Louis Vuitton Pacific Series
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was a match race regatta in America's Cup Class yachts in Auckland, New Zealand, during January and February 2009. Racing started on 30 January. The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was organised in association with the New Zealand Government, Emirates Team New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland City and Skycity Entertainment Group. Bruno Troublé was Louis Vuitton's organizer and spokesperson for the Series.
The creation of the event was in response to the legal battle surrounding the America's Cup yachting competition at the time. Because of the long delays from the legal action, and the fact that the 33rd America's Cup became a Deed of Gift match without a defender or challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was established as a competition for other America's Cup racing syndicates.
Ten syndicates took part in the regatta, which used four International America's Cup Class boats loaned to the regatta by Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing. This made participation more affordable for the teams.
Described by its creators as a "fun and friendly event", the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series relied on the concept of loaned boats and quick and short races with an abbreviated schedule to pack 53 match races into a three-week period. Racing was held every day except on one scheduled lay day.
Team New Zealand won the Louis Vuitton Pacific Trophy, beating the Swiss Alinghi team 3–1 in the Cup Final.
In September 2009, this initial event was expanded into the four Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas, held between November 2009 and November 2010. These events continued to be relatively low cost, using a small number of loaned boats to keep syndicates active while waiting for the 8th Louis Vuitton Cup to determine the challenger for the 34th America's Cup.
Course/Schedule
Up to six match races were held each day on a short windward-leeward course laid at the entrance to Auckland's Waitematā Harbour, between Rangitoto Island and the city foreshore. Four different courses were used depending on weather patterns.Emirates Team New Zealand, as hosts, earned direct entry into the Louis Vuitton final. However, the team was also allocated to a pool and raced in the preliminary qualifying rounds. Points won by Team New Zealand in pool play were disregarded when the rankings were determined after the qualifying rounds.
The 10 teams were divided into two qualifying groups of five, with the top three teams in each pool proceeding to the Gold Fleet and the remaining two teams proceeding to the Silver Fleet. The winner of the Gold Fleet earned direct entry into the Challenger's Final, with the remaining teams in the Gold Fleet, and the two winners of the Silver Fleet, proceeding to the Third Round. The winner of the Third Round then met the winner of the Gold Fleet in the Challenger's Final; the winner of which proceeded to the final to race against Emirates Team New Zealand.
The winner of final was presented with the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series trophy.
The Yachts
Team New Zealand provided NZL-92 and NZL-84 for the event and BMW Oracle Racing shipped USA-87 and USA-98 from Valencia for the event. The boats arrived in Auckland in mid-December. All four boats were extensively redesigned and worked on by onshore crew before the event. The boats were simplified and as a result did not completely meet IACC standards. The changes were made to make the boats easier to operate and make the races as even as possible.Pools/Results
Pool A (USA 87 & 98)
30 January – 3 FebruaryPool B (NZL 84 & 92)30 January – 3 February
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