4th July
2014, Torbole, Italy - Sebastien Col starts his summer of sailing on
foiling boats with the Moth Italian National Championships kicking off today as
part of The Foiling Week in Torbole, Lake Garda, Italy.
The talented skipper who was at the helm of the French
Challenger for the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia in 2007, runner-up of the
World Match Racing Tour in 2008 and number 1 of the ISAF Match Racing World
Ranking in 2008 and 2009, is taking a new step up in his career, with the
ultimate goal to come back on the America's Cup now organised on foiling boats
since the successful 34th edition that took place in San Francisco in 2013.
Gurit will support Sebastien Col from now on as
official sponsor: the composite materials, engineering and solution experts have been involved in many top marine projects worldwide and
have chosen Sebastien Col to be their new ambassador on land and on the race
courses where he will compete in 2014.
The Moth Italian National
Championships are taking place July 4-6th in Torbole, Lake Garda,
Italy, and they are the first stage on Seb Col’s summer schedule on foiling
boats.
After having sailed many
years at the highest level as a helmsman on the World Match Racing Tour, the
America’s Cup and many prestigious top level racing circuits such as the RC44
and the TP52 circuits, “Seb Col,” who is best known as a tough worker and the
most international French sailor of his level and generation, is taking a new
turn in his career with the challenge to sail as much as possible on every type
of foiling boats in order to develop his skills. His goal is to prepare himself
the most accurate way in order to go back to the America’s Cup with a view to
join a team and to offer his expertise in match racing tactics with the new
foiling approach, his experience of the America’s Cup, but also his experienced
support in coordinating the relationships between sailors, designers and engineers,
based on high technology projects coordination he’s had the opportunity to
manage in full or partly lately.
Sebastien Col explains his
project and what he has done since the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007: “After
Valencia in 2007, we have carried on working with the French team ALL4ONE,
sailing the Louis Vuitton Trophies and the Audi MedCup in TP52, but many
changes occurred and the America’s Cup switched to a new format on multihulls,
and the project stopped. I had already realized in 2010 that I wanted to
complete my America’s Cup and match racing experience by some multihull sailing.
So I started to sail where you could actually get the best experience you can
hope for: sailing offshore on big multihulls. I joined Michel Desjoyeaux and Foncia’s
MOD70 project in 2012, did two transatlantic races and one European Tour,
learning a lot with all the miles we did about the manoeuvres, the driving and
the trimming and tuning of such spectacular engines. Thanks to my good results,
I then had the chance to join team Edmond de Rothschild’s MOD70 Gitana in 2013,
we won all our races, and I found myself definitely addicted to multihull
sailing.
I was doing other
interesting projects on top level monohulls at the same time, and I still do,
but I realized that the America’s Cup had always been what I really wanted to
go back to. When I watched the 34th America’s Cup regattas on
foiling AC72, and the outcome with Oracle Team USA’s win, everything became
crystal clear about what the future would be made of. Besides, having always
had a strong interest in technology since I studied composite materials and
worked in my father’s boatyard while I started to compete in match racing, I
can easily say that the technology side of the America’s Cup has always
attracted me, probably as much as the sailing side.
So I decided to go full
speed into what the America’s Cup has become: match racing on foiling boats,
combining all the strong and proven skills that I have, but being very
realistic with the fact that I have a lot of work in front of me. My motivation
is huge, and I think the Moth in particular will help me make fast progress on
foilers, even if I will need to spend a huge amount of hours on the water. It
is actually what I already do during all my spare time when I’m not working on
the 100ft Wally I’ve been with for four years now (Magic Carpet 3), where high
technology, long term project coordination and management such as on the
America’s Cup are my main focuses: an other key asset that I have been able to develop
on strong bases thanks to Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones.
The Moth is the perfect
tool for me. It is accessible when starting from scratch, and the French
Sailing Federation has helped me a lot by providing me the boat. Also the
learning curve factor is very important. Last but not least, it is about
getting in touch with a completely new network of specialists too. All in all,
the whole project is about starting a new adventure the right way.
2014 is a quantitative and
a building phase, as I call it. I don’t have results targets, which would be
unrealistic at this stage, and I will need to step back especially with this
first Moth regatta, since my priority is to learn as much as possible. Besides,
I also need to test as many boats as I can to get a maximum of information, in
order to build the second phase for 2015 from there with my own project,
possibly a GC32, which should also help me to achieve the goal to join an
America’s Cup team at some point. I will of course continue to sail with the
Moth next year as well. The dream project would be to have a third type of
boat, but we are not there yet, since we need to fund the project first. My
strength stands in the fact that I like to understand projects 100% and with a
360° view, which also makes sense for sponsors who work the same way for
obvious reasons: they need to keep control to achieve their goals the best
possible way.
There is a lot of work to
come, but I’m very excited about it and eager to give all that I have to succeed,
and I hope that some other sponsors will see their interest in taking up the
challenge with me and Gurit.”
Gurit: new official sponsor for Seb Col Racing
In order to support him in
his new challenge, Gurit has decided to join Sebastien Col in his quest as
Official Sponsor. Gurit has over 30 years’ experience working alongside the
world’s leading designers and boat builders, combining a unique technical
approach, integrating structural design, materials science and advanced process
engineering, enabling Gurit to offer the most comprehensive composite solution
in the marketplace. Indeed, the well-known composite materials specialist has a
dedicated marine projects department that now supplies
the full spectrum of marine projects worldwide.
Gurit has chosen to support Seb Col within the top racing world, where
their composite materials are key to the high technology designed boats we can
find on all the race courses around the world, including the G32’s and America’s
Cup. Philip Aikenhead, Gurit’s Regional Sales Manager for the UK, comments: “High end composite material
technology has an established path of filtering into mainstream marine
construction. For this reason Gurit is very focused on developing materials
that perform at the highest level.
Boats flying on foils is not new but flying on Carbon fibre foils is,
this is where our partnership with Sebastian will help us identify real life
race course loads and wear of our material. With the next generation of foilers
on the drawing board we strive to make our materials the choice for serious
race winning contenders. All the team at Gurit wish Seb Bonne Chance in the
regattas”.
Seb Col adds: “I’m very proud to have Gurit at my side from now on.
Their trust is a proof that taking up that challenge together will allow to
show how much the collaboration between what’s going on on the water and
technology, and especially composite materials behind the boats, are success
key factors. I’ve for sure become a sailor addicted to foiling lately, but I’ve
also been working on the development of new projects that involve design and
composite materials, which is something that has become significant in my
professional evolution after observing and analyzing the big jump forward that
the sailing world has achieved since the 34th America’s Cup. Having
a partner such as Gurit will make a big difference in the close future.”
Right after the Moth
Italian National Championships, Seb Col will move not too far along the shore
of Lake Garda to Malcesine, since he’s been granted a wild card for a very
special event: The Foiling Week Moth
Invitational, taking place for the very first time of the history of The
Foiling Week on July 8th. Eight of the best mothies in the world are
invited to fight in an innovative short course, very fast and tactical: Ben
Paton (GBR), Rob Gough (AUS), Josh Mcknight (AUS), Stefano
Rizzi (ITA), Andrew McDougall (AUS), Chris Rast (SUI), Anthony
Kotoun (ISV), Tom Offer (GBR), and they will be joined by two wild
cards: Carlo De Paoli (ITA) and Seb Col (FRA).
Seb Col will then change boat for a special test
session as skipper with a crew this time on a GC32 with a famous French sailing
magazine on July 9th, still on Lake Garda, another foiling boat that
he has been able to get to know better during their successful launch event on
Lake Traunsee in Austria, where Seb was one of the lucky invited skippers last
month and finished 1st of his group.
Next steps for Seb Col as
regards to his Moth programme will be the UK National Championships taking
place in Hayling Island July 16-17th, followed right after by the
Moth World Championships July 19-25th, still in Hayling Island, UK.
About Sebastien Col:
Sebastien
Col is one of the only French sailors who has been racing on most of all
international top level sailing circuits, where the sailing experience and the
mastering of match racing but also of all other sailing disciplines are
compulsory to win (America’s Cup, World Match Racing Tour, Audi MedCup/TP52,
RC44, IMOCA 60’, Wally, MOD70, A-class, Moth, GC32, to name a few). His
ultimate goal is to go back to the America’s Cup in order to bring all his
skills and professionalism to a competing team, but also to set up his own
project on a foiling multihull circuit in 2015. His participation at the
highest level on the Moth circuit is crucial for his foiling preparation and
expertise development, as he can sail against the best mothies in the world.
Seb Col’s philosophy: “I
do believe a lot more in determination than in aggressiveness. In the sailing
duel, the ratio is not physical as in boxing. We see our competitors through
their boats. Determination makes it possible to get the best from each sailor.
The human relationship is capital in sailing.”
About Gurit:
Delivering the future of composite solutions
The companies of Gurit Holding AG,
Wattwil/Switzerland, (SIX Swiss Exchange: GUR) are specialised in the
development and manufacture of advanced composite materials, tooling systems,
structural engineering solutions, and select finished parts. The comprehensive
product range comprises epoxy and phenolic prepregs, SPRINT™, Gurit® structural
cores (Corecell™, PVC, G-PET™ and Balsaflex™), epoxy Ampreg and PRIME™
laminating systems, Spabond adhesives, and other related products. Gurit is
uniquely positioned to serve global growth markets, and has production sites
and offices in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the UK, Spain, Australia,
New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Ecuador, Brazil, India and China.
Mobile Site: Gurit has launched a Mobile Site, so you
can use a smart phone to access and view Gurit content which has been
customised for mobile and tablet devices: mobile.gurit.com
Contact Seb Col Racing Communications & Sponsorship
Stephanie Nadin
Valkyria PR
+33(0)6 11 50 65 21
stephanie@valkyriapr.com
For further information on Gurit:
Katie Homes, Marketing Communications Manager
Email: katie.homes@gurit.com; Phone: +44 (0) 1983 828
297; Mobile: +44 (0) 7793 417 355
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