The French America's Cup team Le Défi, which also has German Tim Kröger under contract, has improved its chances of a good result. It has landed the nuclear power company Areva as a sponsor. The commitment is said to be worth 18 million dollars. This gives the French team an estimated budget of 26 million dollars, which is at best half of the billionaire syndicates of Craig McCaw (USA, One World), Larry Ellison (USA, Oracle), Ernesto Bertarelli (Switzerland, Alinghi) and Patrizio Bertelli (Italy, Prada).
The sponsor Areva is represented in 29 countries with 60 company bases and employs 45,000 people. Insiders expect the sponsorship deal to cause trouble for the French team in Auckland. This is because the New Zealanders are very sensitive when it comes to nuclear power and France. They still remember the controversy surrounding the nuclear weapons tests on the French Polynesian atoll of Mururoa. In 1985, the French secret service carried out an explosives attack on the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior", in which one person was killed. The ship was leading a protest fleet that had been organised and launched from New Zealand.
Insiders now fear protest demonstrations in Auckland against the French with their nuclear sponsor. The New Zealanders still had a lot of sympathy for the Le Défi team at the last Cup. The underdogs surprisingly reached the semi-finals. The successful skipper Bertrand Pace is now employed by Team New Zealand.
