DOUBLE CHALLENGE FROM ALFA ROMEO AND NEVILLE CRICHTON

Owner and skipper Neville Crichton's two boats will be competing in two different categories, the racing and mini maxi classes, with the common goal of topping the fleet.
Two exceptional yachts sailed by world-class yachtsmen.

Neville Crichton will be at the helm of maxi Alfa Romeo 2 flanked by strategist Ben Ainslie, a Finn class gold medal winner at the Beijing Olympics. This is Ainslie's fourth Olympic medal and third successive gold (two in the Finns, one in the Laser class, on top of a Finn silver). Ben has been bringing home Olympic medals since Atlanta 1996, and has also won major international championships and raced in the America's Cup. The Olympic champion will be joined by a number of members of the Alinghi team and as well as veteran crew members who have helped to build Alfa Romeo 2's worldwide reputation.

Débutante Alfa Romeo 3 will be under orders of skipper Torben Grael, several times world and Olympic champion (2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze) a veteran of the Round the World and America's Cup events. Torben Grael will be sailing with the world famous Ericsson Racing Team, with several major victories to its name.
A 2008 season already rich in successes thus sees Neville Crichton sealing yet another prestige sailing partnership: first the Alinghi team for the maxis, and now Ericsson are having their turn in the mini maxis.

Mini maxi Alfa Romeo 3 arrived in Antibes from Australia only short days ago and is now fully rigged and ready to sail. The crew will only be discovering the boat's full potential during the course of the event and will be using their evening hours to analyse the data gathered during the day in order to fine-tune performance and make up for their lack of an extended prepping period.

Alfa Romeo and Neville Crichton are thus entering a double challenge in major international yacht racing, confident in their ability to continue the unbroken string of wins achieved from since the Rolex Sydney Hobart event in Australia at the end of 2002.