Longtze Yachts

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From February to December 2006, a group of China Team members lead by Pierre Mas, team skipper, was testing a number of existing sport boats, sail regattas and match racing. The aim was to get a fleet of boats for its operations, part of them being to attract, train and recruit new sailors from China. For that last objective, the philosophy of China Team was to make a modern sailboat for China.

At that stage the idea came to produce a modern sport boat in China. China Team was just finishing the construction of Longtze, the first Chinese America's Cup and the first carbon composite boat ever built in China. When Luc Gellusseau came back from a sail test in Germany of the new T680 designed by Steve Thompson, he decided it was the right boat for their purposes.

The boat was redesigned and after initial prototypes were built, the China Team tested the boat in a series of regattas. Finally a production series was started at zouintermarine in the Northern coastal city of Qingdao, China which will host the 2008 Olympic sailing venue.