Aleph Sailing Team joins RC44s

Second new team set to race in Austria

The 2011 RC44 Championship Tour moves to Lake Traunsee in Austria on 10 May, where a second new team will join the Tour.

The French Aleph Sailing Team owned by Hugues Lepic, will make their RC44 debut at the RC44 Austria Cup, the second event of the season, having purchased the RC44 formerly known as 17. The boat has a good pedigree finishing third overall in the 2010 Tour and winning the 2010 World Championships in Lanzarote, under the guidance of America’s Cup winning helmsman James Spithill.

Lepic, head of the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in Europe is looking forward to the challenge ahead. “The RC44 circuit combines very high level match racing with owner-driver fleet racing. The boat is fast and technically interesting; the class is dynamic and the racing very challenging.”

The team’s pro skipper and match racing helm for the season will be World Match Racing Tour runner-up, Mathieu Richard and a number of his WMRT crew-members. The full crew are all French nationals. “Our team combines strong match racing experience through Mathieu and his team with good one-design fleet racing experience. Austria will be an interesting event to benchmark ourselves against more experienced teams in the circuit,” said Lepic after the new team spent time pre-event training in Cogolin, France.

Aleph Sailing Team crew list:

Hugues Lepic (FRA)– Owner / Helmsman
Mathieu Richard (FRA) – Match Racing Helm/Tactician
Greg Evrard (FRA)– Main trimmer
Thierry Briend (FRA)– Jib and Spinnaker Trimmer
Yannick Simon (FRA) - Bow
Olivier Herledant (FRA) - Pit
Nicolas Dore (FRA)- Floater
Jean Baptiste Marcon (FRA)– Grinder
Xavier Leroy (FRA)- Grinder
Axel Trehin (FRA) - 8th man in match racing