Since the announcement of the project in February 2023 in Paris, what has happened for the French Challenge?
We had to build everything: we started by buying everything we needed to buy to compete in the America’s Cup. It starts with the design package that we signed with the New Zealanders. We started building the boat, the AC75, in Vannes at Multiplast in April. We ordered our AC40 which should arrive within a week
When will the first AC40 sailings take place?
The AC40 will be delivered in Barcelona and we start sailing right after, around August 20th. We won’t have much time to sail before our first regatta because we have to go to Saint-Tropez for the Sail GP stage and the weekend after, we’re competing in the first competition in Vilanova in AC40 and the weekend -next end, another stage of Sail GP in the south of Italy;
When will the AC75 be delivered?
It takes a year to build the boat so we will sail in April-May 2024.
Without a boat, how do sailors train?
On a simulator which is a full replica of the AC40. It’s the same cockpit, it allows you to view everything, including the body of water. It’s like they’re sailing, except they’re not wet. We also sail in Sail GP so that keeps us busy. Next week, the sailors arrive in Barcelona and re-attack the simulator before spending a few days later in AC40. They will be sailing hard in AC40 at least until the last week of November when the boat leaves for Jeddah for the 2nd event. After Jeddah, there will be a little break where we will have to do simulators again, moths also here in Barcelona. And in December, we will be busy with the Sail GP so we have plenty to do until the end of the year. The schedule is busy.
When do you plan to move to Barcelona?
We set up our base. We bought Volvo Ocean Race “team bases”, including tents 40 meters long and 25 meters wide, we bought 35 containers with all the necessary tools, we still have about thirty containers to arrive . We started all of this with our technical team. This saved us a lot of time. Imagine what it would have cost in time and money to buy a new base, to build all the tools… It would have taken a year to put it all together while there. So we did a great job buying this used base. I have never seen such a large base. Between the design package with Team New Zealand and this base, we pulled off two great moves and that allows us to take a shortcut, we save a lot of time. We have already been in Barcelona for a month, we are 20 people, we will be 50 in the week.
The cyclists “
which will supply the energy needed for the hydraulics on board, have been recruited: on what criteria?
Athletes had to be able to develop power, watts, by pedaling a bicycle for 5 and 20 minutes. We had 15 cyclists, including guys who had good careers but they couldn’t go the distance: they managed to go very fast but not over time. There was also a question of weight so we have very tall guys who come from rowing, some with Olympic medals, and others who are not bad at all. They are all supervised by two sailors, Olivier Herlédant and Timothée Lapauw who will also be “cyclists”. So we have two teams of four, so eight “cyclists” in total. There will be rotations. A new one will arrive, a French sportsman who was very well known at one time. These are guys who necessarily come from the track, we can’t take cyclists who come from the road, they weigh 60 kg and we need 95 kg athletes who hold 500 watts for long minutes.
And if cyclists get seasick…
The 2023 – 2024 program. (Document America’s Cup)
For the America’s Cup for young people and women, where are you at: are the crews already defined?
We have completed the selections. We selected eight among young people and among women. Some are already in 67F, in ET26. We will soon announce a new sponsor who will support young people and women. The budgets are closed to do all the preparation and the competition.
When will young people and women start sailing in AC40s?
They are going to do a simulator week at the beginning of September while we are in Saint-Tropez. In October, they make their first sailings in AC40.
So you have to share the AC40 between the Challenger, the youth and the women…
We rotate. We share the boat. We do the simulator in the morning for a team and navigation in the afternoon and the reverse for young people and women. Our young people and the women will be with the Kiwis in the first to sail in AC40: there, we will be ahead.
The regulations authorize you to modify the AC40: when do you intend to make these modifications?
that, we will tell you later. We compete in the first AC40 regattas in September and early December, so we keep the boat in its configuration. We will modify it at the beginning of next year.
All the other challenges are already sailing in Barcelona…
When you see the other teams going out sailing here in Barcelona, it makes you want to, but that’s how it is: we started afterwards, we got the money afterwards. It’s like that when you are dependent on a sponsor and not on a private investor who puts money in at the beginning but we are not going to complain because we have very good sponsors who allow us to progress very well .
The America’s Cup is about time and money: you have the money but you are still running after time?
At the level of the AC75, the schedule is not tight, we will launch our boat at the same time as the others. I hope we’ll get a good result with a boat which, in my opinion, is super good, which is a step ahead. The Kiwis have always been a little ahead, you can see it in their way of sailing and working. Afterwards, I can spend my days whipping myself because it’s a French specialty, but I can’t do anything. Here, it’s “first come, first served”. We will be delivered last. We tried to change with the Swiss but the answer was no right away. Normal, it’s a competition.
You say that New Zealanders are still a notch above: why?
It’s my opinion. But you can’t see the other boats, the Kiwis are the only ones really sailing in modified AC75s. The Swiss are sailing on the old Kiwi boat which has been modified very little. The Americans no longer sail AC75s, they only do AC40s in two-boat training. The English from Ineos and the Italians from Luna Rossa sail with their LEQ 12 (Editor’s note: test boat of 12 meters maximum), they are therefore still in the development phase for their AC75. When I see the way New Zealanders are organized, you can see that things are going very well. They are quite impressive on the water.
What are your strengths?
Compared to some teams, we are already sailing with our crew in Sail GP. We are three teams in this case, the English, the New Zealanders and us. We have this advantage, we work on the data, on the performance, on the flight. We start on the same basis as Team New Zealand and unless they have completely screwed up… They are already in the optimization of optimization.
If we summarize, it is AC40, then AC40 modified and AC75?
Yes, we will be sailing for six months in AC40 One Design, then we will have four months in modified AC40, therefore in LEQ12. This means that we will modify certain things in order to be able to get closer and closer to the AC75. In one year, if we combine that with regattas every month and the Sail GP, I sincerely think that we have a technical and sporting program that looks like something. Without forgetting that we have a budget that is well beyond what we have never had in France. I am satisfied with the way things are progressing. Afterwards, of course I would have liked to be able to buy the prototype from Team New Zealand, it was a wish but we didn’t have the money at that time and the boat left. We cannot go back.
One year from the event, can we say that the French Challenge is in the nails?
We can always do better… The America’s Cup is time and money. The Italians have been sailing for a year but they are well-established teams, which already have three or four participations behind them, with the same people, the same buildings, the same equipment. We, for the first time, have a real base, with a lot of space. We are building for the future, we want to keep all of this for the future.
The “cyclists” on board are: Olivier Herlédant and Tim Lapauw (two real sailors) who supervise four rowers (Germain Chardin, Antoine Nougarede, the brothers Rémi and Thibaut Verhoeven) and a crossfitter (Maxime Guyon).
The sailors aboard the AC40 and AC75
AC40 and AC75 helmsmen
Quentin Delapierre
30 years old – F50 driver France SailGP Team
2019 – Nacra 17 World Cup Winner
2018 and 2016 – Winner Tour Voile in Diam 24
Kevin Peponnet
32 years old – Wing France SailGP team
Winner of the 470 World Championship in 2018 –
AC40 and AC75 controllers
Francois Morvan
40 years old – France SailGP Team Flight Controller
Great multihull specialist
Matthew Vandame
41 years old – Grinder France SailGP Team
2017 America’s Cup Groupama Team France – World Champion in Formula 18 and GC32
Jason Saunders
33 years old – Winner of the Youth America’s Cup in 2013 – 2 Olympic campaigns in 2012 (5th in 470) and 2016 (4th in Nacra)
AC75 cyclists
Olivier Herledant
42 years old – Sailing
2017 America’s Cup Groupama Team France
Grinder SailGP
Timothé Lapauw
26 years old – Sailing
2017 Youth America’s Cup Team France
Grinder SailGP
Maxim Guyon
45 years old – Crossfitter
CrossFit master world champion (only French to date) – Crossfit Veteran 2021
Germain Chardin
40 years – Rowing
Bronze at the 2008 Olympics – Silver at the 2012 Olympics
Antoine Nougarede
30 years – Rowing
French University Champion
Remi Verhoeven
33 years old – Cyclist/Rowing
French Rowing Team – Semi-pro cyclist
Thibaut Verhoeven
