France has officially entered the 38th America's Cup, with K-Challenge lodging the French Challenger campaign ahead of the 2027 event. The competition will be held in Naples for the very first time, and the French squad arrives with serious credentials and a renewed sense of purpose.
The entry marks France's 15th participation in the world's oldest sporting trophy, a competition that traces its origins back to 1851. Sailing under the colours of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, a yacht club with deep roots in Cup tradition, the French campaign is built on hard-won experience and fresh ambition. The organisation behind it, founded by Stephan Kandler and co-managed with Bruno Dubois, sits at the very heart of how this edition has been shaped.
K-Challenge is no stranger to the America's Cup. The team took part in the 2007 Areva Challenge campaign and returned for the 2024 edition under the Orient Express Racing Team banner. Each campaign has added a layer of maturity, and the group now carries into Naples a clearer vision and greater resolve. Based in Lorient, K-Challenge has established itself as a recognised Sport-Tech force in elite competition, one that treats technological innovation, sporting performance and human excellence as inseparable qualities that have defined the Cup for more than 170 years.
What distinguishes this campaign structurally from previous French efforts is K-Challenge's role in shaping the competition itself. For the first time in the event's 175-year history, the competing teams have come together inside a shared governing body, the America's Cup Partnership (ACP), to take collective responsibility for the Cup's direction and long-term global growth. K-Challenge is a founding member of that structure. Rather than a model built solely around the Defender's authority, the ACP grants each founding team an equal voice, a fundamental shift in how the Cup is governed.
The aim of this new framework is to honour the technical and historical legacy of the America's Cup while steering it toward a more stable, innovative and internationally visible future. K-Challenge's involvement from the outset of this transformation places it in a position of genuine influence, well beyond the role of a challenger simply seeking entry.
On the water, the French squad intends to draw deeply on the country's sailing talent. France has long been regarded as a true sailing nation, producing athletes across a wide range of disciplines and generations. Over the coming months, the team will take shape around leader Quentin Delapierre, with the door open to international contributors, whether sailors, engineers, designers or athletes developed through the K-Challenge Akademy.
Pierre Roinson, President of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, spoke to the collaborative spirit the campaign embodies. "The America's Cup remains a collective adventure driven by committed yacht clubs and passionate teams. By taking on this new challenge, we are seeking to place France in a dynamic that combines sporting excellence, innovation and cohesion. The French team can be assured of the support of all the members of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez."
Stephan Kandler and Bruno Dubois, CEOs of K-Challenge, outlined the philosophy underpinning the effort. "This campaign is part of a long-term vision. Involved from the outset in the development of the new America's Cup format, we want to capitalise on talent, combine experience and youth, and make the French Challenger a sustainable and successful project, capable of competing in Naples in 2027."
With the Bay of Naples as the stage and less than two years until racing begins, K-Challenge is positioning the French team not as an outside bet but as a genuine contender, carrying momentum, structural backing and the unambiguous goal of one day returning the Silver Ewer to France.
