Sixth in the two Grands Prix it has contested so far, in Sydney and Los Angeles last week (Canada won), and in the overall ranking of SailGP, the French team is back on deck this weekend for the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix. An opportunity to chat with team manager Bruno Dubois, who is also co-director with Stephan Kandler of K-Challenge and Orient Express Racing Team.
How do you feel about the results achieved by Quentin Delapierre’s team, given that we can’t imagine they’re what you’re aiming for?
No, that’s not what we’re aiming for, but we need to have a boat in working order. For the moment, everything‘s been a bit haphazard, particularly in Sydney, where we weren’t even able to train. We did the commissioning of the boat [the last F50 built, editor’s note] during the regattas. It’s like building a boat for the Vendée Globe and putting it in the water on the day of the start, you know something’s not going to work, especially as these F50s have a huge amount of electronics and hydraulics. The first day was fine, but on Sunday we started to have technical problems which caused us to lose places, so this sixth place was fine for us. In Los Angeles, we also had technical problems, this time with the foils, we still had about fifteen people on the boat ten minutes before the start! We still managed to have a pretty good first day, won the last race, and the next day found ourselves in unprecedented conditions, with the wind dropping, and we didn’t manage to take off with the small foils. The only team that had done all the tests with these foils in these conditions was Canada, who had sailed for three weeks last year, which partly explains their victory. In the end, with this sixth place overall, we‘re not too bad – in fact, we’re in a better position than the two previous years at the same time -, there are still some fine people ahead of us, America’s Cup winners and gold medallists at the Games, but it’s not enough. We’ve won a lot of starts, we’ve got the trick in the breeze, we must find solutions in light airs.
At the same time, you’ve just announced the arrival of major investors and partners, Kylian Mbappé then L’Oréal, is the team now fully sold and financed? And how much is it worth?
Kylian Mbappé has indeed joined a group of investors, including K-Challenge and other sponsor partners, so that today, 75% of the team has been sold. The remaining 25% is about to be sold to a sports investment group, which means that ownership will very soon be 100% independent of SailGP. As for the value, it was $60 million before the sale, but now that we have Kylian Mbappé and other investors, it’s bound to go up. In terms of budget, K-Challenge has the operating license and runs the team with around 8 million euros a year, a budget currently covered by our partners, Accor, L’Oréal, K-Way and Leyton. So it’s clear that we’re more relaxed financially, and no longer have the sword of Damocles over our heads telling us that if we don’t find sponsorship, we’ll be replaced by another team. In the early days of SailGP, this wasn’t too much of a problem, but as the years went by, with franchises up for sale and people coming in with huge amounts of money to buy a team, we felt more and more pressure. In any case, it’s proof that Russell (Coutts, the circuit boss) has succeeded in his gamble of taking SailGP into another dimension. I’ve got people who’ve come from the America’s Cup and are now on the circuit who tell me they had absolutely no idea what a sporting machine SailGP has become. When you’re there, you can feel the power of the thing, which explains why more and more people want to invest. Some people wanted to buy the French team, but we wanted to retain a form of independence with investors we knew, and it’s great to have been able to do that.
Can the circuit grow even bigger?
Yes, I think Russell will bring in a few more teams, up to fifteen. As for the number of events, we probably won’t go much beyond 12-15 events, that’s a very big logistics.
“We’re being watched
in a different way”
How do you get Kylian Mbappé involved in a project like this?
The Accor group, with which it has a partnership, made the connection. For our part, after working with Energy Observer, we were looking for a new foundation to partner the Impact League, with a more societal focus. This was the case with Kylian’s foundation (Inspired by KM), which aims to support 98 young people in their academic, sporting, professional and other projects. So we reached an agreement, in the sense that he bought part of the team and we took on his foundation as a partner association for the Impact League. His mom and his team came to Dubai at the end of last year, and they really liked the team and Quentin, so let’s go! We hope to have Kylian on a Grand Prix, but we know that with stars like that, it’s not easy to organize, but it’s planned, and we’ll try to get him sailing.
With Killian Mbappé on your side, people don’t look at you the same way anymore?
The relationship with SailGP obviously changed when we announced that we were buying 75% of the team. When, on top of that, you’ve got Mbappé coming in and then, two days later, L’Oréal, we’re definitely looked at in a different way. Russell and his teams also say thank you, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved, and for sailing as a whole, it’s a pretty big deal. We’ve had a lot of media coverage, particularly internationally, including a page in Time magazine. It’s great for getting the word out about the team, and that’s really what sponsors are looking for.
And how did you come to an agreement with L‘Oréal?
After the Cup, we asked them if they were interested in continuing with us. When they saw that things were moving, they told us they wanted to get back involved, initially with SailGP. They’re getting their feet back on the ground with a three-year partnership, and then we’ll see how we can build on that, knowing that we want to be in it for the long haul with them.
“This time, no one will be able
to say that we started late”
What about the team, is it evolving?
We’ve kept the core of the team, we’ve brought in Philippe Mourniac as head coach, Camille Lecointre has also joined us, we’ll be announcing some things in the coming weeks about youth and girls projects, and we’re looking at all the circuits. The idea is to create a complete team, not just the 6-7 sailors we have today.
Turning now to the America’s Cup, what is your assessment of Orient Express Racing Team’s campaign in the 37th edition?
There are good things and bad things, but if there were only good things, we’d have been in the final! The day we decided to take on Team New Zealand’s design package, we knew we’d have a boat that would arrive late and very little sailing. We hoped we’d get away with it, and there were little signs that we could, but what’s important in the America’s Cup isn’t necessarily the boat as such when it’s launched, but the ability to develop it. And here, we had neither the resources nor the time to do it properly. Now, we set up this project right from the start with the aim of doing at least two editions. Today, we’re preparing for the 38th edition, and we want to go, even if it’s not definite yet, because we need the means to do it. The fact that we’re investing in SailGP, that we are able to keep our entire team, our set up in Lorient and the development of parallel projects are some good steps in the right direction. This time, no one will be able to tell us that we started late. From a sporting and technical point of view, we’re ready to go as soon as the Protocol is announced, so we’ll know everything this spring.
And what about your partners? Will those from the previous campaign, and in particular those accompanying you on SailGP, be following suit?
Absolutely nothing has been decided yet. The only thing we know is that we have a boat, the team and the tools to do it. We own everything, so we’re off to a better start in terms budgeting, with a Cup coming up very quickly, since there will undoubtedly be events in 2026.
Photo : SailGP
