Little America's Cup - Groupama C defends title in Geneva

by Sail-World.com on 20 Sep 2015 Franck Cammas and Louis Viat have sailed their catamaran Groupama C to victory in the Little Cup 2015, better known as the Little America's Cup and secured a successful defence of the title they won in 2013 in England.

Sailing on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, Groupama C took the title with a score of 2 points to 0 against the Swiss team of Axon in the final. Groupama C dominated the qualifying rounds and match being unbeaten in all races sailed.

Above 5kts of wind, Groupama C was unbeatable once she was able to foil - a product of her Lorient-based design team, which is now setting its sights on the 35th America's Cup.



The odds-on favourites since the start of the week, Franck Cammas and Louis Viat certainly lived up to the spectators' expectations: 'It's one thing to be favourites and quite another to secure a win. Louis Viat and I have really enjoyed racing together even though it's a tough race zone to apprehend'. Despite the light airs that dominated proceedings throughout the week, the foiling catamaran only let victory in one of the eight races go to her rivals: 'The boat is extraordinary. In the slightest puff of breeze, she accelerates away and rises up on her foils,' explains the skipper of Groupama.

Groupama C was designed by Franck Cammas and Groupama sailing team's design office in 2012, just after winning 2010/11 Volvo Ocean Race.

The team attracted some attention from other America's Cup teams. 'We've had a lot of visits over the past week. Some of them are announced beforehand, others are more discreet like that of Andy Claughton, chief technology officer in the English BAR team for the 35th America's Cup,' explains one of the members of the French team.

'Groupama C is very well-designed and the technology developed here is clearly akin to that used on the boats in the Cup. The work carried out by our team will contribute a great deal to the design of the future Groupama Team France. Indeed, this is what drove us to get involved in the Little Cup back in 2012 with Groupama's help'.

Often one step ahead, and not just on the water, Franck Cammas is one happy skipper: 'It's always great to win. Thank you to all the team who have participated in this project. The work hasn't been for nothing and this result testifies to that. We'll now address the America's Cup more directly. What we've learned here will be particularly beneficial given that the days spent sailing the AC45 are limited by the rules governing the Cup'.

The event was sailed in 25ft C-Class catamarans to the Int C-Class rule, and feature what is probably the highest power to weight ratio of any sailing vessel. Groupama C will be dismantled on Sunday and repatriated to Lorient, the French team's base for their Volvo Ocean race, America's Cup, Little America's Cup and Olympic sailing projects.

Next move for Franck Cammas, will be to return to Lorient, then La Rochelle, before heading over to Barcelona to join his crew, Sophie de Turckheim, to prepare for the European Nacra 17 Championships.

About Groupama
Boosted by its various brands, Groupama, Gan and Amaguiz, the Groupama group, France's top mutual insurance company is expanding its insurance, banking and financial services in eleven countries. The group comprised 13 million clients and 34,000 representatives around the world, with a turnover totaling 13.6 billion euros.