The man with the plan
At the end of Round Robin One, Bruno Troublé gives his views on how the event is going and why it is being held in Nice
Bruno Troublé may only describe himself as ‘spokesman’ of the World Sailing Team Association, organiser of the Louis Vuitton Trophy events, but he is certainly also its architect and the man responsible for bringing the present event to Nice.
Given that the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur was organised from start to finish in the space of just two months, it is impressive. “We were supposed to go to Hong Kong in November,” Troublé explains, “but because there was only one place to go in Hong Kong, and the pier there was not finished, we had to cancel Hong Kong in June. We were willing to have an event in November, so we managed to convince Nice very very quickly.”
Troublé acknowledges that Nice is not well known for yacht racing as the wind tends to be light, particularly in the autumn, but states the reasons the event is being held here: “At the end of the season there are not many places in Europe where you can sail: Marseilles, for example, is a great venue, but the wind is blowing 40 knots every day.
“Nice is also a very dynamic city. The mayor is also the Minister of Industry, so he has a lot of power and he managed to make a decision in a week, whereas normally with public support like that takes months. So he is so powerful, he has no problem to make a decision and then make it happen.” Earlier this year Nice also hosted the Istanbul Europa Race, an offshore event for the IMOCA 60 offshore monohulls.
Within Nice harbour, the Louis Vuitton Trophy is based in an area that during the summer forms part of the ferry port.
“I hope the conditions will be good until the end. So far the sailors are extremely pleased - they love the city, it is a lovely city,” continues Troublé. “And when we sail early in the morning, the light is much nicer than in the summertime, so we have some great pictures and footage.”
A worry for the organisers was that among their four boats, the pairing of TEAMORIGIN’s GBR75 (originally belonging to America’s Cup defender, Alinghi) and ALL4ONE’s FRA93 might be uneven, but Troublé says they have now resolved this. “When we did the draws at the beginning everyone was going ’75’, ‘75’, ‘75’ and now they are changing their mind because 93 is doing well. It looks like the boats are pretty even now, to the extent that some teams are picking the end of the line rather than the boat. That means that the boat is no longer an issue, which is very important for us.”
Troublé is also proud of the technique they have introduced allowing teams to show their own branding on board. Each team purchases their own gennaker from the organisers, while at the beginning of each day team a large patch with the team branding and logo is velcroed on to the mainsail in reverse order that the teams will be sailing a particular boat. When teams swap boats the outgoing team simply peels off their mainsail branding cleverly revealing the branding of the incoming team.
For this event in Nice they have changed the format from Auckland and now the host team doesn’t get an automatic inclusion in the final. Troublé says he prefers this more open format. “It is not the America’s Cup - it should be open to everyone on an equal basis.”
Encouraging for the future of the Louis Vuitton Trophy is that new teams are joining the event – in Nice, it is the Russians on Synergy and Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Swedish-flagged, Artemis team. Other teams are knocking at the door and may appear on the scene at the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas in 2010 – Auckland in March, La Maddelena, Sardinia in May-June, Newport, RI in August and Hong Kong in November.
