Azzurra at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice

[Source: Yacht Club Costa Smeralda] The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is to launch a new challenge which will bring the Italian flag to international waters under the name Azzurra. Yacht Club Costa Smeralda Commodore Riccardo Bonadeo announced the participation of team Azzurra in the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta, scheduled to be held in Nice from 7th to 22nd November 2009, to an audience of national and international press at the Genoa Boat Show this afternoon. The new Azzurra team will be led by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda member Giovanni Maspero of Joe Fly, under the responsibility of skipper and helmsman Francesco Bruni, supported by tactician Tommaso Chieffi and team manager Alessandra Sensini among others.

“The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is delighted to be embarking on this new adventure together with Giovanni Maspero,” said Commodore Bonadeo. “The firmly believes in the values which drive this young Italian team: first and foremost a passion for sailing combined with a constant search for improvement and a desire to seek out new challenges. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda brought Azzurra to the America’s Cup in Newport in 1983, where we were total newcomers and certainly not among the favourites, but we competed well and our passion captured the collective imagination of the Italian public. I believe that Italian sailing now needs a team like this one, made up of young, enthusiastic and highly dedicated sailors”.
Giovanni Maspero has won several European titles in the Farr 40 and Melges 24 one-design classes as well as finished second in the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in 2008 and in the Audi Melges 32 World Championship in September of this year. Francesco Bruni and Tommaso Chieffi are accomplished America’s Cup sailors having amassed a total of six campaigns between them, while the rest of the crew has a range of match race and one-design sailing experience.

“Our common objectives and the faith placed in our team by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and Commodore Bonadeo is extremely rewarding for our entire sporting group – declared Giovanni Maspero – We feel an enormous responsibility, but I am firmly convinced that our sailing team’s merit, coupled with the experience of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda staff, which will join us in this exciting adventure, will provide excellent conditions to compete at the highest level.”

At the first event in Nice, racing will take place on equalized version 5 ACC boats supplied by the organization, and Azzurra will be competing against BMW Oracle Racing (USA), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), K-Challenge (FRA), Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE), Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS), Team Origin (GBR) and Team French Spirit (FRA). The team will also evaluate participating in future World Sailing Team Association events co-organised by Louis Vuitton in 2010. All events will be similar to the successful Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, held in Auckland in February of this year, which generated over 360 hours of television content and reached over 500 million viewers worldwide.

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is renowned for organizing international sailing events such as the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, the Sardinia Cup and the Rolex Swan Cup and this year completed one of its busiest seasons. The Club hosted twelve regattas in 2009 including two ISAF world championships, the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, the Audi Melges 32 World Championship and three events for superyachts – the Dubois Cup, the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta and the Perini Navi Cup — in addition to the 20th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. In the past, the Club has also promoted international challenges such as Azzurra, the first Italian Challenger for the America’s Cup (1983) and the motor yacht Destriero, which to this day holds the transatlantic crossing record set in 1992. The Club’s members currently number more than 500 and bring the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda colours to the most important sailing events across the globe.

The participation in the Louis Vuitton Trophy is the first step in a programme which intends to return the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the brand Azzurra to the forefront of international yachting as a protagonist in global sailing events in addition to its established role as an organiser of world class regattas.

Azzurra crew list
Francesco Bruni – Helmsman
Tommaso Chieffi – Tactician
Tom Burnham – Strategist
Bruno Zirilli – Navigator
Daniele De Luca – Mainsail trimmer
Stefano Rizzi – Upwind trimmer
Pierluigi De Felice – Downwind trimmer
Gabriele Bruni – Checkstay
Piero Romeo – Checkstay grinder
Nicola Pilastro – Mainsail grinder
Massimo Galli – Grinder
Francesco Scalicci – Grinder
Cristian Griggio – Pit
Michele Cannoni – Pit
Luca Albarelli – Mast
Pietro Mantovani – Mid bow
Matteo Auguadro – Bow

Michele Gnutti – Reserve
Giuseppe Leonardi – Reserve

Gabrio Zandonà – Coach

Mascalzone Latino launches 1st boat for LV Series

One month exactly separates us from the start of the newly-created Louis Vuitton World Series and the Mascalzone Latino shore crew launched earlier today in Valencia the first of the Italian team's yacht that will be used in the circuit's opening event in Nice, and probably in all other Mediterranean venues. The two Italian boats being so similar we don't know whether it was ITA-90 or ITA-99.

Mascalzone Latino shore crew preparing one of the team's ACC yachts. The second one is still in the shed. Valencia, 30 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Mascalzone Latino shore crew preparing one of the team's ACC yachts. The second one is still in the shed. Valencia, 30 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Mascalzone Latino shore crew launch the first yacht for the LV World Series. Valencia, 30 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

As for the other pair of boats that will be raced in Nice, both Bruno Troublé and Grant Dalton had stated in the Paris presentation on the 8th of September that an agreement had been reached with Desafío in order to use the Spanish team's yachts, ESP-88 and ESP-97. Yet according to an article by The Independent's Stuart Alexander it seems that that agreement didn't materialize and as a result, Team Origin and BMW Oracle will provide their yachts, GBR-75 and USA-76, respectively. Both of them are 2003 yachts, updated to Version 5. The former is the ex SUI-75, Alinghi's trial yacht in the 31st America's Cup in Auckland, that also raced in the 2006 Louis Vuitton Acts in Valencia.

This must explain the recent activity in the BMW Oracle base and the arrival of various trucks yesterday noon, one of them with an ACC bulb, probably of the British yacht. I'm not sure whether the hull of GBR-75 is already in Valencia. We'll have more updates tomorrow.

The BMW Oracle base with obvious signs of activity. Valencia, 30 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Team Origin's GBR-75 sails for the first time. Valencia, 14 July 2007. Photo copyright Nico Martinez.

Grant Dalton talks about the Louis Vuitton World Series

Following the presentation of the Louis Vuitton World Series we talked to Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand, who was repeatedly mentioned by all participants as a key person in the establismhent of the World Sailing Team Association and the new professional yacht racing circuit. Dalton spoke about the Series and his team.

Valencia Sailing: Why did Team New Zealand and you personally decide to become a key part of the World Sailing Team Association and the Louis Vuitton World Series?
Grant Dalton: Well, we are a big team and that makes us important but other than that we are just part of a number of people that were brought together. One of the strengths of what we are trying to do is that there is no one team or organization like Louis Vuitton that has total control. We have preferential shareholders of the company that have majority voting rights.

Valencia Sailing: Who are these preferential shareholders?
Grant Dalton: BMW Oracle, Synergy, Artemis and us. That's all for the moment. All the teams that have paid the fee to enter have one collective vote and Louis Vuitton has another vote as well. That's how we run it and BMW Oracle has been very important at this stage. The idea is to have a collective decision-making process that makes smart decisions and doesn't get rolled by one overbearing party. That's new for the sport of sailing and I think nobody has tried to do it before. Maybe it's not possible, maybe it won't work but we think it is a better way and we'll try.

Valencia Sailing: You are having an excellent season with your TP52 campaign and unless some major disaster takes place you'll win the AUDI Medcup championship next week. Why do you need to create a new circuit and not continue with the TP52?
Grant Dalton: We are an America's Cup team and this is why we exist. The TP52 is undoubtedly good but we are not sailing match racing. Only God knows when the America's Cup will sort out and as a result the LVWS gives us a really good match racing program next year. We will most likely come back to the TP52 and this combination will give us a very good season. If you also add the RC44 circuit where most of our guys sail, you have a full season. As I said, our main objective, the only reason we exist is to try to get back into the America's Cup one day when it happens and the LVWS is the best way to do this.

Grant Dalton has played a key role in the establishment of the World Sailing Team Association and the Louis Vuitton World Series. Paris, 8 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Valencia Sailing: In the America's Cup and Medcup you design and build your own boats. Here you will, at least in the Mediterranean, be racing with Mascalzone Latino's and Desafío's boats. Won't that put you into a disadvantage? How equal can you make these 4 different yachts?
Grant Dalton: I think that having equality or equal boats is really important and in Auckland I thought this was achieved. Of course, if you lose you don't think they are equal. They were the same because we had a speed difference of 9 feet per kilometer between our boats, in theory, and this is nothing. Yet, Peter Holmberg used to say that NZL-84 was slow and that becomes a good excuse. If they are indeed slower or different then you have a real excuse. Laurent Esquier is in charge of making the 4 boats as equal as possible.

Valencia Sailing: Why was the number of teams limited to 10?
Grant Dalton: Because that's all you can handle with a format of one week of training followed by two weeks of racing. As we found out in Auckland last February you just can't go on forever, something that will happen if you have more teams, and 10 is the ideal number for such a format.

Valencia Sailing: What criteria did you use for the selection of the 10 teams?
Grant Dalton: The criteria originally was to enter and the teams here were the ones that did. And they paid, they put money on the table. Although we communicate a lot on the phone or by email this is the first time we all come together and we will now look at the criteria. Team Origin is obviously important but there are other teams as well. I think that longevity is a really key point. There is no point in having a team, and we'll have them since this is life, that just comes and goes, that doesn't go to Auckland because it's a very long flight from home. That doesn't work.

Valencia Sailing: Will all races be compulsory for all teams?
Grant Dalton: What we will do when there is a host environment, Hong Kong is a good example, is to have a local team. You certainly want a Chinese team in Hong Kong. When there is no obvious host team, unlike let's say France, New Zealand or Italy, we will leave a spot for a local. The public interest will obviously be much greater with a local team.

Valencia Sailing: Let's assume the 33rd America's Cup does take place next February, that Alinghi wins it and there is no further litigation. Will that change anything for the WSTA and Louis Vuitton?
Grant Dalton: It's the same as Auckland. We are not in the America's Cup and we received numerous letters about the use of the logos and the names. The only ones that use the name is you guys. I don't envision any issues at this stage and it will be a tough one for them to win because we are not using the name. They can't copyright us going sailing or sailing the boats. To be fair to Alinghi, they have been in the meetings up until very recently and they have been consulted all the way through and, although they obviously haven't supported us, at least they haven't tried to put any roadblocks on the way. If they want to defend the 34th America's Cup they will have to beat these teams at some stage.

Valencia Sailing: Won't there be conflict if they decide to do preliminary Acts, like they did in the 32nd edition? Your team will certainly have to take part in them if you want to challenge the defender.
Grant Dalton: This can't happen in the short term. For starters, we don't know when the America's Cup will finish. If you do know tell me. In that sense I think that Bruno made a point. At least for the foreseeable future you won't have any conflict because you won't have any finality to the Cup. I think we have a clear run for at least a year. The issue might come from the other regattas. We've got three of our preferential shareholders having a TP52 campaign, so our calendar can't clash with the Medcup in 2010. Russell Coutts is running the RC44's, so you can't clash with those either. So, we have to work things out, especially with events that run for three weeks. Still, we think we can have at least three events in 2010.

Valencia Sailing: Last but not least, one of the main selling points of the LVWS is that it will help teams get sponsors. What about Emirates Airlines? What's their feedback on the LVWS? Are they going to sponsor your team in that circuit?
Grant Dalton: I hope so. We have a very close relation with them and they have been fully briefed but in the last 2 years it has been very hard to hold discussions and the only thing we could say was "possibly, maybe, might do, could do". Their reactions was always, "hold on, we sponsor all those football teams and we know the ball will be kicked on Saturday afternoon". That's why I waited until today. I can now go and see them and tell them "it's happening, here is the race format, here are the dates and here is the price". As I told you, up to now it was "you know, maybe it can go to court". The direct answer to your question is no, Emirates are not part of it yet but I haven't directly approached them either.

Official presentation of the Louis Vuitton World Series

A new page in world sailing was written today in the Louis Vuitton offices in Paris with the official presentation of the Louis Vuitton World Series (LVWS) and the World Sailing Team Association (WSTA). Trying to fill the gap created by the 2-year long legal dispute that has paralyzed the America's Cup, the French luxury group is reentering the world of sailing with the creation of a professional racing circuit, co-organized with WSTA, another newly-formed entity.

In front of a crowd of dozens of French and foreign journalists, Bruno Troublé, Yves Carcelle (Louis Vuitton CEO), Christian Estrosi (Mayor of Nice), Grant Dalton (CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand) and Stephane Kandler (CEO of K-Challenge) spent almost 2 hours laying out the details of what they claim to be the "Champions League" of sailing (although it's funny the AUDI Medcup makes the exact same claim).

Maybe the best definition of what the WSTA is was given by Grant Dalton, a key person in the entire process: "The WSTA is an environment where the teams control their future". Some world's top professional sailing teams, excluding the America's Cup Defender Alinghi, set up an association, a group to run their own races. In the words of Stephane Kandler, what they are proposing is "a circuit that will provide a high-level racing we can present to our sponsors", while it is "the very first time the teams have been consulted, where their opinion matters".

All the details of what was presented during the conference are thoroughly but the obvious question now is whether this circuit will create enough media interest in order for teams to sell it to their potential sponsors. It goes without saying that the Louis Vuitton name adds prestige and credibility to the circuit, but still it isn't the America's Cup. Yet, all participants stressed the fact its aim isn't to compete with the America's Cup, but exist in parallel. In addition, the presentation was about a Series that would end after 2011. There was no discussion about what might happen further ahead.

The key point is that both Louis Vuitton and the WSTA bet on the fact that no matter who wins the 33rd America's Cup, they will have a hard time setting up America's Cup racing in 2010 or even 2011. As a result they could fill the gap for that period and then see how the situation shapes up.

WSTA TeamsThe World Sailing Team Association currently consists of 8 teams, 4 of which are preferential shareholders and have the right to one vote in the decision-making processes. The preferential shareholders are BMW Oracle, Emirates Team New Zealand, Synergy and Artemis. Each of them holds one vote. The remaining teams have one collective vote and Louis Vuitton holds the sixth one.

The 4 remaining teams are K-Challenge, Mascalzone Latino, Team French Spirit and Joe Fly. The former two are the same ones that took part in the America's Cup in Valencia while the latter are newcomers. Joe Fly is headed by Vasco Vascotto and Team French Spirit by Marc Pajot.

Two big names that are absent from the list are Team Origin and Luna Rossa. According to Stephen Barclay, Team Origin is in discussions with the WSTA and an announcement could be made within the next few days. As for Luna Rossa, according to Barclay, the Italians are mostly focused on their STP65 campaign and that seems to occupy most of their resources. It is practically impossible for them to be in Nice in November but Barclay hinted they might join at a later stage.

Having set the limit at 10 teams there are two slots available and according to Troublé, 4 very serious candidates. An official announcement should be made within the following weeks.

BMW Oracle will participate in the LVWS, at least in the opening event in France, with a crew entirely different from the one that is currently preparing for the 33rd America's Cup. According to Barclay, the two campaigns will be completely separate. As Troublé put it, "BMW Oracle has the resources to have two separate teams while Alinghi lacks this capacity".

Finally, all WSTA teams will have to sign up for 2 years but it hasn't still been decided how many of the events will be compulsory.

The World Sailing Team Association and the Louis Vuitton World series are officially born. The mayor of Nice, together with the CEO of Louis Vuitton and representatives from the 8 teams that constitute the WSTA. Paris, 8 September 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

EventsThe total number of events Louis Vuitton and the WSTA plan to hold is 6 or 7. The inaugural race of the newly-formed Louis Vuitton World Series will be in Nice, France from the 7th until 22nd of November 2009. For the next year, the first regatta will be held in Auckland and although the final calendar hasn't been set it will most probably span the last week of February and the first two weeks of March.

The second event of 2010, and third overall of the Series, will most probably take place in La Maddalena, Italy some time in May but a final agreement hasn't been reached yet.

In all events there will be a "home team" that although participates in the initial stages of racing it will have its slot in the finals guaranteed, similar to what took place last February in Auckland. This is done for obvious marketing, spectator and media reasons because it is believed that the elimination of the local team early in the event would considerably limit the local public interest.

More venues are being considered by LV and the WSTA and they will be announced during the Nice regatta. The most serious contenders for hosting a LVWS race are Valencia, Athens, Newport, Cape Town, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. Four of these venues don't have a local team participating in the WSTA and a possible exception could be done, by letting them race in that event only even if they are not fully participating in the Series.

BoatsHere as well, Louis Vuitton and the WSTA stick with a formula that worked in Auckland in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and is by far the cheapest solution for the teams. In each event 4 ACC yachts will be used for racing, after having been modified in order to make them as evenly matched as possible.

For the events in the Mediterranean, the LVWS will use Mascalzone Latino's ITA-90 and ITA-99 as well as Desafío's ESP-88 and ESP-97. Nevertheless, there was no mention of whether that meant the Spanish team has signed up or is about to do so. Although it was not explicitely stated, one is to assume that for the events in Asia and Oceania the organization will reuse the BMW Oracle and Team New Zealand yachts from the LVPS.

According to Stephen Barclay, the small differences that might eventually exist between the 4 yachts will not be a serious problem and will not put any team into a disadvantage, given the very short courses and the experience from the first event in Auckland.

Finally, Bruno Troublé mentioned that there is currently a discussion among the WSTA members about designing a new class of yachts for the future but everything is still at an initial exploratory state. According to him, the ACC V5 yachts have been raced for a short time only, they still represent the highest level of technology in monohulls, and under the current tough economic climate it wouldn't make any sense designing and building a brand new class of yachts when you have lots of yachts getting dusty in the boat sheds in Valencia.

Possible legal problemsThere are two aspects of the Louis Vuitton World Series that could become potential legal headaches. The first one is the current America's Cup Defender, Alinghi, and the second one is ISAF.

Both Troublé and Dalton repeatedly played down the Alinghi issue, even if the Swiss win the 33rd America's Cup in February. Alinghi's representatives have held discussions with Louis Vuitton and even if they declined to participate they haven't opposed the Series. On the same wave was Dalton's reply to the question, stating that although th Swiss haven't helped, at least they haven't caused any problem.

The use of the word "WORLD" might be a more serious issue. Troublé has approached both the ISAF and the World Match Racing Tour and although their initial reaction was positive there is a need to hold further discussions. Troublé will meet with the ISAF in 10 days. Each year the points won in every event will be accumulated and the overall leader will be named "Winner of the Louis Vuitton World Series" but never world champion.

Financial aspectsWhen asked by the French financial press, Yves Carcelle, CEO of Louis vuitton, declined to reveal the financial part of his company's involvement in the LVWS. On the other hand, Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, was quick to state that total cost of the regatta for his city will be 1.5 million euros.

A key selling point of the Series is that its costs are far lower even when compared to a TP52 campaign when one includes the construction of a yacht. According to Troublé, even if salaries vary widely from one team to another, each participating team will have to spend between 300 and 600 thousand euros in Nice.

Louis Vuitton World Series - Press Conference - 8 Sep 2009, 2:30pm

Our apologies but it was impossible to stream the presentation for a very simple reason that was completely beyond our control. Guess what, there was NO internet available in the press conference room.

Valencia Sailing will fly to Paris later today in order to attend Tuesday's press conference in Louis Vuitton's offices. Yves Carcelle, president of Louis Vuitton, Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice, and Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team NZ and World Sailing Team Association representative, will officially present the "Louis Vuitton World Series", the newly founded yacht racing circuit.

We will try to provide live streaming of the press conference, using the services of LiveStream. This will be done for the first time on this website and as a result we don't know yet how it will work. So, please bear with us.

The conference is scheduled to start at 2:30pm, Central European Time, and if you are interested in watching it just visit Valencia Sailing 5-10 minutes earlier. You don't need any special software, the live stream should appear at the top of the site.

Regardless of the success or not of our streaming test, you are more than welcome to send any questions you might have.

Louis Vuiton announces creation of LV World Series

[Source: Louis Vuitton] Some of the best professional sailing teams, grouped together under the name WSTA (World Sailing Team Association), and Louis Vuitton, a key player in the world of top-level sailing for more than 25 years, today announced the creation of an international regatta circuit.

The WSTA (World Sailing Team Association) groups together the participants in previous Louis Vuitton Cup regattas (K-Challenge (France), BMW Oracle Racing (USA), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Mascalzone Latino (Italy)) and welcomes newcomers such as Team Artemis (Sweden), Team Synergy (Russia), Joe Fly Italia (Italy) and Team French Spirit (France). Other teams will join the association in the coming weeks.

Emirates Team New Zealand won the inaugural Louis Vuitton event on their home waters. Auckland, 12 February 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Entitled the Louis Vuitton World Series, these regattas are a first in the world of sailing and follow on from the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series organised in Auckland, New Zealand, last February. The global success of this exceptional competition persuaded all the partners in this adventure to create a dynamic and ambitious new race programme based on the same concept and format.

10 teams will be invited to confront each other in successive duels over a fortnight on two pairs of identical boats chosen by lot. The racing boats were sailed in the 2007 LV Cup. This concept, which demonstrates the desire to return to the original spirit of “match racing”, provides an exhilarating show and is easy for spectators to understand.

The WSTA and Louis Vuitton plan to organise several regattas a year. Many cities of which Nice, Hong Kong, Auckland, New York and several other European venues have shown their interest.

A press conference will be held in Paris on Tuesday September 8th. More details about the first events to be organised in 2009 and 2010 will be disclosed during this conference.

How long will it take before we see BMW Oracle and Alinghi race in monohulls? Auckland, 11 February 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing