Yachting: Success of Auckland regatta prompts new series

Team NZ boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Herald on Sunday

With the America's Cup destined to remain in the courtroom for the foreseeable future, a new premier event on the world sailing calendar was unveiled in Paris yesterday - the Louis Vuitton World Series.

The series, which will involve 10 teams including Emirates Team New Zealand, has been developed from the blueprint of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland earlier this year.

Up to four regattas will be held a year, based on the same concept and format of the Pacific Series, where the teams battled it out in successive duels on two pairs of identical boats.

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said the success of the Auckland event persuaded all the partners to create a dynamic race programme.

"It worked well in Auckland. The public were fantastic, all the people involved were fantastic, the teams loved it and it created a blueprint for the future," said Dalton.

The first round will be held in Nice in November this year, with Auckland hosting the second round in late February-early March.

A further regatta is pencilled in for La Maddalena in Northern Sardinia in May and Dalton said there are plenty of interested parties putting their hands up to host future rounds.

A force in getting the new series off the ground was the establishment of the World Sailing Team Association (WSTA), which groups together some of the best professional sailing teams in the world, including Team New Zealand and BMW-Oracle.

"WSTA is an association run by the teams for the teams, so in partnership with Louis Vuitton, it runs the event. It's a partnership that's a first in the sport, and it's been really needed because of what's going on. Now the teams get some control of their destiny," said Dalton.

Dalton said the new series would help ensure the long-term sustainability of the Kiwi syndicate.

"The biggest problem with the market is that the sponsors need continuity of brand, so you need an event you can sell. It's been impossible to sell the America's Cup in recent times because it could be some time away."