Louis Vuitton Pacific Series
 |
|
| Sport | Sailing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Country | NZL, United States, FRA, RSA, ITA, GBR, CHN, GRE, SUI |
| Related competitions |
America's Cup, Louis Vuitton Cup |
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was a match race regatta in America's Cup Class yachts in Auckland, 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, Emirates Team New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland City 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 surrounding the America's Cup 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 boats loaned to the regatta by Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing. 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 team 3-1 in the Cup Final.
In September 2009, this initial event was expanded into the four Louis Vuitton Trophy 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.
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