FACTBOX-Sailing-The 11 challengers for the America's Cup
(Reuters) - Following is a factbox on the 11 teams who are taking part in the Louis Vuitton Cup hoping for the chance to challenge Swiss syndicate Alinghi for the America's Cup in June.
The Louis Vuitton Cup series of race-offs on April 16 (teams in order of their standings after a series of warm-up regattas over the last two years, listed with their sail numbers and names of boats):
EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND - NZL92, NZL84
The Kiwis first challenged for the Cup in 1986. The current syndicate was established in 1993 and swept the America's Cup match 5-0 in 1995 under Sir Peter Blake. They held on to it in 2000 but soon afterwards a group of their sailors left for new team Alinghi and won the Cup for the Swiss syndicate in 2003.
Now led by Grant Dalton, winner of several round the world races, Team New Zealand is at the top of the challenger table. With a smaller budget than other favorites, they have trained at home a lot and keep coming back to Valencia in fine form, winning more than 60 percent of their races against the three other big teams -- Alinghi, BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa.
Against Alinghi, they have won 50 percent of their head-to-head matches, by far the highest of any challenger.
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BMW ORACLE RACING - USA98, USA87
The U.S. syndicate was set up by Oracle founder and chief executive Larry Ellison in 2000 and made the final of the LV Cup in 2003, losing to Alinghi.
Over the last two years they had a clean record of wins against smaller teams but despite some close races they won only about half of their matches against Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa and 20 percent against Alinghi.
Skippered by New Zealander Chris Dickson, the team has drawn on the technological expertise of its two main sponsors and is estimated to have the biggest budget in port at about $130 million.
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LUNA ROSSA CHALLENGE - ITA94, ITA86
The Italian team was created by Prada chief executive Patrizio Bertelli in 1997. In its first challenge, in 2000, it won the LV Cup but went on to lose the America's Cup match against the New Zealand defenders 5-0.
In 2003, Luna Rossa (Red Moon) went out of the LV Cup in the semi-finals.
This time, with a more international team skippered by Francesco de Angelis, Luna Rossa has had mixed results, winning fewer than a third of its races against the other big teams, including Alinghi.
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DESAFIO ESPANOL 2007 - ESP97 ESP88
This is the fourth time a Spanish crew has challenged for the America's Cup, the first being in 1992. The team includes sailors from those previous challenges as well as new international names, such as the hugely experienced Paul Cayard who joined this year as consultant.
Desafio Espanol (Spanish Challenge) have fought ruggedly in the middle of the pack and were the only smaller team to win a race in the last fleet regatta before the LV Cup starts. They have never beaten Alinghi head-to-head.
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MASCALZONE LATINO - CAPITALIA TEAM - ITA 99, ITA90
This is the second challenge from Mascalzone Latino (Latin Rascal), which made a splash last time with some strong racing off Auckland.
Owned by Italian shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato, the team have had mixed results over the last two years, doing better in fleet racing than head-to-head match racing. In the last fleet races they came second, behind Alinghi, but have never beaten the Swiss team straight on.
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VICTORY CHALLENGE - SWE96, SWE73
The Swedish challenger was set up in 2000 by Jan Stenbeck, founder of telecoms group Tele2, who died just before the last challenge began.
His son Hugo has taken over the team. They have had mixed results over the last seasons but did pull off a win against Alinghi.
Thanks to their new sponsor, Victory Challenge launched a new boat over the winter and are hopeful that will help them power up the challenger rankings.
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TEAM SHOSHOLOZA - RSA83
Not the racing favourites but certainly one of the most popular teams in Valencia, Shosholoza is the first African team to challenge for the America's Cup. The colourful base has always been open to the public and the team blast out the traditional mining song Shosholoza (Go forward) every time they leave dock.
The crew is mostly South African and includes many young sailors from a school set up by syndicate head Salvatore Sarno. The team have also brought in Italians Paolo Cian and Tommaso Chieffi to bulk up experience on the boat.
Shosholoza's performance has improved over the last years with some good wins over other middle-of-the-board teams.
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AREVA CHALLENGE - FRA93
This is the second consecutive LV Cup for the team formerly known as K-Challenge. They had difficulty securing sponsorship, and therefore the money to build a new boat, early this round.
They still pulled off some impressive wins in 2005 but dropped back in 2006. A new boat and crew set-up ended ninth of 12 in the last fleet regatta before the Cup starts.
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+39 CHALLENGE - ITA85
A new challenge set up for the 32nd America's Cup, the crew started off as "Clan des Team" before switching the name to +39, Italy's international dialling code.
The team is made up of Olympic sailors. Skipper Luca Devoti was silver medallist in the Finn class at the 2000 Games and hired the man who beat him, Iain Percy, to helm the boat.
Despite having one of the tightest budgets, +39 have put in some good racing. They looked to be living a fairy tale in the final warm-up regatta this year when they charged out to lead the fleet in the first race but then tripped on a wind change.
Later Team Germany crashed into them, breaking their mast in two. They are now using an old mast, which is likely to hamper their performance.
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UNITED INTERNET TEAM GERMANY - GER89
The first-ever German challenger to sail for the America's Cup, the team languished towards the bottom of the table last year in an old boat bought from Mascalzone Latino.
They had some problems with their new yacht and came 10th of 12 in this year's fleet races. The team are skippered by Denmark's Jesper Bank, twice an Olympic gold medallist who also skippered the Swedish America's Cup challenge in 2002/03.
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CHINA TEAM - CHN95
The first team from China to challenge for the America's Cup, although most of the crew are Frenchmen from Le Defi who challenged in the last two editions of the Cup.
Hampered by a lack of sponsorship, the crew of Le Defi paired up with Chinese businessman Wang Chaoyang to create a new team.
Skipper Pierre Mas has scouted out Chinese talent to add to the crew but one of the team's main problems was building a high-tech America's Cup yacht in China.
The team have bumped along the bottom of the rankings over the last two years.
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