The French K-Challenge is now the Orient Express © Geoff McKay

The Accor hotel group has named its Orient Express brand as the title partner of the official French challenger for the 37th America’s Cup in 2024. K-Challenge will be known as the Orient Express team.

France, representing the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez yacht club, joined as the event’s fifth challenger in January.

The group’s commitment to sport’s oldest trophy is the latest sign of its ongoing expansion into the maritime world, following the construction of two Orient Express Silenseas sailing ships by Chantiers de l’Atlantique, due to set sail in 2026.

The Orient Express team, led by Stéphan Kandler and Bruno Dubois, and including talented French specialists such as naval architect Benjamin Muyl, skipper Quentin Delapierre, head of performance Franck Cammas, and technical director Antoine Carraz, will face four other challengers at the Challenger Selection Series in September 2024.

The goal is to carry the colours of Orient Express as far as possible into the competition — with the aim of going all the way to the America’s Cup Match against Defender Emirates Team New Zealand.

For the first time in France’s history in the America’s Cup, the French challenge will benefit from the latest generation technology package provided by the Defender. This will allow the Orient Express team to gain time and start on equal terms with its opponents.

“We are very happy and proud to carry the colours of such an iconic French brand as Orient Express, part of the Accor Group, which has a worldwide reputation and exports French excellence,” says Stéphan Kandler, founder and CEO of K-Challenge.

“Accor’s support through two of its brands is a global and ambitious commitment that will allow our sport-tech platform K-Challenge, co-managed with Bruno, to engage in multiple sporting and technology projects. These projects will highlight French know-how, talent and innovation, and contribute to a transition to ecological transportation.”

Stéphan Kandler founded K-Challenge in 2001 for a previous America’s Cup campaign. He was joined in 2021 by Bruno Dubois, and since then the partners have been dedicated to building a French team.

The AC75 Orient Express is scheduled to launch in spring 2024. In the meantime, the sailing team will train on an AC40, a smaller but equally powerful monohull that will also be used as the platform for the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup.

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