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Sailing Team
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Knut Frostad, Skipper (38)
Knut is the skipper and the founder of Academy, and later Team Nokia Academy. Knut has raced professionally since the early nineties with three Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races (two as a skipper on Innovation Kværner and Djuice), several other offshore races on big boats and as well on the French Formula 60 circuit (ORMA). He has placed 2nd, 4th and 6th in the Round The World races, won the Sydney Hobart, and one victory and one 2nd place in the Nokia Oops Cup with Team Academy. He started his sailing career as a boardsailor on the Norwegian Olympic team and then went on to sail the Flying Dutchman in the 92 Olympics. Recently he sailed three legs of the 2005/2006 Volvo Ocean Race as Watch Captain onboard Brasil1.
Knut is a well known speaker, consultant and motivator being used extensively by several European companies. He is also a certified Human Element instructor.
Onboard Academy, Knut is helming the boat and being the skipper, in charge of the overall organisation of the boat and the crew.
Knut studied at Oslo Business School, is born in Harstad and lives in Oslo, Norway. |
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Espen Guttmorsen, Tactician (38)
Espen has extensive professional and Olympic sailing experience, having raced two Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races with Knut as well he has won the Sydney Hobart several times. Espen also has a background from Olympic dinghy sailing and is also World Champion in mini-ton. As well as being part of Team Academy, Espen is the Sport Director of the Norwegian Sailing Federation, being in charge of the preparations for the Beijing Olympics. Espen is also a well known coach, both in sailing and handball.
Onboard Academy, Espen is the tactician, being in charge of positioning the boat as good as possible in relation to the wind and the other competitors. During the offshore races, Espen is alternating with Knut on the helm. He is also doing the double handed race in the Nokia Oops Cup together with Knut.
Espen has studied at the Norwegian Sport University, he is from Vestby south of Oslo and lives at Jeløya. |
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Aksel Magdahl, Navigator (27)
Aksel has raced successfully on several Norwegian boats. Specialized in electroincs and navigation, he has been the Navigator in Team Academy since the project’s beginning. From January 2005 until the 2006 season he was also Project Manager for Team Academy.
He is responsible for the electronic and computer systems onboard, and operates them in races from a wireless screen in the cockpit and gives constant input on the meteorological development as well as where we are on the race course compare to the marks, etc. As well as navigator he is the mainsail trimmer.
Aksel is currently finishing his Master of Business and Economics degree at Norwegian School of Management. He grew up on Nøtterøy outside the sailing city Tønsberg south of Oslo, and currently lives in Oslo. |
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Christian Løken, Trimmer (28)
Christian has raced several big boats on the international racing circuit. He started racing onboard Academy in 2004, and onboard he is one of our headsail trimmers. Christian has over the last years developed extensive technical knowledge in boatbuilding and rigging and was the overall responsible for the refit program on Academy before the 2005 season. His latest experience was as a shore crew for Ericsson Sailing Team before the 2005/2006 Volvo Ocean Race.
Christian is from Romerike but lives in Oslo. Christian has also a wide range of other skills, among them film and theatre performance. |
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Frank Kirkeland, Trimmer (30)
Frank has sailed with Team Nokia Academy since 2005. He has raced in the Olympic Laser and 49’er class and campaigned for the Athens Olympics. Frank also has extensive experience as an Olympic coach. On Academy he is one of our trimmers and also works the winches in the cockpit, being one of the strongest in our team. His dinghy experience has proved very valuable on the trimaranas the speed and ways of sailing are quite similar.
Frank is also responsible for terrorizing the sailing team with his back/stomach exercises in the morning training sessions.
Frank has studied at the Sport University in Oslo. He is from Molde on the west coast of Norway and currently lives in Bergen. |
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Joachim "Jokke" Lunde Nærø, Bowman (25)
Jokke sailed the whole last season onboard Academy. He has raced on several good keelboat programs on the Nordic racing circuit. Onboard Academy he is our bowman, being in charge of everything in front of the mast. He guides us through the starts from the front and sets up all the sails in all sail changes. If you see someone in the top of the mast on Academy, it’s Jokke. This can be a very unpleasant job, bouncing around 30 meters above the water in big waves.
Jokke is studying economics at the University in Bergen. He is born in Arendal on the south coast of Norway and lives in Bergen when he is not sailing. |
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Johann Knigge, Pit (26)
Johann sailed with Team Nokia for the latest two editions of the Nokia Oops Cup. He has raced full-time with several big boats for several years, mostly 60-foot trimarans and Volvo Ocean 60's. On Nokia Academy Johann operates the Pit, which involves sail changes, centerboard, foils, etc. Johann posesses an important experience as he sailed this boat with Team Nokia in 2005 and therefore knows it well.
He is from Germany but has lived in Sweden for a long time. In the winter he studies Economics, History and Politics at the Stockholm University. |
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Nicholas Pichelin
Nico sails with the Groupama team in France, and also sailed with Team Academy in 2004, when we won the Nokia Oops Cup. He has extensive experience from professional sailing, amongst them Americas Cup, The Race, Orange world record attempt and the French ORMA circuit. Onboard Nokia Academy he is in charge of the trim.
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