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Le Défi Areva

'They are pretty sure they are coming here with a fast boat,' says Bruno Troublé of Louis Vuitton. 'And they have the advantage of having been here last time with almost the same team.'

LE DÉFI AREVA
Country: France
Yacht Club: Union Nationale pour la Course au Large
Syndicate Heads: Xavier de Lesquen, Pierre Mas and Luc Gellusseau
Skipper: To be named
Design: Yaka Design Team
History: Semi-finals Louis Vuitton Cup 1999

INTERVIEW: ROMAIN TROUBLÉ

Romain Troublé is a bowman and sail maker for the French Le Défi Areva syndicate. He loves the fact that Auckland is a big city, yet it is close to the sea.

SEND A LE DÉFI AREVA POSTCARD

Want to support your favourite team? Create your own Le Défi Areva e-postcard and send it to your friends! Or how about some Le Défi Areva wallpaper on your desktop?

SEE WHERE LE DÉFI AREVA ARE BASED

Having all the Challengers housed together on syndicate row is a world first. Visit the American Express Viaduct Harbour and check out where Le Défi Areva fit into the picture!

THE COMPETITION

The America's Cup regatta. What? Where? When?

THE CHALLENGERS

With the Louis Vuitton Cup predicted to be the best ever in its 149 year history. Who are the nine challengers?

THE DEFENDER

Team New Zealand, defender of the 2003 America's Cup. The Facts and Figures.

The French Challenge Le Defi Areva, which sports the attention-grabbing sail number FRA 69.

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"In the build up to the Louis Vuitton Cup, Le Defi Areva has spent a lot of time training in the Atlantic at Lorient, joining the other challengers in Auckland in August. The team has been training on ACC boats since summer 2001 at the dedicated Le Defi Areva base in Lorient, France. This was a perfect place to prepare for the 2003 Challenge, with similar weather conditions and topography to Auckland.

Le Defi Areva is the smallest challenger to the Cup, with a comparatively tiny budget of $NZ50 million and around 80 team members across sailing, design, logistics, communications and support.

The structure of the team is unchanged from the America's Cup 2000 but over the last three years, Le Defi Areva has worked non-stop to evolve, develop and hone its approach to the 2003 Challenge. Only the Prada syndicate has displayed the same dedication over this interim period. Le Defi Areva project has gone from strength to strength, using the same elements of key people, management and design to create a new force to be reckoned with in the Hauraki Gulf.


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Le Defi Areva has a bigger team this year, bolstered and fortified by the skills and dedication of top level sportsmen from France, as well as expertise from Danish, British, German, American, Australian and New Zealand team members. Le Defi Areva has a commercial structure - it's a business with a highly professional team which is committed to the single, same long-term objective. To win the America's Cup. This year, to finish in the top four placings.

Le Defi Areva also leased kiwi pride "Black Magic" to train with in Lorient and found her to be a wonderfully efficient boat. Training on this boat taught the French a huge amount about why Team New Zealand holds the Cup".

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Le Défi Areva