development of boats within measurement rules). My programme also goes in this direction this year: I am taking part on several circuits with measurement rules (RC 44, GP42 and TP52) like the ACC boat rules. The goal is to meet people who would be a true benefit for the K-Challenge project. Personally, this way, I will learn how to develop boats."

Over the next months, the Design Team's work will be primarily focussed upon the choice of the tools and methods. It is critical to have optimum simulation software and tests facilities in order to be able to get the team at work as soon as the rule is fine tuned within the framework of the Protocol of the 34th America's Cup.

This core Design Team will concentrate on the resolution of technical problems for sailing boats like AC90/TP52/GP42, i.e, the treatment of interactions between appendages and the surface.

Nicolopoulos adds: "Trying to optimise a hull for current AC90 rules would be a waste of time so far, as key parameters (i.e, the weight) will probably change, having major implications on the hull. Today we have been able to think back to the 32nd AC, and we also exchanged views with the other teams about the organisation, strengths and weaknesses of each team. I personally had a very interesting experience for six months with the German team. It appeared that if our general method was correct, we could usefully reinforce ourselves in some technical areas. And finally, for us the postponement of the America's Cup is not a bad thing. It will make it possible to prepare ourselves, and those which who start early will be at an advantage. In particular, we have to take into account a new rule which will reset the counters to zero. It is an exciting challenge which I am happy to take up."

This point of view is shared by Bernard Nivelt. "Stephan has allowed us to continue the work undertaken for 6 months with the German team: we had the occasion to use several tools for simulation and to evaluate their strengths and their weaknesses. The extra time generated by the 33rd America's Cup could be profitable to sharpen our tools and to use the accumulated experience as much as possible.
To overcome the difficulties and to make the good decisions looking at the difficult choices which characterize this kind of challenge, the technique is not enough; the complicity of a core team is capital, and going for it again with people whom we appreciate and whom we have been able to judge under pressure, is an additional asset."

The design team's programme and integration of K-Challenge's sponsors' know-how will be take place over several major stages:

2008: development of methods and tools
2009-2010: drawing and construction of the new boat
2010-2011: development of the boat and racing

In the short term, the choice of the software tools and the development methods in the hydrodynamic field and the VPP software will be the priority.In the medium term, the core team will be reinforced gradually to include approximately 17 people when it gets up to full speed. The team will also be able to integrate - as they did in the past - the know-how and energies of its sponsors which, beyond their financial support, can actively contribute to this process.

Stephan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, concludes: "With the renewal of the boat rules the design will be more important than ever . It was one of our strengths during the last campaign, and the possibility of working again with the key members of this team, who moreover got a significant experience in AC90 rules, is a real asset for our team in the future. We will also be able to capitalise on the methods and the tools which we had set up for the last America's Cup, without forgetting what is the main strength of our future campaign: a very strong desire to work again together to succeed. I am delighted to welcome Bernard, Dimitri and Alan who will be those which will give the inspiration to this 'new' Design Team, which will be reinforced with new members, and to work with a core sailing team over the course of its recruitment. It is a new important stage for this campaign, which will enable us to take the lead in this vital field."