The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was a match race regatta in America's Cup Class yachts in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, 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 , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...

Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup in ...

, the

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is a New Zealand yacht club, and the club behind New Zealand's America's Cup campaigns, under the guises of New Zealand Challenge and Team New Zealand. It held the America's Cup from 1995 America's Cup, 1995 ...

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

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 - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

surrounding the

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

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 The International Americas Cup Class is a class of racing yacht that was developed for the America's Cup between 1992 and 2007. These yachts, while not identical, were all designed to the same formula to offer designers the freedom to experiment ...

boats loaned to the regatta by Team New Zealand and

BMW Oracle Racing Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club. ...

. 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 Alinghi, or Alinghi Red Bull Racing because of the sports marketing branding by Red Bull, is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America's Cup, as well as ...

team 3–1 in the Cup Final. In September 2009, this initial event was expanded into the four

Louis Vuitton Trophy The Louis Vuitton Trophy was a series of four match race regattas in International America's Cup Class boats, held between November 2009 and November 2010. The Louis Vuitton Trophy was organised after the success of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Se ...

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

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leeward Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

course laid at the entrance to Auckland's

Waitematā Harbour Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and easter ...

, between

Rangitoto Island Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The wide island is a symmetrical shield volcano cone, reaching a height of . Rangitoto is the youngest and largest of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Au ...

and the city foreshore. Four different courses were used depending on weather patterns.

Emirates Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup i ...

, 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

. The winner of final was presented with the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series trophy.

The Yachts

Team New Zealand provided

NZL-92 ''NZL 92'' is an International America's Cup Class racing boat sailed by Emirates Team New Zealand that won the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007 but was beaten in the 2007 America's Cup by the defender Alinghi team sailing '' SUI 100''. Design In 2004, ...

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 February'' Number in brackets is winning delta.

Pool B (NZL 84 & 92)

''30 January – 3 February'' Number in brackets is the winning delta.
*deducted a point for damaging the boats

Gold Fleet

''5 – 9 February''
The top three teams from each pool competed in the Gold Fleet. The winner advanced directly to the Challenger final. As host, Team New Zealand advanced directly to Cup Final. A team that wins a race against Team New Zealand does not gain a point. The seeding position determines where a team appears in the third round. *Both boats were deducted points for contact in the BMW Oracle vs Team Origin race: BMW Oracle −1, Team Origin −0.5
** Team Origin retired after failing to raise a headsail at second mark. The headsail foil was damaged from the earlier collision.
*** Team New Zealand completed the prestart without Alinghi after the Swiss boat forfeited the race. The race was then abandoned. Alinghi conceded because they saw no point in sailing the race when there were no points to be gained for them, while they risked losing points in the event of contact between the boats.

Silver Fleet

''5 – 9 February''
The remaining four teams competed in the Silver Fleet.

Third round

''10–11 February''
The challengers ranked 2–7 sailed off with the winner advancing to the Challenger final. Seeds 8 and 9 also sailed off for a final ranking.

Challenger Final

''11–12 February''
The winner of the Gold Fleet competed against the winner of the Third Round. Due to poor weather the Challenger series was reduced to a best of three series.

Cup Final

''13 – 14 February''
As host, Team New Zealand qualified automatically for the Cup Final. They met the winner of the Challenger final in the Cup Final. Due to poor weather the Final series was reduced to a best of five series.

Confirmed Teams

Twelve teams were originally confirmed – however after two withdrawals the field contracted to ten teams. The teams arrived in Auckland on 23 January.

Withdrawn Teams

The following teams were scheduled to participate or were on the waiting list but did not take part in the event.

Broadcasting

Television

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

carried live coverage on

TVNZ Sport Extra TVNZ Sport Extra was a temporary sports television station in New Zealand, operated by TVNZ. Broadcasting on channel 20 on Freeview, it showed live and delayed free-to-air coverage of selected events. Eric Kearley, TVNZ's Digital Launch Manage ...

on the

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

platform. The coverage consisted of in-studio presenters and commentators, with the race coverage provided usin
Virtual Eye
and a single live camera. The broadcast was also be streamed live o
tvnz.co.nz
The broadcast was promoted as a world first, due to the event being broadcast predominantly with Virtual Eye animation. A

ONE Sport TVNZ Sport is a division of TVNZ which airs many of the sports telecasts in New Zealand. TVNZ Sport broadcasts programs like ''The Championships, Wimbledon'', ''Commonwealth Games'', and the '' America's Cup''. TVNZ Sport was originally know ...

highlights package was also broadcast each night on TV ONE. A modified version of this highlights programme, as well as selected footage for news stories, was distributed nightly via satellite to international broadcasters by Dominique Curchod Communication.

Radio

The event was also broadcast in New Zealand on a special radio station,

BSport TAB Trackside is a New Zealand horse racing and sports broadcast network, incorporating two pay TV channels. The TV channels are available on Sky (New Zealand), Sky channels and the Spark New Zealand#Spark Sport, Spark Sport streaming service. ...

Sailing 103.0 FM.Tune in to Live Racing for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series
ETNZ Official Site, 17 January 2009

Junior Series

A Junior series for under-16's was run at the same time as the senior series. Competitors were selected by Auckland yacht clubs and competed in a series of races using O'pen Bic yachts around a short course in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour. Twenty O'pen Bic boats were bought over for the event by Series organiser Bruno Trouble. The event was won by Chris Steele, who received an O'pen Bic yacht and the opportunity to be 18th man on the Alinghi boat during the Cup Final races.

References

Bruno Troublé talks about the event
BYM Magazine, January 2009
Ten Teams will contest Louis Vuitton Pacific Series
Yachts and Yachting, 8 January 2009
Series aims to get the love back into big-yacht racing
New Zealand Herald Tuesday 16 September 2008
Coutts endorses new regatta
New Zealand Herald Wednesday 17 September 2008
More teams confirm for Pacific Series
New Zealand Herald Thursday 18 September 2008
Battle lines drawn for regatta
New Zealand Herald, 28 January 2009
Photos of the racing
BYM Gallery

External links

cupinfo.com
summary
Virtual Eye LVPS09 Official SiteTeam New Zealand Official Site