China Team's alliance with Le Défi gives it a tremendous head start as a new team. The French squad competed in the last two America's Cups, as well as the Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004. Along with the assets of up-to-date boats and design information, Le Défi also offers expertise on the water and America's Cup project management skills ashore.
The team is slowly integrating Chinese sailors into the programme, and initiated a recruiting drive in China over the winter 2005-2006. Some of the top Chinese sailors auditioned for the team and will be integrated into the race crew over time.
China Team needed to work quickly to be ready for the first races of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 4 & 5 and was only able to sail for a couple of weeks before the start of racing in June. But in the event, the Chinese squad was able to beat the South Africans in their match to get off the bottom of the table in Act 4. Similarly, a mid-fleet result in the last race of the fleet series allowed it to win a tie-break over the South Africans to finish in 11th place.
In Sweden and Italy, China Team finished in last position in both fleet and match racing events. The team was leapfrogged by the South Africans who were sailing a new boat and have been training for many months more than the new China Team.
The poor results continued for China Team in 2006, with the squad in last place all the way through. China Team didn't win a match race this season. The only highlight was a ninth place finish one fleet race in Act 11.
This is a team that is taking a long view to the Cup however, and it won't be discouraged by poor, but predictable results. There's nowhere to go but up for this team.
www.china-team.org
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