The Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez is backing a second America's Cup campaign, standing again as the Challenger club behind La Roche-Posay Racing Team, France's bid for the 38th America's Cup. The club and K-Challenge used Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez to spell out just how central the SNST's role really is.
It's a role easy to overlook from the outside.
The America's Cup, run since 1857 under its founding document, the Deed of Gift, is unlike most major sporting events in one key respect. Teams don't simply enter as teams. They race under the burgee of an eligible yacht club, which formally issues and carries the challenge on their behalf.
For La Roche-Posay Racing Team, that club is the SNST. The Saint-Tropez club backed K-Challenge through the 37th America's Cup in 2024, and has now taken up the challenge again, this time heading to Naples in 2027 to face the other competing clubs.
That puts the SNST in genuinely elite company. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron carries Emirates Team New Zealand's challenge, the Royal Yacht Squadron stands behind GB1, the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia represents Luna Rossa, and the Société Nautique de Genève backs Tudor Team Alinghi. Several of those clubs have histories bound up with the Cup's own.
Naples is now the focus. Led on the water by skipper and helmsman Quentin Delapierre, La Roche-Posay Racing Team brings together French sailors, engineers, designers and performance specialists under the K-Challenge banner, and the team is now based in the Italian port city that will host the 38th America's Cup.
Naples has already run the second AC40 Preliminary Regatta, held from 24 to 27 September 2026. The city will go on to host the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2027, the series that decides which Challenger goes on to meet Defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the America's Cup Match itself.
For the SNST, the campaign links two quite different sides of the sport. On one hand there's the club's own calendar, more than ten events a year including Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, built around a serious maritime heritage. On the other, there's the America's Cup, which after 175 years is still pushing hard on innovation, technology and raw performance.
Stephan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, said the yacht club is part of the very identity of a challenge within the America's Cup, which gives the relationship with the SNST particular depth.
"Following Barcelona in 2024, we are immensely proud to race under its colours once again for the 38th America's Cup," Kandler said. "The SNST shares our competitive spirit, our respect for the history of sailing and the same determination to keep looking ahead. From Saint-Tropez to Naples, we are now writing the next chapter together."
Pierre Roinson, President of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, said seeing the SNST burgee flying during America's Cup racing is a source of tremendous pride for the club and its members.
"After Barcelona, continuing this journey with K-Challenge and La Roche-Posay Racing Team in Naples places the SNST firmly within one of the great stories of international sailing," Roinson said. "There is also a real consistency with what we stand for in Saint-Tropez: preserving and passing on a strong maritime culture, while remaining open to competition, innovation and the future of our sport."
