| ST. TROPEZ-(4-10-2002) Here we are : we reach the moment that all excited teams have been waiting for : the One Ton up will once again see the best top sailors fight all together.
And it will be in a fantastic place for the great pleasure of all : the city of Saint-Tropez welcomes the event with a huge enthusiasm this year in its famous bay, and with the efficient help of the Yacht Club de Saint-Tropez, as well as the Cercle de la Voile de Paris, who created this event that is 100 years old...
Next week will start with the measuring of the boats on Monday 7th of October, with a start for the regattas on Wednesday morning (9th). The prize giving ceremony will take place on Saturday evening (12th).
The competitors list is formed of top crew race experts, as follows :
Two English teams : Wolf, (Glynn Williams) and Lion (Tony Canning) ; Cavale Bleue, (owner : Michel Duquenne), with Thierry Peponnet at helm, Olympic medallist and double One Ton Cup winner, who recently won the multi-hulls grand prix in Fecamp with Jean-Luc Nelias on Belgacom ; Atalanti X, Georges Andreadis’s boat, 2001 winner of the One Ton Cup who will race under the Greek colours ; Groovederci, American team with Deneen Demourkas at helm and the famous Chris Larson, (Mumm 36 World Champion in 1998), for tactics. This team is training at a top level on the One Ton Cup towards the Farr40 Worlds in Nassau (Bahamas) in November : they are like the « new kids » on the IC45, but their experience is very promising regarding great moments in the regattas against the ones who manage the “monsters”.
Then, we see the ones who’ve been training to catch the victory in Saint-Tropez : the 2 K-Challenge crews, team “en route to America’s Cup XXXII”, who will be hard competitors to fight with.
K-Challenge One will have Dawn Riley at helm; Dawn is doing the comments for the America’s Cup which takes place in Auckland for an American TV channel : she brings her experience as a winner in 1992 and as a team manager for the K-Challenge in 2006.
For K-Challenge Two, Nicolas Charbonnier will be helmsman, with a brand new 470 World Champion title and a first French place in the last 470 Worlds.
Those highly motivated teams will then rock the sailing area where we can already hear the common cracking noises of the boats materials.
See you next Tuesday for the launch of the race and the last rumours on the decks before the first regattas on Wednesday !
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