At least 10 teams are set to contest the 2016 GC32 Racing Tour, for this, the third season of foil-born racing for the flying GC32 catamarans.

As GC32 class founder Laurent Lenne puts it: “Racing courses with reaching starts and finishes, on foiling catamarans, with more than ten boats competing – how cool is that? It has never been done before.”

The sizeable fleet includes a mix of keen, enthusiastic amateurs and professionals. They are drawn to the GC32 Racing Tour due to the compelling cocktail it offers: The chance to race ultra-high performance, equally-matched one design foiling catamarans that are affordable and logistically simple to run, in venues that are relatively close together in southern Europe, and which, importantly, have been chosen for their regular winds in order to provide the best possible foiling experience for their GC32 catamarans.

The 2016 fleet includes a mix of return customers and new faces.

The GC32 Racing Tour welcomes French Volvo Ocean Race winner Franck Cammas and his NORAUTO Racing campaign. While Cammas is new to the GC32 Racing Tour, he is far from new to the GC32. In fact, in preparation for his International C-Class Catamaran Championship victory in 2013, Cammas, along with GC32 designer Martin Fischer, developed an 18ft foiling catamaran, which became the test bed for the GC32. Cammas will sail with some of the best French multihull sailors and with youth sailors from the Team France Academy, whose goal is to develop sailors who can compete in crewed racing at the highest level internationally.

Also making its debut on the GC32 Racing Tour is Gunvor Sailing, backed by the Geneva-based commodity trading group, who’s CEO is Torbjörn Törnqvist. The crew of Gunvor Sailing has yet to be confirmed, but will comprise young Swedish sailors with guest appearances from notable sailors such as London 2012 Olympic 49er gold medallist Nathan Outteridge and Francesco Bruni (Gunvor also supports other youth development programs in Sweden, like ice hockey with AIK Hockey).

Switzerland has a long history in multihull racing, where every year hot competition takes place on Lake Geneva in D35 catamarans. Two of the top teams from this join the GC32 Racing Tour in 2016, including the reigning D35 champion, Alex Schneiter’s Team Tilt. Skippered by Schneiter’s Olympic 49er sailor son, Sébastien, Team Tilt is gunning for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. Significantly, their crew is being bolstered this season by the addition of two eminent sailors from Emirates Team New Zealand: skipper and multiple A-Class World Champion, Glenn Ashby, and Ray Davies, considered one of the world’s top tacticians.

Realteam, skippered by Jérôme Clerc, finished the 2015 D35 Championship in fifth place, but won the championship in 2012, when Realteam was also first home in the prestigious Bol d’Or Mirabaud, Switzerland’s premier race. As a group led by skipper Jérôme Clerc, Realteam has been competing for a decade and has also competed internationally on the Extreme Sailing Series, where its top result was third overall in 2014.

Five teams are set to return in 2016. Of these the highest placed finisher in 2015 was the Yann Guichard-skippered Spindrift racing, which was a close third. This year Brittany-based Spindrift racing has one of the busiest schedules of any professional sailing team, also competing on the World Match Racing Tour and the D35 circuit, while also campaigning Spindrift 2, the world’s largest and fastest offshore race boat.

– See more at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2016/03/04/gc32-racing-tour-bigger-than-ever-in-2016/#sthash.lafoOWjv.dpuf