MultiCup future

Program for 2007 to be announced at Fecamps Grand Prix

Multi Cup season 2006 still has two Grand Prix left to run, the first in Portimao, Portugal and then at Fécamp, before an evaluation of the first season of the new format of the Multihull Championship is made.

At present the 2007 season looks as follows: Two ocean races and a minimum of four Grand Prix will take place between April and September 2007. The program will remain in Europe and the final dates will be revealed at the Port de Fécamp Grand Prix on 7-10 September.

The 2006 Multi Cup season has aimed at opening up the circuit to the public and increasing media visibility. The skippers their teams, the owners, the cities and the partners, the main sponsor and the official timekeeper tasked the organisation with trying to achieve these objectives.

Todate media coverage includes over 550 clippings, 17% made abroad. The MultiCup website has had 500 000 page views, 1 in 4 coming from abroad and 65 000 unique users).

Gabriel Brack, President of Multi Cup SAS says: "These first months of competition are promising a nice future. I want to thank our main sponsor Cafe Ambassador and our official timekeeper Jaeger LeCoultre for their support on this first year."

In order develop further from these first months, the Multi Cup team has taken on the additional support of Hervé Le Quilliec, who will be in charge of preparing the 2007 and 2008 calendars.

Over 10 years Le Quilliec has worked at the highest level running the shore side of campaigns such as Club Med for The Race, Nautor Challenge on the 2001-2 Volvo Ocean Race and Brasil 1 in 2005/2006.

Jean-Pierre Champion, President of the French Sailing Federation said: "I'm delighted to see that the Multi Cup keeps its promises. The ocean race from London to the Alpes-Maritimes and the first three Grand Prix have been real success, each in their own way. The incentive provided by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild has been a determining factor and finally opens new horizons to this 'ecological Formula 1'. Therefore I have good reason to think that the end of 2006 and 2007 will be able to enhance this beautifull circuit. That's what I profoundly hope."

Senateur d'Ali, who allowed the Multi Cup to come to Italy, is very enthousiastic regarding the event : "The public eagerly enjoyed one of the Acts of the America's Cup in Trapani, in Sicily in 2005 and furthered this with the Trapani Grand Prix at the beginning of June this year. The multihulls were berthed at the same quay as the boats during the Cup in 2005 and the public again turned out en masse. It was a wonderful show on the water and in the port. The only thing we wish is to see these boats come back next year, and even more of them."

Finally, one of the developments of the MultiCup fleet is its internationalisation: "The choice of the Multicup to visit London in their 2006 calendar was a good one in terms of beginning the process of explaining the multihull world to the UK audience. If the fleet comes to the UK in 2007, I sincerely hope there can be English sailors involved, and maybe even an English boat, as without it it is hard to engage the British public," explains OC Groups' Mark Turner.