ALL4ONE READY TO COMPETE IN THE LOUIS VUITTON TROPHY-DUBAI

Dubai, UAE - 2010-11-11

On the day before the opening of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, ALL4ONE is ready to get into the competition against five other of the best sailing teams in the world.

From November 12 to 27, the six teams joining this last Louis Vuitton Trophy (ALL4ONE (FRA-GER), Synergy (RUS), Artemis (SWE), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), BMW Oracle Racing (USA) and Mascalzone Latino (ITA)) will fight for the last time on legendary boats, the America’s Cup Class boats, which were launched in 1990.

The event will rely on four boats (USA 87 & USA 98 - BMW Oracle Racing’s boats, and NZL 84 & NZL 92 - Emirates Team New Zealand’s boats), which will form two pairs of even ACC boats for the teams to offer intense regattas and duels to the public on site and on the live web TV programme.

The match-racing format of the competition will consist in 4 phases: two Round Robins (from Sunday 14 to Tuesday 23), semi-finals (first to two points), and one final on Saturday 27 (first to three points).

The French-German team arrived in Dubai on November 7th, and is already training since 5 days with Emirates Team New Zealand on a race course that promises an incredible show in the heart of a city recognized as the “Pearl of the Persian Gulf.”

Sebastien Col, Helmsman: « The training went really well. We had the opportunity to train with Emirates Team New Zealand on site, with the boats that will be used for the event, which is ideal. Moreover, we work here with a coach who has a lot of experience: Kelvin Harrap (formerly TeamOrigin), and who brings us a lot of input. Having been contacted by Team New Zealand is really gratifying, and that gave us a lot of confidence, while knowing that they could have invited some other team. We learn a lot sailing with them here, as well as from our coach. Team New Zealand puts a lot of pressure on its competitors in general, as they have a strong ability to put a lot of intensity in the duels. Psychologically, we have seen all the season that all the other teams are a small level under. But I think that the difference is now getting smaller and smaller, and we’ve seen some teams giving a hard time to the Kiwis. On our side we have improved all along the season, and we certainly hope to do even better here, as we feel stronger and stronger as a team, being in terms of sailing or in terms of management. The best teams are here, it was important and a real choice from us to be here. The level is very high, it is now up to us to show what we are able to do. »

Matti Paschen, Spinnaker trimmer: « I have been sailing here before with our RC44 team called Sea Dubai. The team is based here, so we did a lot of training and RC44 races here, so for me it’s kind of a “second home”. It’s good to come back and race here again. The training week with Emirates Team New Zealand has been really good. We tried some new things as we might have new race courses here, that will be much shorter. So it will be much shorter upwind, and put a lot of pressure on the whole crew. The crew work will be very very important here, as well as the starts. So we trained on all that with Team New Zealand, which is “THE” team to beat or to train with. So for us it’s been really good and really intense so far. We did some very good racing in La Maddalena and have been on quite a high level, finishing first in the Round Robin and ended up 3rd in the event, so we had a really good regatta. We didn’t sail together on such a big boat since then, but now after the training week we feel the same good team spirit again. Only six teams in the competition here don’t make it any easier, as all the good teams are still here. The racing will be even harder. »


ALL4ONE finished 5th of Louis Vuitton Trophy – Nice, 5th of Louis Vuitton Trophy – Auckland and 3rd of Louis Vuitton Trophy – La Maddalena.



The ALL4ONE team for Louis Vuitton Trophy – Dubai will be formed of:

Jochen Schümann GER – Skipper and Strategist (3 America's Cup campaigns, 2 wins, 3 times Olympic Gold Medalist, and 1 Silver Olympic medal)
Sebastien Col FRA – Helmsman (2 America's Cup campaigns, French Match Racing Team)
John Cutler NZL – Tactician (5 America's Cup campaigns, Olympic Bronze Medalist)
Philippe Mourniac FRA – Navigator (3 America's Cup campaigns, multihull)
Michi Müller GER – Mast (1 America's Cup campaign, Volvo Ocean Race)
Matti Paschen GER – Spinnaker Trimmer (1 America's Cup campaign)
Jean-Marie Dauris FRA – Bow (2 America's Cup campaigns)
Christophe André FRA – Mid-bow (1 America's Cup campaign, French Match Racing Team)
Albert Jacobsoone FRA – Pit (7 America's Cup campaigns)
Gilles Favennec FRA – Pit Assist (2 America's Cup campaigns, French Match Racing Team)
Carlo Castellano ITA – Grinder (3 America's Cup campaigns)
Piero Romeo ITA-GER – Grinder (3 America's Cup campaigns, 1 win of Louis Vuitton Cup)
Virgilio Torrecilla ESP – Afterguard Grinder (2 America's Cup campaigns)
Christian Scherrer SUI – Jib Trimmer (4 America's Cup campaigns, 1 win, Whitbread)
Peter van Niekerk NED – Mainsail Grinder (2 America's Cup campaigns, 2 wins)
Yann Gouniot FRA – Mainsail Trimmer (5 America's Cup campaigns, 1 win)
Olivier Douillard FRA – Traveller (2 America's Cup campaigns)

Racing is live everyday on www.all4onechallenge.com and www.louisvuittontrophy.com.






Stephanie Nadin

Show Next

Show Previous   |