America’s Cup: French challenger confirms line-up as new faces join bid for Auld Mug
With a return to the America’s Cup arena comes a period of transition for French challengers K-Challenge.
Confirming their line-up for the 38th edition of the Cup, the French have brought in Cup rookies Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, with the pair expected to play key roles in the challenge.
While they have no experience sailing either the AC40 or AC75 foiling monohulls, the French – who will race under the name La Roche-Posay Racing Team – recruited the Spanish duo based primarily on two factors.
Botin and Trittel do a lot of sailing together, and they win a lot of races. The two were key to Spain’s SailGP championship in season four of the global foiling league, while they are the reigning Olympic and World Champions in the 49er.
Speaking to the Herald, Bruno Dubois, co-chief executive of K-Challenge, said the team expected Botin would co-helm alongside Quentin Delapierre, while Trittel would be an option in a trimming and flight control role with fellow new recruit Leigh McMillan and French-Kiwi Jason Saunders.
“For sure, they start from the very bottom, but with their experience, they will understand very quickly. Don’t forget that they jumped on SailGP, on the F50, and they did, very quickly, very well. 49er, they are the best in the world. I think they have the ability to adapt very quickly,” Dubois said.
“The idea is to see how we can work on that. They’ve never done AC40, they’ve never done AC75. You know, they started two days ago. They’re straight on the simulator, and we know those guys are super pro, super good. So, I’m expecting that they will be on a good level.”
The Spanish duo agreed to join the French Cup challenge during the SailGP season-opener in Perth in January.
At that point, Dubois had expected they would need to make some decisions, because Botin, Trittel and McMillan would count as non-nationals but they were only allowed two.
“[Botin] stopped me and, in perfect French, he told me, ‘Bruno, I’m French.’ And then [there was] silence between [coach] Philippe Presti and myself and we say, ‘What do you mean?’
“He said, ‘well, my mother is French and I have a French passport.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s perfect ... we never thought about that, but it’s perfect.’”
While Botin and Trittel are new to the environment, helmsman Delapierre and trimmer Jason Saunders were key members of the French challenge in Barcelona. At that point, the team were a late entry and had very limited time on the water before the main event.
They showed big improvements, but were ultimately the first team eliminated.
McMillan, who sails with Delapierre and Saunders in the French SailGP team, joins the America’s Cup set-up after racing with the British in Barcelona, competing in the Cup match before being dispatched by Emirates Team New Zealand.
The team were set to return to AC40 sailing in the coming weeks in preparation for the preliminary regatta in Cagliari in May, with plans to relaunch their AC75 after that event.
With more time available this time around, Dubois said they come into this campaign with a much better understanding of exactly what they have at their disposal.
“Last time, it was a lack of time, but a lack of experience mainly and lack of time to understand and create that experience with these boats,” Dubois said.
“Those boats are quite complex and, as you know, we bought the design package from Team New Zealand. A lot of people say, ‘you don’t have the same boat as Team New Zealand’. I say, ‘yeah, we have the same boat as Team New Zealand and the same system.’ They have been very nice. Well, I would not use the word nice, but very straightforward with us. We bought a design package, we got what we asked for, and they delivered very nicely what we had.
“We just didn’t have the experience and the brains to understand all of what they gave us. But now we have the time and we’ve worked on it ... we probably understood 20% of what they gave us last time.”
La Roche-Posay Racing Team’s sailing crew
Quentin Delapierre (FRA) – Skipper and helmsman
Diego Botín (ESP/FRA) – Helmsman
Enzo Balanger (FRA) – Helmsman
Jason Saunders (NZL/FRA) – Trimmer
Florian Trittel (ESP) – Trimmer
Leigh McMillan (GBR) – Trimmer
Bruno Mourniac (FRA) – Trimmer
Tim Lapauw (FRA) – Trimmer
Amélie Grassi (FRA) – Trimmer
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.