Youth to Challenger pathway at centre of Orient Express Racing Team

Since its first appearance in 2013 the Youth America's Cup has earned its place in the sailing world, not only as a challenging and entertaining event, but also as a now proven pathway to the heights of professional yacht racing.

A decade on and in 2024 the UniCredit Youth America's Cup is all set to deliver more of the same, and with no fewer than 12 teams taking part — six from the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup defender and challenger teams, including France's Orient Express-L’Oréal Racing Team, and another six invitees representing yacht clubs in Spain, Holland, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Australia.

As with the New Zealand Defender and a number of the challenger squads, Orient Express Racing Team is now home to several high-calibre racers who owe at least a part of their success to the extraordinary experience that is the Youth America's Cup.

Among them is power sailor Timothé Lapauw: "My first experience in the world of the America's Cup was during the Youth America's Cup in 2017 in Bermuda," he says. "I was lucky enough to be part of the Team France Jeune for the Youth America's Cup skippered by Robin Follin in the early days of foiling.

"That was the year that Peter Burling won his first real America's Cup. And we knew that during the previous edition of the America's Cup in 2013, he was on the Youth America's Cup team and he won it. So there was this sentiment of being able to do something big and potentially to be able to leapfrog into another campaign off the back of it. Why not?"

Another element of the 2017 campaign which remains embedded in the Orient Express Racing Team ethos, is that the Youth Team were part of, not independent of the Challenger Team organisation, as is the case now with the Women's Team as well.

"What I really remember from that Youth America's Cup was the way we were integrated into the challenger team with all the sailors, and the technicians," says Lapauw.

"Learning different trades, whether in technology, technical or pure sailing, I think we've all grown from that and that contributed enormously to where we are today."

Another member of the current French challenger organisation is Antoine Rucard, the team's AC75 Coordinator, who was a crew mate of Lapauw's in Bermuda on Team France Jeune's AC45 foiling catamaran.

"We were six on board, with Robin Follin at the helm, Valentin Sipan doing tactics, Robert Solune trimming the wing, Bruno Mourniac trimming the headsail, and Timothé Lapauw on the bow. I was a floater, so I was on the bow with Tim," he recalls.

As for so many others he recognises the role that the Youth America's Cup has played in his racing career, and pays tribute to the extra impetus provided by the French sailing team.

"We got a foot in the door of professional sailing. We arrived in Bermuda at the heart of a team that was racing for the America's Cup. After that, the transition was fairly easy because we were made very welcome by the Challenger team at the time, which was led by Franck Cammas.

"All of the team members are on professional teams today, so it has been a great experience."

The Youth America's Cup also played a pivotal role in the career of Jason Saunders, trimmer on the French challenger's AC75 foiling machine. He recalls: "The 2013 Youth America's Cup came just after my first Olympic Games in London, where I finished fourth in the 470s.

"It was the first Youth America's Cup and I was selected with a great team that included Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, and Sam Meech, all the sailors racing the Cup now.

"We were able to sail in San Francisco, so we'd seen what the America's Cup was like because we were with the Kiwis. We saw how they prepared for the 2013 challenge. I remember being on the water and seeing the boats sailing around doing 40 to 45 knots, they were incredible machines.

"And that certainly made me dream. It was an incredible experience that helped us a lot, we got a foot in the world of the America's Cup for the first time, so I only have good memories."

The UniCredit Youth America's Cup in Barcelona runs from the start of the Qualification Series on 17 September to the Final Match Race on 26 September.

The 12-strong fleet is divided between the six invited teams and six Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup teams. Both groups will compete in eight fleet races in the Qualification Series, with the top three in each group going into a Final Series of four fleet races. The top two will then compete in a single winner-takes-all Final Match Race.