In the opening race today (Friday) France's Pataugas K-Challenge will race aboard USA 98 against China Team in USA 87. The second race will see Britain's TEAMORIGIN in NZL 92 starting against Italy's Luna Rossa 84. The third race will be Emirates Team New Zealand in USA 98 versus Damiani Italia Challenge sailing USA 87. The last race of the day is the newcomer Greek Challenge in NZL 84, up against Switzerland's powerful Alinghi.
Greek Challenge presented on Friday morning its crew line up for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Without losing its Greek identity, the team crew has a strong Kiwi flavor, with a total of 8 New Zealanders out of the 21 sailors that will be racing off Auckland's harbor for the next 2 weeks. Twelve Greeks will be defending their home colors and the 21-man roster in Auckland is completed with 1 South African.
Gavin Brady, 5-times America's Cup helmsman, will drive the boat in the team's maiden participation in a world-level regatta, against the world's top America's Cup teams. In fact, the first ever Greek team for the America's Cup will have to face none other than Alinghi, current defender and 2-time winner, in its first race.
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is the first step in a long-term effort to develop young sailors from Greece and create a stable platform that will lead to a competitive America's Cup team.
Greek Challenge Crew List
Bowman: Kevin Batten, NZL
Mid Bowman: Michail Pateniotis, GRE, Pavlos Kagialis, GRE (Reserve)
Mastman: Dimitrios Benakis, GRE
Pitman: Jeremy Scantlebury, NZL
Pit Assistant: Anestis Karayiannidis, GRE
Port Grinder: Angelos Boubouras, GRE
Starboard Grinder: Konstantinos Chaniotis, GRE
Upwind Trimmer: Carsten Schon, NZL
Downwind Trimmer: Athanasios Pachoumas, GRE, Zachary Hurst, NZL (Reserve)
Mid Grinder: Stu Clarke, NZL
Mainsail Trimmer: Rodney Keenan, NZL
Traveller: Dan Slater, NZL, Panagiotis Mantis, GRE (Reserve)
Helmsman: Gavin Brady, NZL
Floater: Antonis Bougiouris, GRE
Navigator: Marc Lagesse, RSA
Aft Grinder / Skipper: Sotiris Buseas, GRE
Runner: Alexandros Tagaropoulos, GRE, Theodoros Tsoulfas, GRE (Reserve)
Greek Challenge made history today by engaging for the first time with another LVPS team in the waters of Auckland's Waitamata Harbour and winning. They finished Thursday's practice session more upbeat than any other team, because they obtained an advantage over BMW Oracle during their light air practice session this morning. Was it a fluke, or will they be able to repeat the performance in their first matchup in the Round Robin series against Alinghi on Friday afternoon.
Little is known about Greek Challenge CEO, Sotiris Buseas' herculean effort to build the nascent syndicate... The Greeks turned to ISAF #1-ranked match race skipper, Sebastien Col and his World Match Racing Team colleagues for on the water coaching in the Pataugas K-Challenge boat. Nervous at first, Col was impressed with the Greek team. All are very good sailors in their own disciplines, but aside from Marc Lagesse, they had never sailed an America's Cup class boat before. To everyone's surprise, the total immersion ACC training sessions worked well and Patugas K-Challenge's boat was no worse for the wear when the rest of the K-Challenge team arrived in Valencia for pre-LVPS training.
