Dassault Systèmes Supports K-Challenge, the French Team for the 32nd America's Cup

Published by: Dassault Systèmes
Date: 02/12/2005

K-Challenge, the French team for the 32nd America’s Cup, is pleased to announce that Dassault Systèmes has become the team’s latest Supporter.

Stephane Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, explains, “It is a great thing for the French Team to have the support of a French company such as Dassault Systèmes, the world leader in its market. This support will allow our Design Team to save time and improve its performance in the development of our new boat. With the new sponsorships of DCN and Dassault Systèmes, the 32nd America’s Cup French Team will demonstrate once again that it is a powerful platform for bringing together first-rate French companies and leveraging their knowledge of technology, sports, and project management.”

The world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products, from conception to maintenance. As a pioneer in this market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes has brought added-value to 80,000 customers in 80 different countries.

Dimitri Nicolopoulos, Design Team Coordinator for K-Challenge, comments on the technological advantages that Dassault Systèmes brings to the K-Challenge design team, noting that the team is in the process of finalizing the designs of the next boat, to be launched in 2006: “I am particularly delighted to announce our collaboration with our new supporter, Dassault Systèmes. We made the key decision to use a parametric CAD in 2004, and chose CATIA. There were three reasons for our choice: the product is world-renowned as the leader in its field; it integrates CAD and structures calculation; and lastly the product support the company provides, which has never let us down. In practice, our structures team is able to develop and optimize a model in an independent way, and then apply it according to the evolution of the boat’s hull shape, in less than a day. This flexibility is essential for attaining the highest degree of responsiveness, which is one of the essential objectives our design team.”

“The America’s Cup associates itself with innovation, high performance, and pushing the envelope: all values that we can relate to at Dassault Systèmes,” notes Laurent Couillard, Director, Channel Development EMEA for Dassault Systèmes. “K-Challenge’s decision to adopt Dassault Systèmes’ PLM solutions for the design and optimization of its boats shows how well-adapted our solutions are to this market. We will continue to develop and deliver solutions which will change the future of shipbuilding. Our partnership offers K-Challenge a solid base from which to establish new performance records.”