Gladwell's Line- Final decision pending on Louis Vuitton World Series

by Richard Gladwell on 23 Jun 2009 First published in Sail-World on 26 June 2009


An final decision is still pending on an extension of the highly successful Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, which will introduce a new world series of sailing regattas using America's Cup class yachts.

Already several meetings have been held with 12 teams from 10 countries being present at one discussion. A second meeting was held in Marseilles during the recent Audi MedCup regatta held in that port. Alinghi was believed to have been present at one of these sessions.

Initially a formal announcement of the series was expected this coming Friday, however it is expected that this date may slide pending a final 'get-go' for the complex arrangements and logistics.

The shape of the new series is expected to be a combination of recent developments in the America's Cup, Louis Vuitton Cup, Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, and the Acts sailed in 2005 and 2006 sponsored by Louis Vuitton.

To the build up to the 2000 America's Cup in Auckland Team New Zealand developed the concept of the 'Road to the America's Cup' regattas held in two near identical America's Cuppers – NZL10 and NZL-12, with invited teams and Team New Zealand contesting the final.

Then in the lead up to the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia the concept was expanded considerably by America's Cup Management, in conjunction with Louis Vuitton and the Challengers group, established the concept of Acts initially sailing yachts used in the 31st America's Cup and Louis Vuitton Cups, and then rolling up to Version 5 (being the 5th edition of the America's Cup design rule) for the 2006 series).

Essentially each challenger had to provide their own yacht and support infrastructure, with a ship being used to transport the fleet of 12 teams, support and race management boats between four venues being Valencia (ESP) Marseilles (FRA), Malmo (SWE) and Trapani (ITA).

The concept of the series was to build up to the 2007 America's Cup and provide an edge to the racing which meant that points scored would count towards the Challenger Selection Series (Louis Vuitton Cup), but would not be sufficient to determine the outcome of the CSS before it had even started.

A significant development of the 12 Act series was its ability to operate out of a port using very limited resources. Essentially all that was required was a hard stand area close to deep water and with a crane or two handy to lift the yachts.

With the rejection of a multi challenger series using boats the the new 33AC rule, the door has been opened for the Challengers to do their own thing while waiting for the multihull challenge to be sorted out.

For the first time in the America's Cup's 158 year history there is been no Defender essentially controlling how the Challengers can operate in the buildup to the next America's Cup and the unique opportunity is now there to set up a new game. This byproduct of the protracted legal action is a huge bonus for the Challengers. The combination of circumstances has created the opportunity to create something special.

The most likely shape of this new competition would appear to be an extension of what was tried in with the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series Auckland. Namely a ten team regatta, maybe 12, using two pairs of America's Cup yachts from 32 AC.

The first venue in the series is expected to be Hong Kong, in January, followed by Auckland in February or March. Two more regattas are expected to be held in 2010, and it is believed at this stage, that Valencia will not be a venue. One of the venues could be in Africa, and Newport, USA is believed to be a strong option.

Yachts from BMW Oracle Racing and Emirates Team NZ are expected to be used again and will obviously be shipped and set up at each venue. Louis Vuitton and their long time emissary, Bruno Trouble, are believed to be the drivers behind the ambitious project. A considerable amount of work has gone into the project, which is a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity for the America's Cup family.

Louis Vuitton have been the primary driving force behind the creation of the Louis Vuitton Cup itself as the pinnacle of the Challenger Selection Series for the America's Cup, and then providing substantial sponsorship, organisation and support as the Louis Vuitton Cup moved from Newport, USA to Fremantle, (AUS), Auckland (NZL), San Diego (USA) and then into Valencia (ESP).

It was Louis Vuitton who picked up the initiative for the Pacific Series, staged as a celebration of one of the longest running sponsorships in sport, but clearly as a test of a future event. The fact that the America's Cup family had fallen on hard times following the litigation, was a further incentive for Louis Vuitton to keep the teams and their sponsors alive, until the 33rd Match, subsequently decided at the Defender's behest to be sailed in multihulls. There was little truck from the challenger teams to be involved in an expensive, short term multihull event underlining the damage that has been done to the America's Cup by the litigation process, delay and restrictions.

The World Series model that will be followed will be similar to the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series except there may be a true match racing format used without one team going through as 'Defender '.

What the World Series will do is create a new layer of competition that will sit between the World Match Racing Tour and the America's Cup.

This layer, coupled with the supplied boats nature of the competition, will allow new teams to form out of the WMRT and go up the next stage into the World Series, and if they can achieve the results at that level, then they can go into a full America's Cup program with some confidence.

One of the exciting aspects of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was seeing the new teams, such as Team Origin, packed with Olympic medalists, would come up against the more experienced America's Cup teams with no medalists.

Obviously from a sponsor viewpoint, backing a new team for a couple of years on the World Series, to see how they go is going to be a lot more attractive than ponying up for a full blown America's Cup program. So the entry cost into the America's Cup will be substantially lowered, and teams will be able to build a track record of performance without incurring a massive design and boat program overhead.

For the established teams it will be the opportunity to bring new blood into the team and develop this under hostile fire, but outside the crucial theatre of the America's Cup, as Emirates Team New Zealand has done with BlackMatch Racing.

The cost of competing in Auckland was about USD250,000 per team for the three weeks. While this is not insubstantial, with proper venue selection it should be possible to provide a good return to sponsors. A key to this will be the availability of coverage and use of a web graphics package such as Virtual Eye, on public release, as well as using the same Virtual Eye package for TV, will be a key to the take up by the major networks. International coverage of these events offers huge scope for both television and the internet - far beyond what was possible given the short notice of the Auckland based Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

Additionally, the organiser's ability to take the World Series into different continents around the world gives some alignment with other major sporting events, but at greatly reduced relative cost (compared to say Formula 1). Previously any America's Cup build up series has been limited to one city or one venue or one continent. moving an event between continents does generate interest in the local event and that interest remains for following venues in the same series.

The numbers of spectators at the recent stop overs of the Volvo Ocean R