Stephane Kandler, the CEO of Areva Challenge, describes a difficult 2006 season for the team: “It was Ok, but it’s not fantastic to be the best of Division Three,” he says, referring to Louis Vuitton Act 12. His ambitious team wants more.
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"We want to reach the semi-finals and we have all the tools."
Sébastien Col
This is a team that was reborn on April 4th this year. On that spring day, a team some had already written off as dead rose anew with a new sponsor. The French challenge had a new image and the colours of a new main sponsor. The smile had moved from the graphics on the bow of the boat to the crew. K-Challenge had become Areva Challenge.
“In 2006 we had a second start. Last winter was very hard for us. It was good to be back in the game”, says Sébastien Col, the tactician turned helmsman of the French boat.
Col himself is symbolic of the constant evolution of the team. After a 2006 season with results below what the team felt it should achieve, the afterguard has been shaken up. Thierry Peponnet is no longer the skipper and helmsman and starts a new role as tactician. Col is now steering the boat. The ninth place finish in the 2006 Louis Vuitton ACC Championship was deemed not good enough, and Col is charged with leading the team to better results. He certainly has the resume – in 2006 he had a very strong season of racing on the World Match Racing Tour.
A difficult season
Sébastien Col
“I can’t remember any great moment in 2006,” Col continues, “it was very hard.” Dawn Riley, general manager of the team, agrees: “There were some things right, but…” she trails off.
The results confirm what the team felt: they were ninth on the season and remain seventh in the Louis Vuitton Ranking. That position would give them two ‘bonus points’ were the Louis Vuitton Cup to begin today. The current standings mean it’s unlikely the team could climb high enough to earn more bonus points, and a poor result in Act 13 could see them with just one.
In 2006, Areva Challenge managed to beat just one of the teams that finished the season ahead of them, the victory coming over Desafío Español 2007 during Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 10. This win raised hopes for a better result in that regatta, but in the end, the French finished tenth in Act 10.
In the fleet races of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 11 Areva Challenge ended up seventh in the ranking with a fourth place race finish as its best result. It was then that the management team started to think about changes. “Between Act 11 and Act 12 we started to think about a new way to work in the afterguard,” confirms Sébastien Col.
The Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12 followed the same pattern with wins against the smaller teams but no upsets against the rest. They didn’t wait too long to make the changes, quickly announcing that Col would take over the helming duties going forward.
But the crew set-up likely wasn’t the biggest factor holding the team back. FRA 60 was at her limit. “FRA 60 made us struggle, so 93 should make us faster,” Riley says. The boat is not going to be a radical design says Kandler. “It will follow the tendency, but it will have the French touch in engineering,” he says. “We will see what happens next year, but we want to reach the semi-finals and we have all the tools,” says Col.
FRA 93 is being built in the south of France and it is scheduled to be launched on November 24.
The formula for success: work and vision
Dawn Riley
Come 2007, there is no more time for changes and Areva Challenge is planning accordingly. In December they will only have two weeks at Christmas to rest and then work begins on optimising FRA 93. “For us it is a must to sail until the end now, our vacation was in August,” confirms Riley.
As Col mentioned, the goal is a berth in the Semi-Finals, but Areva Challenge is also looking to the future. As K-Challenge, they were the first to announce their project for the 32nd America’s Cup and the team is already planning for what happens beyond 2007. Their main sponsor Areva is thinking about the next opportunity, and this “is the first time a sponsor at least has plans for the future. This is good for us and good for France,” says Kandler.
Statistics
The team that raced the most against Areva Challenge in 2006 is +39 Challenge. Both teams sailed the oldest boats of the fleet (FRA 60 and ITA 59). They are the only boats from the 2000 edition to race in the 32nd America’s Cup.
Areva Challenge and +39 Challenge raced four times in 2006. The Italians won the first race, while Areva won the next three. In their final match, the Italians didn’t finish the race.
Areva Challenge and +39 Challenge provided the closest race so far in the 32nd America’s Cup: only one second separated them at the finish of a match in Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12.
In 2000 the two boats had vastly different fates. NZL 60 (now FRA 60) successfully defended the America’s Cup for New Zealand while SUI 59 (now ITA 59) only managed two victories three Round Robins of Louis Vuitton Cup racing
Areva Challenge has finished every race of the 2006 Louis Vuitton ACC Championship.
The team won 10 races out of 26 stars, including a winning streak of five races.
Areva Challenge lost one race which it was leading at the final mark, to Team Shosholoza during Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12.
The maximum winning delta for Areva Challenge was 2:58 minutes over China Team during Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12.
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