America's Cup: "The SailGP and the Cup are like the Champions League and the World Cup"

New sailors, new sports director, new sponsor: last week, the K-Challenge-Stephan Kandler and Bruno Dubois presented their La Roche-Posay Racing Team for the 38th America's Cup and beyond in Lorient. The new Maison des Skippers opposite the headquarters of Boris Herrmann's Malizia team in La Base harbour had a lot of optimism in the air. The Grande Nation, so dominant in many offshore areas, also wants to shine in the Cup.

38th America's Cup: La Roche-Posay Racing Team is one of four challengers so far

Four challengers have officially emerged for the New Zealand Cup defenders so far. In addition to Sir Ben Ainslie's Team GB1, Patrizio Bertelli's Team Luna Rossa and Ernesto Bertarelli's Tudor Team Alinghi, the French La Roche-Posay Racing Team have already left the starting blocks. Yacht Online spoke to 55-year-old Stephan Kandler in Lorient about his fourth, long-term endeavour.

Stephan, your team is heading for the 38th America's Cup without billionaire backing, but with a newly formed team and a new title partner. One difference to the last-minute battle in the 37th America's Cup cycle...

Our commitment builds on the support of the L'Oreal Group, which has been sponsoring our projects since 2023. We are delighted to be taking a further step together in building our challenge for the 38th America's Cup to go. It is a new version of the competitionin which we are doubly involved as founding members of the new management structure (editor's note: with a seat on the board of the new America's Cup Management (ACP)).

Your team continues to rely on the experienced America's Cup and SailGP helmsman Quentin Delapierre, but also new sailors such as the Spanish 49er Olympic champions and 2024 SailGP season winners Diego Botin and Flo Trittel. Will you be contesting the challenger round to the Cup with strong influences from the SailGP?

Half of the crew has been changed to SailGP for the time being. People from the America's Cup have been added. Quentin also wanted to get new experience on board. So Diego Botin and Flo Trittel joined us. Although we are also competitors in the SailGP, it is now a good mix. There is a lot of mutual respect and trust. Our sports director Philippe Presti, who brings enormous experience and two Cup victories, is also convinced of this mix.

You can't just buy experience. You have to train it." Stephan Kandler

What is the philosophy behind team building?

The philosophy of the K-Challenge is to keep bringing young people into the game, just as Bruno said at the presentation. That's what we want. Not always just have the superstars on board, who bring so much charisma and have to be managed differently. We are more the people who are enthusiastic about the idea of creating a super performance for the future. We don't yet know where the Cup future lies, in Spain or wherever. But there are very few people you can do that with. You've seen that now in the SailGP: People who can take part today with such boats without experience are very hard to find.

Why does the K-Challenge Academy exist?

Yes, we already realised that at the America's Cup in Barcelona. You can't just buy experience. You also have to train it.

So the goals of the K-Challenge are set for the long term?

It can only work in the long term. That's the vision of Bruno and me. We know the story of how it works in the America's Cup when you don't have a billionaire on board. And every time a Cup comes to an end, you fall into this hole. We made the decision to always be there. We decided that we were going to keep going, whatever happened. The first stage was in the SailGP: to buy a team, to form a crew. We took the risk. Then L'Oreal came back, then Leyton. This has been the plan since 2021, but it wasn't an easy path.

But now you want to go at least as far as the next but one America's Cup, until 2029?

Yes, exactly.

The new structure for the America's Cup has to work. There is no choice." Stephan Kandler

How does the work on the board of the newly formed America's Cup Partnership (ACP), on which you represent your team, work? Who is on it?

All teams are represented: Grant (ed.: Grant Dalton, Emirates Team New Zealand), Ernesto (ed.: Ernesto Bertarelli, Tudor Team Alinghi), Peter (ed.: Peter Dubens, Team GB1), Giulio (ed.: Giulio Bertelli, Luna Rossa) and myself. The meetings take place once a month, usually in person. It's no longer a game. We don't just fight on the water, but also on land. But it has to work. There's no choice.

Who is currently head of ACP?

Grant is the interim CEO before a new CEO comes in, who we all elect.

Who can the ACP Board rely on to implement the plans that have been decided?

There is a team of around 50 people in all areas for this.

Is it better for the challengers now that the defenders alone can no longer decide the Cup's future in a rather dictatorial manner, but the teams together in a committee? Is it more democratic?

Yes, that's how it is. In the past, one person decided for everyone. That may have been bad luck for the others, but it was a simple process. Now it's certainly not always easy, but in principle we all have the same interest: Finding solutions.

You vote on everything in the ACP: where the Cup will go in the future, how the boats will be further developed, whether and when there will be new ones, how high the costs for Cup teams can be, which are currently limited to 75 million euros with a budget cap...

Yes, exactly. Whether there are new boats, how many days a regatta lasts and so on.

The advantages of the new Cup era: visibility and predictability

Is it already clear whether there will be new boats for the next but one edition after the reuse of the AC75 yachts and their refits for the 38th America's Cup?

Then you would already have to have a design team to design the next boat. That wouldn't be a solution for me. We already have so much to build up with this new organisation (ed.: meaning ACP). We have to be careful.

But do you think the introduction of the ACP is basically the right development for the America's Cup?

We wouldn't be there otherwise. No sponsor would go along with that. I've always said that. We are the team in the America's Cup that is 100 per cent based on sponsorship. If we don't also think commercially, it won't work. We all have to manage that together.

What are the main advantages of the new structure?

Instead of uncertainty, there is now visibility and predictability. We know that the next America's Cup will take place in 2027, and the one after that in 2029. It's easier when you talk to sponsors. Ten million euros, 20 million euros - whatever sponsors pay, no matter how much it is: you could never plan further into the future in the past because there was no long-term view. We experienced that again between November 2024 and the end of December 2025.

Because it took a tough year for the vision of joint Cup management of all teams with the ACP to become a reality...

We already had all the sponsors on board and I thought it would be like 2007 again...

... when court disputes arose after the most successful Cup edition of this millennium in Valencia, as a result of which the exclusive match between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing was held in 2010, from which all other teams were excluded. Many well-positioned teams, including the Germans, fell by the wayside.

Yes, that could have happened again. It was yes again, then no, then yes, while we stood by the whole time. But now it's done. The new format is great.

Until now, the America's Cup was usually held every three to four years. Do you like the fast-paced new biennial format?

Yes, you don't get it right every four years. You don't get the momentum. We see it with the sponsors. And young people also look at sport differently. It always has to be faster, there has to be action. You have to be visible on a regular basis.

The origins of the K-Challenge and early America's Cup dreams

Your father Ortwin Kandler, a lawyer and Airbus pioneer, was already a sailing enthusiast and co-founder of the German sailing promotion campaign AeroSail in the 1990s. In 1989, he founded K-Yachting, a company specialising in the import and chartering of regatta yachts and, above all, the construction of innovative prototypes. You joined this company back then. Together you provided French regatta sailors with structures and funding. Did you already have your sights set on the America's Cup back then?

Yes, that's how the K-Challenge came about later.

You first publicly announced your intention to organise a French challenge for the America's Cup at a press conference in Paris in 2001. You led the project with the support of your father. Six years later, you sailed to eighth place in the Areva Challenge off Valencia. You had big plans for the future, but they were cancelled due to the legal disputes between the Americans and the Swiss.

That was hard for many. For us too. But in our family, you don't give up your passions and goals so easily.

We took the first step in Barcelona." Stephan Kandler

Your comeback took shape in 2021. You teamed up with Bruno Dubois, who had a lot of experience in managing sailing teams in the offshore world. Together, you were able to mobilise the support of major French companies for the challenge of the 37th America's Cup. In a feat of strength lasting 18 months, you built a team of 120 people almost from scratch, built an AC75 and operated an AC40. Today, as a racing team with sports teams in the SailGP and America's Cup, with its own tech lab and academy for young talent, the K-Challenge could also serve as a role model for new AC teams. You have come a long way. What drives you?

The engine is the passion for the America's Cup, because the goal is so incredibly difficult to achieve. I think France has the culture for it. And this ecosystem, which is basically perfect. You gain a lot of time, a lot of expertise. You can't find that anywhere else. Thanks to this situation, it's actually more favourable in France than perhaps in America or other countries. We took the first step in Barcelona.

You were one of five teams that narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger round...

It was already pretty good. It could always be better. The reality is that as a team in Spain or Germany, we might not have managed to find the right people who knew about foils or other topics in such a short time. We were really new, we only had one man with Cup experience. But these boats are so complicated. You can't do it at the first attempt. But the French ecosystem is a huge advantage along the way!

You are not announcing your team building for the current campaign?

No. Simply because the complexity of the K-Challenge with the La Roche-Posay Racing Team for the America's Cup, the DS Automobiles Team in the SailGP, the Academy and the Lab with the research is so great.

Aiming for the cup: how the K-Challenge works

The K-Challenge is the umbrella for all activities?

K-Challenge is the structure for K-Challenge Racing with all sports and marketing activities and the Lab. The Lab is our research company with technology and design, where we have all the assets from the last America's Cup. The British are perhaps a bit similar to us in terms of organisation, but have different owners in the SailGP and the America's Cup, for example.

With you, everything is assigned to a mother. The company belongs to Bruno Dubois and you?

Yes, exactly, half each. That was a good decision. When you have to manage so much, you can't do it alone. Bruno has a huge network and knows everyone in sailing. My area includes financing, finding sponsors and building partnerships. We work well together. It was exactly five years ago that we spoke on the phone after the 36th America's Cup in March 2021. Neither of us wanted to do it alone. But together.

Your SailGP team has been operating under the direction of the K-Challenge since 2024. You finished the 2025 season in fifth place. A further upward trend was already evident at the beginning of this year with third place in Perth and fourth place in Auckland, before the horrendous crash with the Kiwis led to the Sydney exit. The comeback with a repaired F50 spoiler is scheduled for 11 and 12 April in Rio de Janeiro. What can your Cup team learn from the SailGP commitment?

Team building, execution, competition - everything you need. I can't imagine the America's Cup without SailGP. If we didn't have it, it would be difficult. You need the SailGP. It's like the Champions League and the World Championship. The players need it.

The favourites among the challengers: Brits and Italians

How do you view your future Cup competition?

The English and Luna Rossa are certainly the teams to beat. Alinghi is difficult to say because they haven't really taken off yet. It will definitely be an America's Cup of transition. I believe that we will get more teams for the America's Cup again.

How has your personal Cup journey gone so far?

I did the K-Challenge 1 in 2017. I started Team France with Olivier de Kersauson. But then Bruno took over my role when my father died and I went back into the family business to support my mum. Then we had Orient Express in the 37th America's Cup.

It's your fourth attempt. What performance, what result would make you happy at the end of the 38th America's Cup 2027?

As our sports director Philippe Presti said at the presentation in Lorient: You can have the best and still not win. It's difficult to say because some of our team, like Diego and Florian, have not yet sailed on the Cup boats. But the combination is very promising. It would be great for us to reach the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, because France has never managed that before. That would be something!

The presentation of the team and its new sports director Philipp Presti on 17 March in Lorient was a milestone for the La Roche-Posay Racing Team. Watch the clip: