Larson recruited for Victory Challenge team

by Bert Willborg on 10 Oct 2006 The American Morgan Larson, 35, is the most recent recruit to Victory Challenge - This will be his third America’s Cup. After AmericaOne and OneWorld Challenge he has now, for the first time, chosen a non-American team.

'I stayed with a sort of national sense. But my heritage is from Sweden, so I still feel I’m with a national team,' he says.

Morgan Larson was strategist with AmericaOne sailing with Paul Cayard and John Kostecki, and had the equivalent position with OneWorld Challenge, with Peter Gilmour and James Spithill in the afterguard.

'I have a unique experience from sailing with them and if I could take a little piece of each of them and bring that to Victory Challenge I think it could be quite helpful,' says Morgan Larson.

He is employed as strategist/tactician for the Swedish America’s Cup challenge as well. The recruitment of further competence even in the afterguard, the on-board decision makers, is a natural consequence of the ongoing two-boat training.

'We have made our previous strategist, Mattias Rahm, second helmsman. We are sailing with two boats, so we naturally have to strengthen the afterguard. Morgan Larson has a perfect background and I’m very pleased that he has decided to join us, bearing in mind how many he’s previously turned down,' says Magnus Holmberg, skipper and helmsman.

Morgan Larson was contacted by more than one America’s Cup-team ahead of Valencia 2007.

'I said no to quite a few, I was in the middle of my preparations for the 49er Class in the Peking Olympics. My partner is on a course in economics just now, so that joining Victory Challenge this late doesn’t disrupt my Olympic plans. The only thing that can disrupt them is if Victory Challenge reaches the America’s Cup Match.'

Morgan Larsson has broad experience from a number of classes, where he has focussed on 49er during the last few years. He has three World Championship bronzes in this class. His other achievements include three World Championship golds and being a 20-time US national champion.

His Swedish heritage is apparent in his surname. Larsson (with a double s) is the sixth most common surname in Sweden. His grandfather’s grandfather left Malmö for Minnesota and the family later moved on to California.

Morgan Larson grew up in Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco.

He is the seventh of the sailors recruited for the two-boat training that has previous America’s Cup experience. Victory Challenge is a Swedish team, but on-board there are sailors from a total of eleven nations: Sweden (ten sailors), Great Britain (five), Australia (five), New Zealand (five), Denmark (three), Spain (two), USA (two), as well as one sailor from each of Argentina, France, Finland and Germany.

For Victory Challenge this is their second attempt on the America’s Cup. In Auckland in 2002/2003 the team finished in fifth place.

Victory Challenge has participated in all the pre-regattas for the 32nd America’s Cup during 2005 and 2006, with SWE 63 (Örn) and SWE 73 (Orm). Both the boats were built for Auckland, but have been modified for the new class rules that apply to the America’s Cup in Valencia. A new boat is currently being built in Göteborg, Sweden, for next year’s challengers’ series, the Louis Vuitton Cup. The boat has been designed by Mani Frers and his father, German Frers, and their design team in Milan. Killian Bushe is boatbuilding manager; he built the winning boat in the Volvo Ocean Race for ANB AMRO.

The next race in the 32nd America’s Cup starts in less than six months time, with the final pre-regatta, the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13. The challengers’ series, the Louis Vuitton Cup, begins on 16 April 2007.

Victory Challenge’s main partners for the 32nd America’s Cup are Tele2, Red Bull and MTG. Metro, Viasat and Bet24 are media partners. Sail Racing, LIROS Yacht Ropes, Sebago and OM Pimespo Ibercarretillas are official suppliers.

www.victorychallenge.com