2024-08-17 09:45:44
“Micro Europe” today exclusively reports on the America’s Cup, a famous sailing race that will be held in Barcelona on August 22. Stéphane Kandler, founder and owner of the French Orient-Express team, was José-Manuel Lamarque’s guest.
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French Challenge Orient Express co-director Stéphane Kandler competes for the third time in 2019 America’s Cup This year it will be held in Barcelona on August 22nd.
franceinfo: The America’s Cup is an event born in Europe. It was held on the Isle of Wight in 1851 and is still an event participated by Europeans. And in this game, the winner decides when the next game will take place?
Stephen Candler: Yes, absolutely, the America’s Cup has this peculiarity: the winner – what we call the “defender”, the one who defends his trophy – decides all the rules, almost the rules for the next edition. That’s how it happened. It’s like if you were a World Cup winner and decided to make a square ball with a diamond-shaped pitch. You are free to do whatever you want. This is the oldest international sailing competition. It was born in 1851 and has been held for 37 times. So it is indeed the oldest sporting trophy in the world. The biggest sailing competition is a bit like our World Cup, if you will.
It’s the New Zealanders who have to defend their title this year. They decided to hold it in Barcelona. How many ships, how many teams?
There will be six international teams representing six countries: Switzerland, France, Italy, the United States, and New Zealand. The “Youth America’s Cup” and “Women’s America’s Cup” also have 12 teams participating, so there are 12 countries participating in this tournament.
Nearly two months or more of racing?
Yes, that’s the special thing about the America’s Cup, it’s a potentially long tournament. The more participants, the longer it will take. So the “defender”, who qualifies for the finals of the America’s Cup itself, while the challengers, those who want to snatch his trophy, must first eliminate the other side.
So we’ll start in August and then have a series of qualifiers until the end of September. So for almost a month and a half we will be trying to qualify for the Grand Final and then bring the America’s Cup back to France.
Does everyone have the same type of boat?
The boats used in these races are raced according to precise rules: length, width, weight. Everything is calculated, but everyone builds his own ship in his own country. So all boats are different. Obviously, each team built its own boat, with its own characteristics, but they were in what we call “box rules,” that is, a kind of shoebox of imposed rules. ofThe rules are called specifications and they define the basic rules of the boat. Within these rules, a bit like Formula 1, you try to build the fastest boat.
European majority again in this game?
Europe was originally the home of the America’s Cup, but eventually it was more often held in the United States, New Zealand or Australia. But it turns out that Europeans are the biggest fans and there are many sailing countries in Europe. It is the best continent to compete in the America’s Cup.
I have to say that rowing was born in Europe?
Yes, yachting was invented by the British, and finally, we know about the old rivalry between the British and the French, for example at sea, which lasted until the America’s Cup…
How do you imagine the game ending?
Look, we went into the America’s Cup with high ambitions. In the America’s Cup we often start too late. We don’t necessarily have the time to design a good boat. We started early this time and we thought we would be very competitive. The first thing we know is that we even get very ambitious. So we have to fight for victory. At the same time, in any case, we will settle in Lorient after the game because we also have a development project in this area.
We will follow you in Barcelona from August 22nd to October 27th…
Yes, the most important thing is that we hope that a lot of fans will come because this is in Barcelona and not too far from France. then you can go to official websiteall the teams are there and you can sign up and receive our newsletter with all the information about the French teams and especially about the competitions.
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