At 58, Thierry Fouchier is one of the most experienced French sailors when it comes to the America’s Cup, with six participations to his name, including victory in 2010 with the Americans on BMW Oracle. Now back as a consultant for the Canal + group, which is broadcasting the 37th edition, the sailor from Marseilles talks to Tip & Shaft about the forces at play as the Louis Vuitton Cup, the elimination round between the five challengers.
▶︎ From a general perspective, how is this 37th edition of the America’s Cup shaping up?
It’s a classic edition, there’s nothing extraordinary about it, apart from the boats, which are as stunning as ever. The village looks a bit like what we saw in San Diego (in 1995), with the bases pretty far apart, so everyone’s pretty much in their own corner. It’s a far cry from the Valencia edition, for example, where all the teams were in the same place, which really gave the event an incredible energy. After that, it’s a bit like what we saw at the Paris Olympic Games, the weather conditions have to be right for the show to be good, and for the moment they’re looking pretty light, at least for the next few days.
▶︎ With only six challenges entered, is the Cup still difficult to get into?
Yes, completely. It’s a competition in which you have to build up a lot of history and experience, and you don’t get into it overnight. It’s still an event that can frighten some candidates because it’s complex in terms of human, financial and technological resources. You can see that it requires a lot of investment to try and catch up with the top teams such as Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa or American Magic, and what’s more, these investments have to be made early on. In that respect, I think the French challenge has pulled off a great coup by negotiating the design package with the New Zealanders. In a way, it saved them time in terms of catching up, and the fact that they had access to this technology and this design enabled them to make up for the handicap of having started later than the others.
▶︎ Do you see them becoming more established over time, and do you think we’ll see more teams at next year’s event?
In my opinion, we can trust Stéphane Kandler and Bruno Dubois (the two founders and directors of the French challenge) to ensure that everything doesn’t stop once the team has completed its adventure in this edition. Their underlying idea is to build continuity, to manage to retain the loyalty of the partners so that, the day after their elimination, or their victory, which I hope they do, they can take advantage of this experience to continue their story, by keeping the teams and attracting other people to continue to grow. I also think that this edition, in Europe, in Barcelona, can give ideas to other challengers. It was more complicated in 2021, because it was in New Zealand and the Covid was added, which inevitably put off potential team investors, but this is different.
“The French have the best
machine in the fleet”
▶︎ 13 and 12 teams (including the 6 competing in the America’s Cup) are entered in the Youth and Women‘s America‘s Cup respectively. Can these two competitions be a good stepping stone towards the next Cup?
Absolutely, it’s really interesting to see new teams entering the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup, as well as some historic players returning, like the Swedes from Artemis. That tells me that if the Cup stays in Europe for the next cycle, it could attract other challengers. We’re seeing a new generation of sailors arriving who are full of talent and learning to use the AC40s, which are a smaller version of the AC75s. Perhaps a taste of the Youth or Women’s America’s Cup will enable teams and investors to rally around this new generation and give them the chance to compete in the America’s Cup one day. We remember Peter Burling and Jason Saunders who won the Youth (in 2013) and we can see where they are today. I think that’s a very positive sign for the future of the Cup.
▶︎ Talking about the contenders, what lessons did you draw from the preliminary regatta won last week by Emirates Team New Zealand?
We saw a defender above the rest, the Italians were very strong, the Americans were a bit inferior, but in my opinion, they’ll be there. I think they have a super high-performance boat with a philosophy that’s a bit different from the others, which is interesting in terms of ergonomics and hull shape. It’s a bit early to say, but she does seem to be more suited to medium conditions, which means she’ll suffer a bit in light airs. I’ve found the English a bit of a struggle, but not too far behind. They too have a boat that’s a bit extreme in terms of volume and shape, while the Swiss, from what I’ve seen so far, lack a bit of bottom speed. They’ve got a good handle on their boat, but I get the impression that they’re lacking a bit of horsepower.
▶︎ What about the French? What can expect Orient Express racing Team from this Louis Vuitton Cup?
The semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup are within their grasp, because they’re making progress every day, they’ve got the right method, I see them every morning on the base and I can feel a great energy in this team. What’s important is that they have confidence in their boat, they know they have a good machine in their hands, and for me, it’s the best in the Louis Vuitton Cup fleet, the benchmark, it’s up to them to find the keys to go faster than the other challengers. Every day that they’re out on the water, they‘re finding new things, they’re putting in place strategies that are paying off, as we saw at the start against the Swiss on Thursday (victory, followed by a defeat against Luna Rossa). I think they have a great card to play, like no French challenge has ever had before.
▶︎ What differences do you notice between the boats?
Apart from the Americans, everyone is lining up the sailors and cyclists with pods of varying sizes and heights, the most extreme being the Swiss boat, which has a very aggressive pod. Otherwise, I find that three boats look a bit alike, those of the French, Team New Zealand and the Italians, with a fairly slim hull shape. The British boat is very bulky at the front, and then it’s quite a straight boat, less round than the three I’ve just mentioned. As for the Americans, they have chosen a minimal hull volume, with a very advanced crew centre of gravity which, in my opinion, is a plus in terms of performance, and a rather unique choice of position for the cyclists: they try to put them as low as possible to lower the centre of gravity and the sides of the boat. Overall, we feel that each team has enormous potential, but that not everyone has found it yet. I think that throughout the competition, as was the case in the previous edition, we’ll see the boats make considerable progress.
“It’s going to come down to
starts and manoeuvres”
▶︎ As is often the case in the Cup, is it likely that the challenge with the fastest boat will win?
It’s possible, but I think that compared to the 2021 edition, the gaps have really narrowed and that a lot will depend on the starts and the manoeuvres, more than on the intrinsic speed of the boat, even if that remains important. The start phase, in particular, is going to be really critical. In 2021, we saw that the New Zealanders could afford to get off to a bad start and win the Cup. In my opinion, we no longer have the right to get off to a bad start. As we saw on Thursday in the match between the French and the Italians, they started virtually level, but the Italians managed to push the French to the boundary and then the match was practically over. So there’s going to be a lot riding on the start, but also on the manoeuvres, particularly in the light conditions we’re encountering at the start of this Round Robin: any manoeuvre missed is going to be very costly.
▶︎ Is Luna Rossa the big favourite for the Louis Vuitton Cup?
Today, looking at the preliminary regatta and the start of the Round Robin, yes, they’re a cut above the rest. With the experience of the last Cup, the fine-tuning of their boat and the talent on board, I think they’re hard to beat. They’ve sailed a lot and have a really solid team. I’m still impressed by the relationship between Francesco Bruni and Jimmy Spithill, which is really clear. We saw it again on Thursday, Francesco Bruni is really the metronome of this team on the water, he gets everyone going in the right direction, he makes the right choices.
▶︎ And is the New Zealand defender still the favourite to retain the Cup?
Yes, because as soon as they’re in front, they have a little extra speed, as we saw in the preliminary race. The Peter Burling / Nathan Outerridge pairing seems to be working really well, they get on really well and I think they complement each other a little better than Peter Burling and Glenn Ashby did in the last Cup. Hearing them out on the water, it’s a bit like the fluid communication they have on Luna Rossa. And it’s fair to say that the New Zealanders didn’t show everything in the preliminary regatta, they still have a lot of development time until the Cup Match, so they remain the favourites today, even if I think the gap between them and the top challengers has narrowed.
Louis Vuitton Cup: how it works?
The Louis Vuitton Cup kicked off on Thursday, and will take the form of a double Round Robin between the five challengers (29 August-11 September) – each team will compete twice, with Team New Zealand taking part, but the matches against the defender will not count – at the end of which the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals – only one team will be eliminated. This is followed by the semi-finals (14-23 September, first to 5 wins qualifies), then the final (26 September-7 October), with the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup (first to 7 wins) then facing Emirates Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup Match (12-27 October, first to 7 wins wins). All the results are here.
Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup
