When Team Aqua compete in the iShares Cup this year, they will be raising funds for the World Land Trust, which promotes ecological sustainability around the world. Already involved in the RC 44 Class, Team Aqua will use the two sailing platforms to raise money for the organisation.

After a successful first season in the RC 44 Class, Team Aqua has announced that it is moving up to a new level. The winner of the first RC 44 Championship Tour will also compete in the iShares Cup Sailing Series on board Extreme 40 catamarans.

Team Aqua’s objective is to provide a great platform to its international sponsors whilst sailing under the umbrella of the World Land Trust (WLT - http://www.worldlandtrust.org/). The World Land Trust is an international conservation organisation that takes direct action to save rainforest and other biologically important lands.

“Our goal is to have a professional sailing team that competes internationally on some of the worlds most competitive sailing leagues”, said Team Aqua owner Chris Bake. “This structure will give a good visibility to our partners whilst associating them with our values. We are passionate about sailing and we want to obtain good results; but our goal is also to promote ecological sustainability around the world and raise funds for the World Land Trust. We will also be sailing flying the Carbon Balanced Logo (http://www.carbonbalanced.org) as we plan to offset the carbon footprint of our sailing campaign through the Carbon Balanced program run by the World Land Trust.

“This is a very exciting project”, added skipper Cameron Appleton (NZL). “We want to improve our level of sailing by competing in classes that are both very different from each other and challenging. Team Aqua gives us the opportunity to sail against some of the world’s best sailors in different platforms. Obviously, we will have to put a lot of effort into our team to build the areas we are new in. We feel our team structure and the people involved can produce some great results.”

The circuits chosen by Team Aqua are very international and provide racing at the highest level.

The RC 44 Championship Tour is a top level sailing event, initiated by Russell Coutts, that comprises both match and fleet racing. Winner of the first championship Tour, Team Aqua is the current benchmark of this Class, which is a big achievement competing against the likes of Russell Coutts, James Spithill, Sébastien Col and many more.

The iShares Cup is a European circuit for Extreme 40 multihulls with very short and intense races. Amongst the entries are Olympic medallists, America’s Cup teams and other multihull experts.

Team Aqua is an international sailing team based in Dubai and owned by Chris Bake. Cameron Appleton is the team’s professional skipper; he has put together a great team of sailors, both talented and fun to sail with. The team members are Andrew Estcourt, Jeff Brock, Jim Turner, Matt Cassidy, Ben Graham, Kevin Kelble, Scott Kennedy, Alister Richardson, Jonathon Taylor and Dan Johnson.