one year after he unveiled the formation of a third French syndicate for the America's Cup 2007 with Bertrand Pacé, the French skipper Loïck Peyron announced today that Team France has stopped all americas cup activities.

Bertrand Pacé, who has replaced Kiwi Hamish Pepper as tactician aboard NZL82 during the last America’s Cup, has joined another syndicate and Loïck said he would not continue alone.

"It was a difficult decision to make and the inciting factor was Bertrand Pacé", Loïck said. "Since the beginning, it's knowed that he received several requests - It was less risky for him - and when he announced me that he leaved the team, I decided to stop".

In spite of his previous optimistic declarations, Loïck recognized that the main problem for the Team France was raising funds.

A long interview with Loïck Peyron was published today in the French regional newspaper Ouest-France in which he sums up Team France situation.

According to the french navigator, the €65 million budget is in good shape for this point in the year with two of the four major sponsors have now been secured.

"We need four main partners which invest a level of €12M each over the 4 year period and two are left to be found", Loïck Peyron said. "On the second level, the four official associate partners have almost all been signed for €16M in total".

10 to 15 official partners have already been selected, including the main French TV channel TF1, which will help publicize Team France and the America's Cup in France.

Meanwhile, Team France is close in on their recruitment targets. The French skipper said they are already able to mount three crews. They will begin serious testing in Marseille this summer.

Loïck would not elaborate on the names, only said that former Prada's starting helmsman Rod Davis will certainly join the team as coach.

"There will be people arriving from all over the world in the sailing crew but we want a majority of French for easier communication onboard", he said. "The crew will have to live closed up together for a long 4-year period and we cannot make a mistake".

If the first helmsman will of course be Bertrand Pacé, "the second helmsman will be a very highly ranked foreign sailor and the third a young talent selected in the French Federation".

Peyron refused to confirm the rumors about Clay Oliver possibly joining the French design team but said this part of the team will be international.

Persistent and concordant rumours are suggesting that the "excellent last generation America's Cup Class yacht" bought by the Team France would be the Team Alinghi's trial horse SUI 59.

The Swiss team started its victorious campaign by buying the former Be Happy of the 2000 Swiss challenge. But five months was spent modifying SUI 59's radical tandem keel into a more conventional single keel and rudder.

In an interview published in the French magazine "Voiles et Voiliers", Loïck Peyron said that the Team France has bought "an excellent last generation America's Cup Class yacht".

If he didn't specify which one, Loïck said that it's not one of the OneWorld Challenge's boats whose cost is not justified with the new AC Class Rules.

On the question of the programme, the two leaders of the Team remain faithful to their engagements : No Cup without the means of winning it.

For this reason, the participation in the pre-regattas is not an objective in itself. The Team France will be on the start line only with the operating budget, recently revised down from from 75 to 65 million euros.

Last Tuesday, Loïck Peyron and Bertrand Pacé presented the foundations of Team France 2004/2007 to an assembly of businessmen who met with Renaud Dutreil, Secretary of State for Small and Medium-Sized Companies, Trade, the Self-Employed, Liberal Professions and Consumers.

That evening, Jean-Pierre Champion, President of the Fédération Française de Voile, confirmed the status of Team France, "French Team for the 32nd America’s Cup".

France Gamerre, Deputy-Mayor of Marseille, and Jérôme Rouillaux, technical adviser to the minister for Sport, Jean-François Lamour, also added their support to Team France in the name of their respective institutions.

Michel Bonnefous, General Director of America’s Cup Management, summed up how the Cup was to be organised and set out the calendar of related events. Pre-America’s Cup Racing kick off to a start in September and will take place over the next four years.

As former Director of Alinghi, winner of the last edition of the Cup, Michel Bonnefous emphasised the importance of a challenger "to start early enough, in other words as soon as possible". He also confirmed that a progressive investment of 65 million euros over four years – just like Team France – made it a top-ranking project.

The Team France budget covers 3 levels of participation :

- 4 Major Partners ;
- 4 Official Associate Partners ;
- 10 to 15 Official Partners.

The Team’s marketing department has already rallied a certain number of "Official Partners". But remaining faithful to its spirit as a winning project, Team France is waiting the confirmation of its first 2 "Major Partners" before officially launching its campaign.

On the sailing side of things, Bertrand Pacé and fellow crew Fabrice Levet, Benoît Briand and Thierry Fouchier, will be the first representatives of Team France in an international competition at the Marseille International Match Race event.

In a e-mail I received today, Loïck Peyon says the rumors, reported by French newspaper Libération (which wrote that Bertrand Pacé "had deserted the Front"), are absolutely not true.

Qualified as "lie allegations" by the two co-leaders of the French syndicate, they should give a right of reply in the newspaper.

According to the French newspaper Libération, citing rumors circulating, Bertrand Pacé would be ready to jump off the Team France project and to sign with the new Bertelli's Luna Rossa Challenge.

In spite of the hopes raised by the Loïck Peyron's notoriety, the Team France has already pushed back the deadline three times and doesn’t have anything concrete to present yet.