- News from le Défi Français (02/15/01)
  (source : French Sports Newspaper l'Equipe)
Chief executive Pascal Herold said negotiations were progressing well with French "family of five" America's Cup sponsors but no deals had yet been signed (for the next campaign, sponsorship costs are believed to be as high as F 200 million F (€30-million)to fund a serious syndicate.

Bouygues Telecom F9 million (€1.5-million) kickstart to the campaign has already launched the Design program and has secured a new IACC (NZL-32) for the first test. Now, is understood that new French syndicate asked each family member for around F10 million by year.

However Pascal Herold said he hoped a "good part of agreements would be reached soon", with an announcement likely early in the month.
 

  French Training & Development programme (02/07/01)
  (source : sail-online & ledefi.com)
The training and development programme for Défi's next generation of potential Americaners sailors for 2003 is get underway at the South of France (Last week at Saint-Raphael, this week and during march at la Grande-Motte).

Over 17 selected sailors with proven talent will be put through a rigorous programme of match-racing (circling, strategy...) aboard First 40.7. Four crews (helmed by Damien Iehl, Philippe Presti, Sebastien Col and Matthieu Richard) which reunite essentially "Olympics" (Xavier Rohart, Jean Marie Dauris, Philippe Mourniac...) and members of the former 6ème Sens crew (Nicolas Texier, Fabrice Blondel).

Pierre Mas, one of the director, said that the challenge already not bad advanced in its preparation :
- Yaka Design Team is working and, right now, its members finalize new masts and sails.
- A training of ten days is foreseen to Lorient in August with the Team NZ (and NZL-32).
- A true base (with hangar, 600m2 to sail-loft, offices , sporting room ...) at Lorient is expected for may.

Pierre Mas admitted that the problem was raising funds, and the new syndicate had reached just a part of its goal ("Our budget is already consequent but not sufficient"). Like Team NZ, to finalize its budget, le Défi was targeting five major sponsors (no names at this day), with the aim being for each to contribute up to € 6 million.
 

- NZL-32 leased to the French Challenge (01/08/01)
  (source : Ledefi.com)
Le Défi Français took the first step toward a new America's Cup challenge today as he leased a training vessel from Team New Zealand, NZL-32, the original cup-winning black boat used by the Kiwis during their successful America's Cup campaign in 1995. The French syndicate did not disclose financial terms.

Le Défi will use NZL-32 for training and testing in its bid to win the America's Cup from New Zealand in 2002-2003. The addition of this second boat allows the syndicate to get a head start on training and more importantly, testing and development for the design of the two new boats.

" With two Class America, the preparation is going to be radically different " said Pierre Mas, sports director of the Challenge, who planned to test more than 40 persons on the two IACC by the end of year 2001. "This will allow to select 26 navigators stemming from the crew 2000, but also from the high Olympic level, multihulls or maxi. ".

Le Défi Français had the opportunity to acquire " Bravo Espana " (bought by Onorato) but the overbid between syndicates seemed disproportionate to the Team who did not follow up. Also one of the Hawaiian boats was put on sale by Larry Ellison who had acquired she at the end of the last Cup. " Even if the financial cost to acquire this boat would have been lesser than NZL-32 rent, it did not represent so good flat one reference shape " dixit Luc Gellusseau, engineering manager of the Challenge.

The negotiations with the New Zealanders, wich began at the end of November further to Watch Out's withdrawal, took place in a very friendly spirit. A good agreement which allowed to schedule trainings with TNZ this summer in Lorient. Ironically Pacé may well be amongst a squad of the current TNZ sailors that will travel to France in July this year to sail their old boat against the French crew for ten days. After this training session the two crews will sail their respective boats from Lorient to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, a distance of about 280 miles. Here they will join at least eight other IACC boats to compete in the America’s Cup Jubilee regatta which takes place in Cowes and the Solent between 19-25 August.
With the loss of Bertrand Pacé as skipper of the French team to Team New Zealand, various other names have been added to the afterguard pretenders list, these include Luc Pillot, Philippe Presti, Sebastien Col and past America’s Cup tactician Thierry Péponnet.
 
  Overcrowded ! (12/22/00)
  (source : NZ Herald)
Cup village space for the teams (the Viaduct Basin) is full and it is the same story for the neighbouring area set aside for the challengers.
First, America's Cup Village Limited said that the challengers who have signed on with the group are:
- Prada Challenge, (Base 1) ;
- Oracle Racing, (Base 2) ;
- Mazcalzone Latino, (Base 3) ;
- OneWorld , (Base 4) ;
- Swiss Challenge, (Base 5) ;
- Team New Zealand, (Base 6).
 
Second, Viaduct Harbour Holdings Limited (who owns 4 bases located in Viaduct Harbour, locally known as Log Farm) has commitments from :
- British Challenge , (Base 7) ;
- Victory Challenge , (Base 8) ;
- Illbruck Pinta , (Base 9) ;
- Stars & Stripes, (Base 10).

Seattle Challenge, headed up by Belden seems to be the only other challenge that has yet to commit to a base in Auckland.

Doug Snell, general manager of America's Cup Village Ltd, said the French (Le Défi Français) had been offered the last available base, but had turned it down because it was too small for their two-boat cup campaign.

The last spot was snapped up by new Italian syndicate Mascalzone Latino, which are likely to have just one boat. A Union Jack is set to fly over base eight, even though two British groups appear to be bickering over who will represent their nation in the next cup.

Le Défi Français have been left to look out of town for a home for their America's Cup boats after missing out on a berth in the cup village. Le Defi's old base next to Team New Zealand has been incorporated with the old Nippon site to make an extra-large compound for Ernesto Bertarelli's Swiss syndicate.

Young Australia used a floating crane as their base last summer, but residents in the new waterfront apartments would probably likely object if they had a barge parked outside their windows.

With Viaduct Harbour full, any other late challenge will have to look outside the harbour for a base. The Naval Dockyard is one possibility, as is the Western Viaduct area - however substantial work would be required at the cost of the Challenger. The other option is Gulf Harbour to the North of the Cup course on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

The construction of new Cup bases is well underway, however much of the old signage remains - even though the tenants have changed. Construction of the apartments around the harbour is complete and certainly the area has a much more pleasant feel to it than existed during the Cup, when much of the apartment construction was only half complete.

Meanwhile, the America's Cup syndicate Oracle Racing is negotiating to buy the derelict barge in the Basin which was set up by ACVL as a yacht club and lost $4.1 million of public money. ACVL, which has withdrawn an application to run the barge as a restaurant and function centre, will divvy up the sale proceeds with Corporate Host. The company had the catering contract and contributed about $800,000 of the $3 million spent turning the barge into a club for American Express cardholders. Sources said Oracle would pay little more than the salvage value of about $500,000 for the barge and turn it into a sail loft. ACVL chairman Peter Kiely has said the future of the barge would probably be known this month.


Actually, Five Cup yachts, some of them sporting new attire, will be on parade on the Hauraki Gulf on Tuesday – among them Team New Zealand's black boats, out of the shed for the first time since winning the cup in March. Try not to confuse them with the black boats of OneWorld, the wealthy Seattle syndicate which have been sailing on the cup course for the past week. Their charcoal training boats used to be midnight blue (Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes) and garish yellow (America True). Then there is the pristine white of Oracle Racing, down to one model after the other's unfortunate accident three weeks ago.
 
  Le Défi boost management (11/08/00)
  (source : Sportal.fr)

Two months after Bertrand Pace left to join Team New Zealand, le Défi français is determined to return to Auckland for the next America's Cup and a new group has emerged to take up the mantle

Recurring dock talk suggests that Paul Stewart (former Managing Director of the F1 team Jaguar ) and Alan Jenkins Chief Engineer of Aerodynamics of the Prost F1 Grand Prix Team) will now join the French Challenger, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the team.

 
- Bertrand Pacé Looks Ahead (11/02/00)
  (source : Sailing-Onlin.au)
Bertrand Pacé, 38, won the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour last week when Dean Barker of New Zealand, his main competitor, was eliminated during the first round by Chris Dickson, also of New Zealand. Pacé was not in Bermuda to race the Gold Cup as he was on holiday in France, resting and preparing the next step of his career—moving to New Zealand to prepare with Team New Zealand for the 2003 America's Cup.

"Training in Auckland will begin in December," says Pacé. "It's very exciting to know that I will sail the boats that won the last America's Cup—it's going to be a great moment." After a short break, training will resume from January to April. Pacé's schedule also includes racing on the 2001 match-race circuit, and perhaps leading an entry in the next Admiral's Cup.

"The latter is just a project at the moment, there's nothing organized yet," he says. Yet, now that he is done wrestling with Barker for first place on the match-race circuit, Pacé will soon battle the young skillful helmsman in Auckland. "It's a good omen," he says. "The motivation will be higher when we train against each other. We will work in order to increase each other's level."

However, leaving France for New Zealand is not that easy. "I really see it as a big human and technical challenge," he says. "I'm leaving my country, and the French Défi, but I know I will be working with the best team in the world for the next Cup. It will be enriching because as part of the team I will be totally involved in the boat and project development."

Pacé is especially excited about the opportunity to work with Tom Schnackenberg, TNZ's project manager, one of the best in the business. "It's emotionally very strong for me to know that I will be working with such a man," says Pacé. "It gives me even more motivation."

Pacé may not be the only French sailor within the New Zealand syndicate. Of the 32 members that will compose the sailing team, Team New Zealand is still looking for four or five sailors to add to the squad. Some of them may be French sailors that sailed with the BTT Défi last year alongside Pacé. .
 
  Le Défi Français is (almost) back - Part 2 (10/24/00)
  (source : Le Defi.com)
After months of speculation, the Yaka team (Pascal Herold, Xavier de Lesquen and Pierre Mas) formally announced today in Paris the spirit of the new French Challenge for the America's Cup 2003.

The continuity of the challenge is one of the forces of the french team. Le D&fi Français benefits of its experience of the 1999 Louis Vuitton Cup and is very motivated to do better than last year. Most of the crews of the 1999 campaign should continue except Bertrand Pacé who left France for Auckland and Albert Jacobsoone who joint the Prada Italian crew. The new team could include Olympic sailors and in particular Philippe Presti who steered the french Soling in Sydney. Another name is the young Sébastien Col one (both have no experience of the Cup).

In Lorient (Britanny, France), Le Défi will have one of the best base to train in Europe with the 6e Sens from last year’s first challenge. They are looking for a second Class America to start training sessions in Lorient in April 2001. May be a Japanese boat (Le Défi tried to buy Bravo España, but she has purchased by the Italian Oronato Challenge for 800.000 $).

The design team can work from 6e Sens design which showed she was able to progress all along the round robins. Peter Van Oossanen and Henrik Soderlund joint them. For the moment, the design team works on two new boats. The built of the first one will begin in November 2001, followed one month later by the second one. They will be launched in April and May 2002.

The real problem is the money and the french team looks for 200 MFF. As they don't have the support of a famous billionaire, they asked Havas Advertising Sports to built a strategy inspired from the Team New Zealand's consortium. Five sponsors could give the equivalent of 10 MFF per year. The managers of le Défi have to pay before April 1st 150,000 US$ to the challenger of records to enter in the official list of America's Cup challengers.
 
  Le Défi is (almost) back - Part 1 (10/13/00)
  (source : Le Defi. Com)
It's almost sure. The Yaka Team (Pierre Mas, Xavier de Lesquen...) will return in 2003 to lead a more experienced challenge. The official Internet site today officially announced a press conference in France on 24 october. Phew !
 
  Bertrand Pacé succession (10/10/00)
  (source : L'equipe)
The world's No 1 matchrace skipper, who helmed Le Defi French challenge in the last America's Cup, is going to become a Kiwi for the next one.

It's obvious Le Défi would not have a budget to put them in the Billionaires' Club but he has two years a to re-grow. It was up to a new team to build on the last challenge to be in Auckland in 2003 but the immediate priority is to determine who will be the future helmsman skipper and there aren't many sailors capable to cover this role.

Today, Franck Cammas says that competing in the America's Cup is a dream that he would now like to turn into reality. The youngest skipper of the international multihull circuit has already built himself a brilliant career when imposing after four seasons in the Figaro Single-Handed races and by taking third place in the 1998 Route du Rhum race, his first single-handed transatlantic race aboard a multihull.

The others pretendant are Thierry Peponnet (tactician aboard 6ème Sens, winner of the last One Ton Cup), Luc Pillot (6th Place at the World Ranking, he has been on the match racing circuit since 1992 either skippering his own crew or sailing with other skippers) and Philippe Presti (one of the Soling skippers who lined up in Sydney but...).

And why not a surprise like Paul Cayard or Marc Bouet ? But please, we don't want the Marc Pajot back !