Eight teams to compete at LV Trophy Auckland in March

[Source: LV Trophy] In just six weeks time, during the Southern hemisphere Summer, eight of the best sailing teams in the world will race a Louis Vuitton Trophy match race regatta in Auckland New Zealand.

Just over a year ago the inaugural regatta was sailed in Auckland, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Ten of the best sailing teams in the world, including the current Challenger and Defender of the America’s Cup, competed over two weeks in a match race regatta in two pairs of supplied boats. The boats used were ACC yachts from the 2007 America’s Cup and all teams rotated through the four boats.

The formula was renewed at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta in November last year, a regatta whose provisional media return resulted in a value of over nine million Euros gathered from over 1200 articles, 354 hours of TV on 400 channels in 163 countries. The next regatta will be the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland from 9 – 21 March 2010.

Following the success of last year’s antipodean regatta the event organisers, the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA), along with the city of Auckland decided to adjust the dates to enhance the public spectacle. The regatta, which runs from 9-21 March, will be staged from the same venue and at the same time as the Auckland International Boatshow (10-14 March) in Auckland’s Downtown Viaduct Basin, the venue for the America’s Cup in 2000 and 2003.

The WSTA member teams entered for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta are from seven countries. Unlike last year, the host Emirates Team New Zealand, skippered by Dean Barker, will not get an automatic pass to the regatta finals, but will have to earn the right to be there by passing through the round robin and semi final stages with a winning record. The seven other teams hoping to also make it to the finals and ultimately prevail are:

Aleph (France, skipper Bertrand Pacé)
All4One (France/Germany, skipper Jochen Schumann)
Artemis (Sweden, skipper Paul Cayard)
Azzurra (Italy, skipper Francesco Bruni)
Mascalzone Latino Audi (Italy)
Synergy (Russia, skipper Karol Jablonski)
TEAMORIGIN (Great Britain, skipper Ben Ainslie)

Following the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta the WSTA’s member teams will race in La Maddalena, Sardinia (22 May – 6 June), then in Dubai, UAE (13 – 27 November) before Hong Kong in early 2011 (9 – 24 January).