Americas Cup: The French are Coming

With all the knowhow and passion in France for Multihulls it was not possible to have at least one team representing them in AC34. Now we have two! After Aleph presentation, this is quite an impressive bet by the Peyron brothers with Yacht Club de France and Multiplast (Nr1 builder of big Multis) backing the project.
Read the team list also below, quite a lineup too with Yves Loday and our own F18 legend Christophe Mourniac.
Of course this French team will have an entire fleet of cats for training, including some DNAs A-Class recently acquired, for sure some Wildcats and/or Shockwaves F18 too.
If they can pull this together, Oracle will have a serious contender from the number one multihull country, from beachcats to circumnavigation beasts, no one can match the love, involment and fanaticism for catsailing that the French sailors have. Poster above, original published in their site, needed a little touch… www.energyteam.fr
Allez la France!
——————
ACup mailing news received today
—
PARIS – (Sent on behalf of Energy Team) – Launched and run by Loïck and Bruno Peyron, this challenge is backed by the prestigious Yacht Club de France. The construction of the first AC72 multihull will begin at the Multiplast yard in Vannes on the 1st September.

Within a month of the official announcement last September that the America’s Cup was to be raced aboard multihulls,the Peyron brothers announced that they wanted to bringFrench know-how together to set up a Challenge to attemptto win the prestigious trophy. That is exactly what they have now achieved.

Energy Team, the new French challenge set up around Bruno and Loïck Peyron, has been officially registered for the 34th America’s Cup since 27th January 2011. It is the sixth Challenger aiming to grab the silver ewer.

Energy Team backed by the Yacht Club de France
…
Training in 17 multihulls
To train and then to race, Energy Team will have at its disposal an impressive fleet of multihulls of all sizes, with seventeen in all available to them: four Class A boats, four F18s, a D35, an X40, a G-Class (the former Orange II), twoAC45s and two AC72s… plus four “F25s”, which are a 1/3 scale model of the AC72s, which will be used for the America’s Cup.

The Energy Team base, the nerve centre of the project, will be set up on the Atlantic coast of France. It will include three centres: one in Vannes, the Multiplast yard, which will be the construction and technological development base; one in Lorient, which will be dedicated to the AC72 and G-Class catamarans; and finally one in La Baule, which will both bethe main training centre for the squad and the operations centre for all the work with partners and the media.

Core members of the team
The core members of the Racing Team are already in place and bring together a wealth of experience in four major areas that are vital for performance. The core members so far appointed include the following:

Loïck Peyron, skipper of the AC45 and AC72: 6 times F60 world champion, 8 times F28 Trophy Champion winner,
Bruno Peyron: 8 times world ocean records champion, skipper of the G Class, which will be the ambassador for Energy Team,
Yann Guichard: helmsman with Loïck Peyron : Extreme 40 world number 2, Member of the French Olympic team,
Thierry Fouchier: performance team, the only Frenchman to have won the America’s Cup with BMW Oracle Racing aboard which he was the wing sail trimmer.
Jean-Christophe Mourniac: performance team, member of the French Olympic team, one of the world’s top 5 Tornado and F18 racers over the past ten years.
Yves Loday: coach for young talent. Former member of the French Olympic team, he was Tornado gold medallist in Barcelona in 1992. He will be joining the team to prepare the “Youth America’s Cup” that the American Defender islaunching.
…
www.americascup.com