Meet the TWINS

Team owner and skipper Erik Maris explained what drew them to the iShares Cup: "We usually sail Farr 40s and Mumm 30s and those kind of boats. We've spent the whole winter racing in the US in the Farr 40 and the season is basically finished for us now, so we were looking for something new and fun to do.

"There was so much noise about these boats that I came across them and thought it might be a good idea, we saw that there was an event in France and that was it!"

The TWINS team have chartered Alinghi's second black Extreme 40, now branded up with TWINS's distinctive graffiti-style logos. Maris takes the helm, coming from a strong one-design keelboat background which includes winning the competitive M30 world championships in Miami in 2006. He is joined by trimmer Thierry Fouchier who has been part of three America's Cup teams - Victory Challenge, Le Defi and K-Challenge. Fellow Frenchman and Olympic cat sailor Philippe Mourniac will be calling tactics, with Chris Tiggeler from the Netherlands on the bow.

"It's all completely new to me - I've never raced on a cat before yesterday in the practice races," admitted Maris, "But I've got good guys with me, we sail a lot together because we've done the Farr 40s together, but some of them are also multihull sailors. The Mourniacs have done a lot of Tornado sailing, and Thierry Fouchier sails with Cammas all the time on the ORMA 60s. So they know what they're doing and I just try and follow and not get us into trouble!"

The team got their first chance to sail the Extreme 40 just one day before the iShares Cup event started, but Maris was already hooked. "It's fantastic. It's great fun, the boat is very technical and enjoyable. [The standard of the fleet] looks very high, it's real racing, it's not just for fun. There's some incredible competitors, it's very high level. People really know what they're doing, so it's very interesting.

"We're just here to have fun and see whether we like it and want to continue next year. We have no objective, but just to do it properly, not embarrass ourselves - which I don't think we should, or at least I hope I won't! - and just have fun and enjoy it!"