The French Step Up
21/02/2003

A new French challenger for the America's Cup...

On Thursday, Frenchman Bertand Pacé prepared to sail his first race in the America’s Cup with Team New Zealand. While the weather thwarted his chances, on Friday the French continued to take the headlines when a new French syndicate, fronted by some well known faces, announced its intention to challenge in the next America’s Cup.

K-Yachting, a French-based, sailing management group, announced the ‘K-Challenge’ for the America’s Cup in Auckland on Friday.

The management group for the team includes American Dawn Riley as sailing team manager, and Stephan Kandler as general manager. Ortwin Kandler, a pioneer of the aircraft industry in Europe (Airbus) is listed as President of Honour.

Among the sailors behind the project, Bruno Dubois and Thierry Peponnet are the big names already on the roster.

The name of the Yacht Club behind the project wasn’t announced. The budget for the K-Challenge is €60-million.

“It will be a mixed, co-ed, international team,” Dawn Riley said. “It will be similar to America True, with the best person for the job…We’re going to be sailing before the end of the year. We’re going to do an open try-out camp in France this summer.”

“I’ve been down here for three months, I’ve been able to meet with a lot of the sailors, a lot of the designers, a lot of the tender boat drivers. So we’ve got a jumpstart on who’s who, and who we want to look at.”

Riley said that there is a design team assembled, but many of them are still on contracts with current teams, so they won’t be declared for several weeks. But she says they intend to begin having design meetings next month.

The French port of Marseilles has officially offered to host the K-Challenge, providing a base and other facilities allowing the team to start sailing before the end of 2003.