Peyron brothers take on 34th America's CUp

Multihull guru brothers unit in new campaign

After several months of study and consultation, French sailing brothers Loïck and Bruno Peyron have joined forces to mount a French challenge for the 34th America's Cup. Both have more than 30 years experience in racing multihulls, Bruno, the elder brother, best known for being the first person to set the Jules Verne Trophy and creator of 'The Race' while Loick is a multiple ORMA 60 champion and has more inshore catamaran racing experience than his brother particularly in the D35 class on Lake Geneva and this year with Oman Sail in the Extreme Sailing Series as skipper of Masirah. Loick was also shotgun helmsman for Ernesto Bertarelli during the 33rd America's Cup.

The Peyron brothers attended the America's Cup meeting held in Paris on Friday. They are also talking to All4One, the team of Stephane Kandler and Jochen Schümann about uniting the two groups.

Despite repeated efforts, dating back to Baron Bich's first challenge in 1967, France has never succeeded in making much of an impression on the America's Cup. Now with the change to solid wingsail catamarans, technology in which French sailors and companies have unparalleled experience compared to the rest of the world, the Peyrons hope that this will be France's best opportunity yet.

The Peyrons will spend the next three months attempting to bring together the necessary resources from the funding to the personnel to technical expertise in attempt to make their campaign a reality.

Bruno Peyron commented: “Having the America's Cup for the first time in multihulls presents us with a simple challenge: France, the world leader in multihulls for the last 30 years, to capitalise on its assets or will it be that other nations can catch up in 3 years our 30 years of experience? We have three months to answer this question and three years to prove it. Beyond individualism, beyond protectionism, I am convinced that we must come together to move forwards. Impossible? We have already proved that the impossible is often possible”.

Loïck Peyron added: “One hears that the America's Cup is a business of specialists… that is good news! From Formula 18 to the Route du Rhum to the Jules Verne Trophy, the French are the specialists in multihulls, so let's go… together!"