Fisher's View- Louis Vuitton World Series

by Bob Fisher on 9 Sep 2009
It may not be the America’s Cup, but sure as Hell it promises to be a great deal more exciting and fun. And the excitement and the fun will not be restricted to the sailors but will extend to a broader audience – the spectators and the television viewers at home.

Based on the same formula as the highly successful and popular Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup that was held in Auckland in February, this new series, news of which leaked out last week, will have its first three events in Nice (in November), Auckland (in March) and in the Sicilian resort of Maddalena (in May).

Once again Version 5 ACC boats will be used and for Nice the four boats will be provided from the Mascalzone Latino and Desafio teams.

Already eight teams have signed for the possible ten spaces available and four more are said to have declared interest. The eight teams are: Emirates Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle Racing, Artemis Swedish Team, K-Challenge, French Spirit, Synergy Russian Sailing Team, Mascalzone Latino and a second Italian team, Joe Fly.

Noticeably absent from the list was Alinghi and Britain’s Team Origin, although it was admitted that the Brits had shown interest but hadn’t yet completed the entry requirements.

The eight teams already in form the preference shareholders of the organising body – the World Sailing Teams Association – and will guide the policy of the events that are run by it. When asked if the WSTA had been formed to deal with the professional side of sailing that ISAF doesn’t, Bruno Trouble (the Svengali-like face of Louis Vuitton) was quick to point out that negotiations were underway with ISAF: 'There is a meeting of the Executive Committee this weekend at which this matter will be discussed.'

He added: 'We shall be in dialogue with the ISAF. We intend to use their Racing Rules of Sailing.'

From the outset of the Press Conference in Paris, it was obvious that Grant Dalton, the CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand, had been a leader of the group that had worked to bring the idea to fruition.

His opener on the subject was an object lesson: 'Longevity of an event is good when approaching sponsors. It makes sense to anyone who runs a team,' he said, 'to have something solid to show potential sponsors. They will fall over themselves to be involved in something like this.'

When confirming that Nice would host the first even of the series, Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice, explained: 'We are very proud to associate Nice to such prestigious names in the sailing world as Newport [RI] and Auckland.' He added that Nice was spending a million Euros on the event. At this point I was handed a note that read: 'Eat your heart out Rita [Barbera, the Mayor of Valencia]!'

Bruno Trouble also announced that Louis Vuitton and the WSTA had received interest from Athens, Valencia, Newport, RI, Cape Town, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi and that these offers were being evaluated and that more events for the 2010/2011 series would be announced during the Nice event, which is to be held between November 7th and 22nd.