K Challenge

First official outing for K-Challenge (07/31/03)
(Source : K-Challenge)

Marseille-based K-Challenge have registered to compete in the the Golden Gate Series which will be held in San Francisco Bay, september 5-8.

The event, hosting by Challenge Series group, may draw as many as 6/7 ACC Yachts - from the first built to possibly the last - to San Francisco Bay for three day of fleet and match racing.

For the french syndicate, this highly anticipated competition provides a training platform and the opportunity to try out new crew in an authentic racing environment.

Former America True helmsman and Oracle tactician John Cutler will be at the helm and veteran Thierry Peponnet (twice a competitor in the America’s Cup, both with the French syndicate) will assume the role of tactician.

The french crew in San Francisco will include le Défi Areva's Fabrice Blondel, Romain Troublé and Benoît Briand, 6ème Sens' Thierry Fouchier and Sylvain Barrielle.

Other key sailors will be Teva Plichart (recent Tour de France winner), Dawn Riley (America True 2000), Hartwell Jordan (Prada 2003), Nic Clarke (Oracle 2003), Carl Barkow (America True 2000) and John Ziskind (Oracle 2003, America True 2000)

The young French sailor Nicolas Charbonnier, who prepare his campaign for Athens, will not be in San Francisco.

John Cutler joins K-Challenge (06/17/03)
(Source : Yahoo.fr)

The Sailing team of the K-Challenge 2007 is outlined gradually and the syndicate met today in Paris the journalists during a press conference where new names were unveiled.

Rumors were flying for many weeks but it's now official. Former America True helmsman and Oracle tactician John Cutler will join the K-Challenge afterguard for the 2007 campaign.

Former olympic champion Thierry Peponnet, veteran of the international match racing scene and twice a competitor in the America’s Cup (both with the French syndicate), will be part of the afterguard.

In addition, the new K-Challenge race crew for the America's Cup includes Nicolas Charbonnier (a young high-level French sailor five times 420 World Champion), Yann Gouniot, Fabrice Blondel, Romain Troublé, Benoît Briand, Thierry Fouchier and Albert Jacobsoone (former members of the former French America's Cup campaigns).

The other coup for the K-Challenge Challenge is the signing of designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, who was part of the design team for Prada Challenge in the last Cup. He will be the French Challenge's co-designer with Phil Kaiko.

K-Challenge now wants a commercial backer or group of companies to come in and help him pick up the rest of the campaign.

The estimated cost of the campaign, including all furnishings and finance costs, is around €80 million (only €1,5 million is now secured). It's necessary to buy a ACC Yacht as, at this time, only OneWorld boats are available.

K-Challenge ready to reveal names (06/11/03)
(Source : K-Challenge)

The K-Challenge invites the media to a press conference during which the names Skippers, Sailing team Manager, Design team Manager and members of the afterguard will be announced.

In the presence of the new members, the press conference will take place Tuesday, June 17, starting at 9 AM in Yacht Club de France in Paris.

K Challenge presents its Design Team (04/07/03)
(source : K Challenge)

The K-Challenge announces the signing of one of the better-known and successful naval architects and designers in the field, Phil Kaiko.

He was the principal designer of the 2003 challenger, OneWorld that was a semi-finalist in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the precursor event to the America’s Cup. A true specialist, Kaiko has been involved in the design of America’s Cup class boats since 1987. Kaiko designed America True in 2000 and the victorious America3 in 1992.

Phil will be K-Challenge’s principal designer and will be joined shortly by a co-designer.

The signing of Kaiko is a strategic step in the process K-Challenge began 15 months ago of putting into position the key people, technical partners (including MCube which provides design and validation tools), and know-how to make K-Challenge a powerful French challenge.

Next to join the design team will be a technical director (whose name is being withheld until he is released from his contractual obligations from the last America’s Cup). Along with Kaiko, this addition reunites with Dawn Riley many of the key members of the America True team of 2000.

Introducing K-Challenge Design Team (03/24/03)
(Source : K-Challenge)

K Challenge officially, wich last year announced their intention to compete in the XXXII America's Cup, has taken form.

In Paris on April 7th, Ortwin Kandler (CEO & Chairman), Stéphane Kandler (General Manager) and Dawn Riley (Team Manager) will meet the journalists during a press conference where the K-Challenge design team will be announced.

It is speculated that US designer Phil Kaiko (former America True designer in 2000) and French Juan Kouyoumidjian (with Prada in 2002) will be selected.

K Challenge announces its plans (02/21/03)
(source : K Challenge)

K-Yachting announces today its first technical sponsor, CEA. The CEA (French Nuclear Energy Agency), is a valuable technical partner of the K-Challenge and will provide access to its super calculator which is the 7th most powerful computer in the world. It will be used for CFD, numerical simulation, and weather modelling.

The partnership also includes the support of MCube, a software company that has codes used in previous Cup campaigns and in the automobile industry. The computer will be managed by HP (Hewlett Packard France).

This calculation power is usually reserved for scientific or military applications. The availability of these computers for this private/public partnership will give the K-Challenge’s design team a unique, powerful and time saving tool.

A core design team has been identified, including a technical director, designers and engineers. They will begin work in March, shortly after they are released from current commitments.

"We consider the design team a priority in our battle against time and they will begin work very shortly" stressed K-Challenge GM, Stephan Kandler. Another priority is boats and K-Yachting is currently in negotiations to purchase 2003 generation IACC boats.

The international, coed sailing team will be built from K-Yachting sailors from the 2002 season, current America’s Cup racers and a sailors identified through a ‘try out’ system.

Today, a year later, K-Challenge has taken form and is only waiting for the venue to be decided before finalizing plans.

"Sponsorship is an ongoing challenge in every America’s Cup team but we are pleased that we have raised a portion of our 60 million Euros budget and continue to make progress" clarified Stephan Kandler. He added "Thanks to our historical presence in Toulouse, (the European aerospace capital), we are maintaining close relationships with the aeronautical community and their innovative technologies."

Marseilles, France’s second largest city, has officially offered to host the K-Challenge’s including providing a base and facilities, allowing the team to start training before the end of this year.

K-Challenge has also received proposals from other locations. These proposals will be considered after the winner of this Cup is decided.

French Meterologist, Nicolas Ducet has begun work on weather modelling tools and is researching local weather data in the ever changing potential venues. This work is undertaken in association with government meterological agencies. Weather information is critical at the beginning of the design process.

"Over the years, we have sailed and worked with many of the top sailors & designers (Rolf Vrolijk, Jochen Schümann, Paul Cayard, Bertrand Pacé, Eckart Wagner, Luc Gellusseau, Philippe Briand, Juan Kouyoumdjan, Bruno Troublé, Lionel Péan, Bertrand De Broc, Michel Joubert, Bernard Nivelt, Heiner Meldner, etc.), and we have watched every America’s Cup since 1983." said President of Honor, Ortwin Kandler.

He added – “I feel that we know how the game is played and we have built up our desire to succeed in the most ambitious sailing project, the America’s Cup".

Ortwin Kandler explained : “Being one of Airbus’s pioneers, I know how hard it is to build a challenge like ours, which involves people from different cultures, but I am convinced that this helped us to keep on innovating and be today’s leader. I know that the philosophy and the people we have chosen will enable us to achieve the same goal."

Dawn Riley in Auckland for K Challenge (12/12/02)
(source : NZ Herald)

One of the few Americans, man or woman, to sail in three America's Cups and two Whitbread round-the-world races, Riley arrived last week in Auckland, where she is commentating or rather "analysing" the racing for an American television station.

But it is not just the job that brings Riley to Auckland. She is also here to gain valuable knowledge for K-Challenge, a French-based syndicate hoping to compete in the next America's Cup.

K-Challenge 2006 was set up by French-German Ortwin Kandler, one of the pioneers of the Airbus industry. Riley is the team manager.

"I am bummed that I wasn't involved in this America's Cup but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was available to sail for Ortwin in the One Ton Cup two years ago".

"He invited me to put together a team and go over and meet him. He always wanted to do the America's Cup and he liked the way our team was put together, which at that stage was all women".

"He liked the attitude and it kind of inspired him to say, 'Let's do it now'. So we have been working with a co-ed multinational team."

Riley said the syndicate was only in its infancy and only a few team members had been signed, including French Olympic champion Thierry Peponnet and prominent French sailor Nicolas Charbonnier.

"We campaigned a 50-footer and two IC 45s last year around Europe doing some matchracing. We are in the sponsorship search right now but hopefully we'll be purchasing a boat when I leave here."

Riley said she was not sure if she would sail with K-Challenge. "I was kind of thinking it would be a fulltime job to organise all the different nationalities but in this last year I was steering one of the boats and we did really, really well, so who knows?"