France's sailors have a long love affair with the America's Cup. Les Bleus have taken part in every edition between their first challenge in Newport in 1970 and the Valencia summit in 2007, then again in 2017 and most recently in 2024, but they have never won the oldest international sporting trophy.
German-Frenchman Stephan Kandler, son of Airbus pioneer and AeroSail co-founder Ortwin Kandler, has so far been involved in three French Cup challenges or initiated his own teams: in 2007, 2017 and 2024. The fourth is already underway.
La Roche-Posay Racing Team carries France's colours into the America's Cup
Most recently, Stephan Kandler and K-Challenge partner Bruno Dubois led the French team Orient Express into the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona as last-minute challengers. Now the new Cup regulations have spurred Kandler and Dubois on to continue and expand their activities. In conjunction with the French team's SailGP commitment, the Cup endeavours are planned for the long term. The course has already been set.
The French presented their sailing team for the Cup challenge on Tuesday in Lorient, where their new team headquarters are currently being built. The presentation took place at Les Maison des Skippers in Lorient's famous sailing cradle La Base. From the balcony on the second floor the new "Gitana 18" moored at the dock and many other famous racing yachts. Just opposite the Maisons des Skippers is Team Malizia's headquarters, where in just a few months' time the new "Malizia 4 is brought into its element.
Under the umbrella of the K-Challenge with its two divisions "Racing" for sport and "Lab" for technology, research and innovation, there will be a La Roche-Posay Racing Team for the America's Cup in addition to DS Automobiles France, which is already active in the SailGP. With a new title partner and new sailors, a lot of dynamism and a spirit of optimism, the French presented their newly formed team and plans. Not without reference to their academy, where they have been scouting and training young male and female talent since 2025.
You can't just buy experience. You also have to build it yourself." Stephan Kandler
Stephan Kandler told YACHT in Lorient about the dual involvement in the America's Cup and the SailGP: "The America's Cup and the SailGP inspire each other and are hardly conceivable without each other. They are like the Football World Cup and the Champions League."
Without the historic change of course in the America's CupStephan Kandler says that the renewed French Cup departure into a longer-term future would not have been possible. However, the introduction of "democratic structures" and the joint Cup management of the teams in the America's Cup Partnership (ACP) - although hard-won and not always easy in day-to-day business - have given the often unpredictable sailing summit "more reliability, more predictability and therefore also more persuasive power with partners".
Sports Director Presti directs the America's Cup team
In addition to Kandler and Dubois, skipper and helmsman Quentin Delapierre, who is active in the SailGP as well as on the America's Cup course, and other familiar French faces, the La Roche-Posay Sailing Team also served up new top players for the hunt for the America's Cup on 17 March in Lorient.
The French Cup team will be led by the new sports director Philippe Presti, who will be in charge of all K-Challenge regatta teams in future. The 60-year-old brings a wealth of experience from victorious campaigns such as the Oracle Team USA in the 33rd and 34th America's Cup or his work with Lunas Rossa in the 36th and 37th America's Cup, for which he already worked as a B-boat helmsman in 2007, back to the Cup front in his home country.
For Presti, who experienced the early days of foiling in the America's Cup as well as the century comeback of Oracle Team USA in their triumph over Emirates Team New Zealand in 2013 as head coach, his new role as sports director for the La Roche-Posay Racing Team brings him full circle.
The America's Cup is the epitome of team sport." Philippe Presti
Presti was helmsman for the French Cup campaign Le Défi in 2001. He was one of those among his compatriots who made the harbour of La Base the home of high-performance sport and developed it strongly. "It was the first time I touched an America's Cup boat," recalls the former Soling, Starboat and Matchrace helmsman Presti, who also skippered the French at the time. Now he is back in Lorient after a quarter of a century.
He describes his role as that of a conductor of a growing team and wants to help the K-Challenge and the La Roche-Posay Racing Team to set themselves up for successful Cup appearances in the future. Philippe Presti says: "I have been lucky enough to gain a lot of experience in international teams. Today, I am particularly pleased to share this adventure with a French team, and especially with this team with which I have had a close relationship for a long time."
Presti said: "Today we are introducing the sailors. The challenge will be to coordinate and unleash the potential of each individual to push our limits and aim for the highest level in Naples in 2027."
Spaniards with roots in Lake Constance inspire Les Bleus
His team now also includes two famous Spaniards: the French have signed up the 2024 SailGP season champions and reigning 49er Olympic champions Diego Botin and Florian Trittel for their ambitious Cup plans. The fact that these two won their Olympic gold medals in the French waters of Marseille fits in well with their new challenge.
Flo Trittel, the son of German parents from Constance, moved to Barcelona with his family after spending the first three years of his life on Lake Constance and grew up there. He has been sailing alongside Diego Botin from Santander for more than five years, both in the Olympics and in the SailGP with Losa Gallos. In 2024, they were named World Sailors of the Year after winning the SailGP this season and the Olympics.
This is a huge step for us in our career." Florian Trittel
Talks between the Spaniards and Bruno Dubois began a year ago and have now led to the new Franco-Spanish alliance. For Diego Botin and Flo Trittel, this has resulted in a threefold challenge: they are not giving up any of their ambitious goals and are still active in the Olympics, the SailGP and now also in the America's Cup.
For Flo Trittel, this fits well together: "Olympic sailing helps to maintain and develop the direct feeling for sailing because it is a smaller boat. SailGP is the racing summit, the America's Cup is the development summit, a huge project with many departments in which we now have to orientate ourselves." After the presentation on 17 March, the sailors went straight back into the team's own simulator. They will be training off Lorient from 18 March. Botin and Trittel look forward to their AC40 première.
Amélie Grassi signed as first female sailor
The French surprised everyone in Lorient with their first female sailor officially nominated for the America's Cup team. Suddenly, offshore ace and Ocean Race Europe winner Amélie Grassi stepped into the limelight with a smile. Her commitment is just two days old. She had impressed during tests on the simulator - at the first attempt as by far the best of all candidates.
Biotherm" Imoca skipper Paul Meilhat had already recruited Amélie Grassi to his team because of her strong analytical skills. Now the former Mini and Class 40 sailor is targeting the America's Cup for the first time. It was not only her development and her latest career leap that showed on this day in Lorient what a cornucopia France's Cup hunters can draw on at home.
Nevertheless, some positions in the French America's Cup sailing team are also filled by top international players. Other members of the sailing crew include Briton Leigh McMillan and Frenchmen Enzo Belanger, Timothé Lapauw and Bruno Mourniac. These luminaries on land include the German sail designer Micky Ickert. The fact that the K-Challenge has also found a strong title partner in La Roche-Posay lent the official starting signal for the team additional persuasive power.
The schedule on course for the America's Cup
La Roche-Posay is a pharmacy brand of the L'Oréal Group and wants to use sailing races as a "full-scale scientific laboratory". The brand celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025 and plans to develop a range of skincare products that are geared towards sport and based on feedback from sailors.
The first regatta on course for the America's Cup 2027 in Naples will take place in Cagliari in May this year. After that, the French want to saddle up their AC75 yacht, which is currently still being optimised, for tests and training for the first time. The team's move to Italy is planned for September. The challenger round for the 38th America's Cup and the Cup summit itself will be held in Naples in the summer of 2027.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
