GAC Pindar unites with Team Australia

18ft skiff ace Seve Jarvin to skipper the turquoise cat in 2014

GAC Pindar has joined forces with Team Australia, Challenger of Record for the 35th America’s Cup, for this year’s Extreme Sailing Series and has announced a talented young crew to spearhead its 2014 campaign. The new all-Aussie team will be led by Seve Jarvin, 27, who will be the youngest skipper in the series.

This will be GAC Pindar’s fourth full season on the Extreme Sailing Series, during which it has consistently used its participation as a platform to develop young sailing talent. This fits neatly with the ambition of Team Australia’s CEO, Iain Murray who has committed to building a young team from scratch to contest the next America’s Cup.

The idea for the partnership originated from Team Australia crew member Troy Tindill, who re-established contact with GAC Pindar principal, Andrew Pindar, last year having previously been part of the Team Pindar Open 60 support crew for Mike Sanderson’s 2004 Transat campaign.

The new GAC Pindar skipper, Jarvin is a seven-times 18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan Championship winner aboard Gotta Love it 7, and also World Youth Match Racing Champion, having started his sailing career as a youngster on Sydney Harbour, the final venue for the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series.

While Jarvin is new to both multihulls and the Series, his crew is packed with know-how. Supporting the young skipper will be Ed Smyth (39, Trimmer), who has competed in three America’s Cups and last year sailed on the winning The Wave, Muscat. Alongside Jarvin will be Sam Newton (27, Bowman), who was part of Oracle Team USA’s America’s Cup winning crew and Troy Tindill (30, Mainsheet), who sailed with Artemis in the America’s Cup World Series.

Jarvin and the team can also expect significant input from four-times World Match Racing Champion and former GAC Pindar Extreme Sailing Series skipper, Ian Williams who will be joining the team as coach for the first two events in Singapore over 20-23 February and Oman on 19-22 March.

Commenting on the announcement, Andrew Pindar said: “As Official Logistics Provider to the series we are delighted that the competition continues to go from strength to strength. The result of this is our crew faces ever-stiffer opposition from an increasingly illustrious roll-call of skippers.

“Our partnership with Team Australia demonstrates how GAC Pindar is consistently able to attract world-class sailing talent. Combining the team’s experience gathered from three years’ series participation with the sailing potential of our new crew, we head to Singapore with one of our strongest ever line-ups and are confident that we are well placed to upset a few reputations!”

Seve Jarvin added: “I feel incredibly honoured and humbled to be named skipper of Team Australia for GAC Pindar in the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series. It is an amazing opportunity to represent my country with fantastic support from coaches, crew and sponsor. It is up to us now to go and do it."

GAC Executive Vice President, Bill Hill said:  “As a global provider of shipping, logistics and marine services, we are thrilled to see the Extreme Sailing Series visit the new venues of Saint Petersburg and Sydney for 2014. Our business continues to thrive in Australia, so we could not be happier with our all-Aussie crew to help build this momentum.”