When Louis Vuitton and the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) conceived the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas they were designed to take the best sailing teams in the world sailing some of the largest and most impressive racing yachts to some of the most spectacular parts of the world and compete at the highest level in the discipline of match racing. One of the other objectives was to bring the action as close to spectators as possible, not just through media and TV but also physically close to where people are.

Organised in conjunction with the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC), a sailing and rowing club with over 160 years of history and one of the world’s most active sailing institutions today, the Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong regatta will mark the culmination of a huge amount of work done by the club’s members and staff.  The best sailing teams in the world representing 8 to 10 nations will be competing in this event.  This sailing activity will see 7 days of pre-regatta training and 14 days of competition before the winner is known.  

RHKYC Commodore Warwick Downes commented: “The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club will have the very great honour of hosting Asia’s first Louis Vuitton Trophy. This event, one of the pinnacles on the yachting calendar, will demonstrate that Hong Kong is an ideal venue for major international sailing events.  The Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong will not only benefit the sailing community here but will also deliver a positive economic impact to Hong Kong.  With these boats and our spectacular harbour beamed around the world daily for the two weeks of racing, I can’t think of a better way to showcase Brand Hong Kong internationally.”

The Louis Vuitton Trophy race course will be set on the stretch of water just to the South of the now disused legendary Kai Tak Airport and the Race Village, itself a major attraction, is planned for Pier 10 alongside the terminal of the iconic Star Ferry.

The prevailing winds in Victoria Harbour are from the East at between 12 to 15 knots  in January and given the geography of the harbour it will be possible for sailing fans and curious passers by to witness the spectacle from numerous vantage points along the harbour, as the yachts approach both shores on their way around the course, without needing to get afloat.

For those unable to be on the Hong Kong waterfront in person the Louis Vuitton Trophy hybrid TV and Virtual video feed will allow race fans around the world to witness the sporting action in this amazing natural amphitheatre.

Karl Kwok, the President of the Hong Kong Sailing Federation and one of Asia’s better-known international sailors had this to say: “Besides the economic benefits this event will bring to Hong Kong the experiences and actions of the high caliber sailors competing here will more than inspire our local sailing community and fans helping to position the city on the world sailing map. And on behalf of that community I would like to sincerely thank the HKSAR Government for their endorsement and assistance in bringing this event to fruition and I wish the regatta great success.”


World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA)
World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) was founded in 2009 by a group of professional yacht racing teams to develop competitive racing events. The WSTA is jointly owned by its preferred shareholders and represents the interests of the teams for fair and highly-competitive racing. The WSTA, in conjunction with title partner Louis Vuitton, co-organizes the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

About Louis Vuitton
The world leader in luxury, Louis Vuitton has been synonymous with the art of stylish travel since 1854. Since 1987, it has been part of LVMH/Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, the world's most prestigious luxury goods group headed by Bernard Arnault. Since 1997, with the arrival of the designer Marc Jacobs, it has extended its expertise to women's and men's ready-to-wear, shoes, watches and jewellery, glasses, combining traditional craftsmanship with flair and innovation to create a complete lifestyle experience. Today, Louis Vuitton has an exclusive network of stores all across the world.


About Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC)
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC) is one of the oldest sports clubs in Hong Kong and is proud of its rich, colourful history, which stretches back over 160 years of social and competitive sailing and rowing.  RHKYC provides sailing courses for members and non-members at various levels to nurture the development of sailing.

Just over a year ago the inaugural regatta was sailed in Auckland, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Ten of the best sailing teams in the world, including the current Challenger and Defender of the America’s Cup, competed over two weeks in a match race regatta in two pairs of supplied boats. The boats used were ACC yachts from the 2007 America’s Cup and all teams rotated through the four boats.

The formula was renewed at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta in November last year, a regatta whose provisional media return resulted in a value of over nine million Euros gathered from over 1200 articles, 354 hours of TV on 400 channels in 163 countries. The next regatta will be the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland from 9 – 21 March 2010.

Following the success of last year’s antipodean regatta the event organisers, the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA), along with the city of Auckland decided to adjust the dates to enhance the public spectacle. The regatta, which runs from 9-21 March, will be staged from the same venue and at the same time as the Auckland International Boatshow (10-14 March) in Auckland’s Downtown Viaduct Basin, the venue for the America’s Cup in 2000 and 2003.

The WSTA member teams entered for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta are from seven countries. Unlike last year, the host Emirates Team New Zealand, skippered by Dean Barker, will not get an automatic pass to the regatta finals, but will have to earn the right to be there by passing through the round robin and semi final stages with a winning record. The seven other teams hoping to also make it to the finals and ultimately prevail are:

Aleph                (France, skipper Bertrand Pacé)
All4One             (France/Germany, skipper Jochen Schumann)
Artemis             (Sweden, skipper Paul Cayard)
Azzurra             (Italy, skipper Francesco Bruni)
Mascalzone Latino Audi     (Italy)
Synergy             (Russia, skipper Karol Jablonski)
TEAMORIGIN         (Great Britain, skipper Ben Ainslie)     

Following the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta the WSTA’s member teams will race in La Maddalena, Sardinia (22 May – 6 June), then in Dubai, UAE (13 – 27 November) before Hong Kong in early 2011 (9 – 24 January).

The Louis Vuitton Trophy is one of the most coveted events in sailing and Dubai joins established premier regatta venues, including Auckland, Sardinia and Hong Kong as 2010 hosts.

Paul Cayard, Chairman of the World Sailing Team Association and skipper/strategist of Team Artemis, said: "I have been sailing in Dubai on several occasions. The conditions are ideal, the course is next to the shore and the atmosphere is exciting. DIMC is a fantastic host and I am sure our event here will open many eyes to this fantastic racing venue."

Saeed Harib, President of the UAE Marine Sports Federation and CEO of DIMC, which will host the race, is delighted to be helping the growth of the sport in the region.


"Dubai was host to the Emirates Team New Zealand Pro Am Series in 2006 and Alinghi and Victory Challenge boats during the winter of 2007," said Harib.  


"With the Louis Vuitton Trophy, DIMC and our partners Emirates Airline are continuing that relationship and in doing so creating a new platform for the development of modern sailing in the region."

Yves Carcelle, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, said: "Louis Vuitton has been present in Dubai for more than 10 years. In 2010, we are thrilled to maintain this relationship through a great sailing event, while reinforcing the age-long Dubai tradition for regattas."

The Louis Vuitton Trophy – which is split into two five-day rounds, followed by semi-finals and the finals run over two days each - will mark the start of the Sea Dubai Watersports Festival, under the patronage of HH Sheikh Majid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The festival – now in its third year - will feature: the Dubai Shamaal World Surf Ski Championship; Oakley Riot World Wakeboard Tournament; UAE National Day Watersports Parade; Mina Mile Swimming Competition; Open Water Swim; Jet Ski Competition; Traditional 43ft Dhow Sailing Championship; and finishes on 11th December with the final round of the Class One World and XCat Powerboat World Championships.

The Trophy will be held at Mina Seyahi, the home of Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) next to the Palm Jumeirah, while Emirates Airline – a leading sponsor - will be flying in many of teams and their armies of support staff, as well as race officials and spectators from around the globe.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman DIMC, and Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group, said: "This is a real coup for Dubai. We are honoured to be part of this fantastic event which has rapidly emerged as a renowned spectacle of sport followed by millions around the world".

"As well as thrilling spectators both here and on TV, it will consolidate Dubai’s status as a venue capable of hosting major international sporting events. Emirates has a great affinity with sailing and it is exciting to be strengthening our commitment to the sport further by supporting a race which will bring the world’s finest sailors to Dubai".

The event  that will feature on-shore entertainment and a host of other activities - is also expected to put wind in the sails of the UAE tourism industry.

Businesses throughout the UAE are expected to benefit after the organisers of the 2009 Louis Vuitton Pacific Series reported that the 14-day festival injected US$12 million (Dhs 44 million) into the Auckland economy.

The World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) and Louis Vuitton today announced more Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas for 2010 and early 2011. These new international events follow the successful regatta held in Nice, France, last month.

Each Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta is a stand-alone regatta sailed in event-supplied 85-foot long AC Class yachts that require a crew of 17 top sailors to sail. The regatta concept is designed to transform a port venue, regardless of its previous sailing culture, into the capital of professional yacht racing for two weeks, along with all the associated activities and excitement, on and off the water.

The concept of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas was inspired by the acclaimed Louis Vuitton Pacific Series raced in Auckland, NZ, last February.

The schedule for the next events covers four distinctly different parts of the world:
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland: 9 - 21 March 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena, Sardinia: 22 May - 6 June 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Middle East: 13 - 28 November 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong: 9 - 24 January 2011 (To be confirmed)
 
* The venue in The Middle East is embargoed until January 15th 2010
 
Newly-elected WSTA board Chairman Paul Cayard commented: “The Louis Vuitton Trophy is gaining momentum following the great regattas held in Auckland and Nice in 2009 and I really believe 2010 is going to be an even better year for our teams, their crews and supporters.”

Apart from being a cost-effective way for teams to match race impressively large yachts close to crowds, the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas also represent one of the most interesting media/marketing opportunities in yacht racing today.

The innovative low-cost solution to live TV and tracking coupled with live expert commentary from on board the yachts pioneered in Nice last November, allows spectators, hospitality guests and sailing fans around the world to watch live races in a hybrid virtual and real video show on internet (louisvuittontrophy.com).

The use of AC Class yachts from the last two America’s Cups now scattered about the world allows the existing boats to be shared regionally without the necessity to constantly ship equipment back and forth; only the crews travel, making for cost- effective and easily organised events.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland will again bring some of the best racing teams back to ‘’Kiwiland’’. Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said the team welcomed Louis Vuitton’s return to Auckland: “Last February we tested the concept. Its success far exceeded everyone’s expectations.”
 
“The Louis Vuitton Trophy has emerged from that experiment as a viable, top-level regatta. It’s good for the teams, it’s good for the sport, it’s good for host cities and we’ve given the fans something to watch.”  
 
The caliber of teams competing is second to none. Most sailors are either world champions, Olympic medalists, round-the-world sailors or past America’s Cup players. All teams competing at the Nice regatta came with either America’s Cup experience or future ambitions.

Emirates Team New Zealand has been both Challenger and Defender in the past, BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) is the current Challenger of Record, while other teams such as Azzurra (Italy), TEAMORIGIN (Great Britain), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Synergy (Russia), All4One (France/Germany), Aleph Sailing Team previously known as Team French Spirit (France), Artemis (Sweden) all have future plans.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas provide an opportunity to compete at the highest level using similar yachts, with only the crew’s sailing ability as the deciding factor. The cost to teams is also a fraction of an America’s Cup or an offshore campaign budget, something that has already attracted several new teams to taste the waters at this level of competition.

Yves Carcelle, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, is pleased to be associated with the event: “Nice a few weeks ago again proved the viability of the concept, which reflects current concerns: easy, friendly, accessible and environmentally responsible. It is a great way to bring the best teams back on the water.”

It wasn’t the most auspicious of starts for the final day of racing on Sunday. Race officer Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio and his team came down to the port before the sun had even risen over the Mediterranean, ready to make the most of the short-lived morning breeze. Go much beyond 10am, and Luigi knew that the wind would most likely die.

“All I wanted when we went out there this morning was for someone to score 2-0, because it could have gotten ugly for a third match,” he said. So when his team discovered that two of the marker buoys had gone adrift overnight, this was not the news he wanted to hear. Fortunately the marker boat team got replacement buoys securely in place, not easy in the deep water off the Cote d’Azur, and racing got underway without any setback.

Not only that but Luigi’s dream came true when Azzurra won both the first two races. Soon after the Azzurri started celebrating, the wind died to zero, so it was a relief to organisers that the winners had won convincingly.

“It was a clear winner,” said Bruno Troublé, spokesman for the World Sailing Team Association (WSTA) and one of the chief architects of the Louis Vuitton Trophy concept. “In light weather they're very good, the Italians. It was the perfect result.

“The Kiwis, they are very good but they are spoilt” added Troublé with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “They won the Louis Vuitton Cup, then the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, so one day you have to lose. They lost to a fantastic team of Italians. they're very good in light weather, they love the conditions here, and I'm very impressed to see Azzurra back after so many years because this name is a brand in Italy, the same as Peter Blake was a legend in New Zealand. It has put sailing back on the front page in Italy.

“In fact Azzurra participated in the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1983, and I was sailing against them on the French boat. I know them well. Today’s victory, it is like the completion of a circle. The way they won was very good, no discussions.”

If the New Zealanders felt like Italy and the rest of the World wanted them to fall to Azzurra, they shouldn’t feel hard done by. It’s just that every neutral supporter likes to see the underdog win, and Francesco Bruni’s team was a very popular winner. “Today's result is a big support for the concept I came up with a year ago in the WSTA.

“The whole idea of the concept is to give the same weapons to the teams. You have slow boats and fast boats in the America's Cup, but when you are sailing a slow boat every day - it hurts a lot. What people loved at this regatta is that they are fighting with the same tools, the same weapons. And this is the whole idea behind the Louis Vuitton Trophy - fair and friendly competition between nations.”

Modern racing teams tend to be made up of many different nationalities. Like in top-flight club football, the thinking is that you recruit the best person for the job, regardless of where they come from. The new Russian team, Synergy, for example had eight nationalities represented among the 17 crew.

But the two teams that made the final were the most single-nation of all the eight teams in Nice. Emirates Team New Zealand was Kiwi throughout, with the exception of British navigator Jules Salter. In Azzurra, American-born Tom Burnham was the only non-Italian on board, although seeing as the team’s strategist is married to an Italian wife, Burnham is considered an honorary Italian.

Tommaso Chieffi, one of the most experienced tacticians in the game, valued the opportunity to sail with his compatriots again. “Having the same language on board helped us out. Even Tom Burnham can speak very fluent Italian, so being able to communicate in your own language when things happen so quick is a big bonus. We can all sail in English but sometimes there are subtleties and things that you might miss. It was good to prove that we can do it, and the team did a very good job. As a tactician I could ask for anything and this crew could deliver it, even if it was a short layline or whatever.”

The Italians are well known for their passion, and for their outward display of emotion. Even before they’d crossed the finish line of the winning race, they started celebrating. Grinder Francesco Scalici says a tight bond has formed in the team already. “Italy and New Zealand have a big tradition in sailing, but today we sailed well and maybe with a bit of luck.” That luck he refers to could include a man overboard incident where sewer man Pietro Mantovani was swept off the foredeck during the final spinnaker hoist, but was pulled out of the water before the boat swept past him. It was a magnificent recovery from potential disaster, and it was the sign of a regatta that has gone impeccably for this new team with an old, respected name. “The name Azzurra is very important for us because it has a big tradition from 1983,” says Scalici. “We respect this brand, and we are proud to do justice to it.”

Skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand, Dean Barker, was magnanimous in defeat. “It’s disappointing for us to lose a regatta. We had every opportunity to win it but Azzurra sailed better than us. Everything choice they made was right. All the 50:50 calls seemed to go their way, which is frustrating, but that's how it goes sometimes.”

Barker is a quiet sailor who leads a quiet team, the very opposite of the ebullient Italians. The quiet approach didn’t prevail on this occasion, but Barker won’t be changing his ways. “We work very hard on our composure on the boat, keep things level whether we're winning or losing. The good thing about that is the emotional rollercoaster potentially isn't quite as big. We back ourselves well to recover from losses or mistakes. That's one advantage of having a steady emotional platform.”

Grant Dalton, too, is aware of the cultural difference between the Kiwis and Italians. “We could hear them when they finished,” he laughed, “and good on them too. New team, come together, and it's a funny bitter-sweet moment for me, because I've got an involvement with Riccardo Bonadeo and the whole formation of that team. If I was going to be beaten by anyone, that's who I'd like to be beaten by, and they're really good people.

“Azzurra is the oldest of the sailing brands in Italy, and this is its rebirth. In theory the semi-finals probably should have been us, Artemis, Team Origin and BMW Oracle, but in pop two of the upstarts with Azzurra and Synergy, and they kick out two of the big teams from the semi-finals, and then kick out Origin in the semi-finals. So it's kind of a fairy tale story, and Azzurra deserve to win.”

Even before the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur began, Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni spoke of his passion and honour to be leading an iconic sailing brand back into the fray after a long absence. This afternoon he could barely describe his joy.

Bruni and his Azzurra crew, including tactician Tommaso Chieffi, defeated Emirates Team New Zealand 2-0 in the Grand Final to win this match race regatta.

Azzurra, from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, made its international sailing debut at the 1983 Louis Vuitton Cup but has been in hiatus since the 1987 event off Western Australia. The team was re-launched last month and today Azzurra won the first race by 25 seconds and the second by 17 for a well-deserved championship.

“It’s an amazing sensation. I can’t find the words to describe it,” said Bruni, the 40-year-old skipper from Sicily. “We knew we could do a good job. We had very good training before the event. But we never thought about beating New Zealand in the final.”

Emirates Team New Zealand entered the final as the favourite. It won the round robin, suffering just one loss in 10 starts, and then defeated the upstart Synergy Russia Sailing Team in a hard-fought semi final match.

Team New Zealand has won many regattas this year, including the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in February and the TP52 World Championship in September. Today, however, the Kiwis lost the first cross in both races and could never find a way around the Italians on the short courses of less than 5 nautical miles.

“I think we sailed well today but Azzurra was clearly better than us. They did everything right,” said Dean Barker, skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand. “Sometimes that’s just the way it is. You’re either in the right place or you’re not. Today Azzurra sailed very, very well.”

The two races were sailed early in the morning as the race committee was intent on deciding the regatta on the water and not on countback, which might’ve happened if racing couldn’t be conducted. The best winds of this two-week event were often early in the morning, and today the first warning signal was sounded at 0800 CET, one hour earlier than scheduled.

The northwesterly wind blew between 6 and 10 knots for the two races and was very shifty and patchy. Pressure differences often accounted for different sailing angles as 1 or 2 knots more wind can lift a yacht as much as 10 degrees higher than its opponent.

Chieffi, who won the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup as tactician of Il Moro di Venezia, thought the Kiwis’ success played against them in the final.

“Beating TeamOrigin yesterday was a big plus for us; we’d done our share of work,” said Chieffi. “So we came in with smiley faces today despite the early morning. I could sense the Kiwis were more tense because they were the favourite; they were leading throughout the regatta. This played a role in our favour.”

The winning crew included skipper Bruni and tactician Chieffi, Tom Burnham (strategist), Bruno Zirilli (navigator), Daniele De Luca (mainsail trimmer), Stefano Rizzi (jib trimmer), Pierluigi De Felice (spinnaker trimmer), Gabriele Bruni (trimmer), Piero Romero (runner grinder), Nicola Pilastro (mainsail grinder), Massimo Galli (port grinder), Francesco Scalici (starboard grinder), Cristian Griggio (pitman), Luca Albarelli (mastman), Pietro Mantovani (mid-bow), Matteo Auguadro (bowman) and Michele Cannoni (pit assist).

Despite the win, Azzurra had its mishaps on the racecourse. The skipper and tactician both described three problems in the two races. In Race 1 a helicopter got too low to the water and disrupted the wind flow, reducing a four-boatlength lead to one.

In the second race the crew didn’t judge a bias in the leeward gate. They made a starboard rounding, but the mark was farther downwind and again they gave away three boatlengths.

The biggest mishap came at the top of the second beat in the second race. Approaching the windward mark on starboard tack with Team New Zealand two or three lengths behind, Mantovani, the mid-bowman, slipped overboard while preparing the spinnaker for the rounding. As the yacht sailed past the aft grinder, Romero, ran into the scoop and grabbed him out of the water “like a fish,” according to Bruni.

Chieffi said: “Even with the mishaps, the crew did a solid job to not lose concentration. Yes, we had five-boatlength leads, but one length is enough. The crew did an outstanding job keeping it calm, steady and tidy. We’re very pleased with the result.”

For detailed information about today’s matches please visit the official event Web site, www.LouisVuittonTrophy.com.

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur Final Standings

Team (Country) Skipper (Nationality) Won-Lost

1. Azzurra (ITA) Francesco Bruni (ITA), 11-5

2. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker (NZL), 11-4

3. Synergy Russia Sailing Team (RUS) Karol Jablonski (POL), 8-6

4. TeamOrigin (GBR) Ben Ainslie (GBR), 9-6

5. All4One (FRA/GER) Jochen Schumann (GER), 5-8

6. BMW Oracle Racing (USA) Hamish Pepper (NZL), 5-8

7. Artemis (SWE) Paul Cayard (USA), 5-7

8. TFS – PagesJaunes (FRA) Bertrand Pacé (FRA), 1-11

(Note: Won-lost records do not reflect penalties assessed by on-water umpires or the International Jury.)

Azzurra have sailed impressively at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice, gelling as a unit very quickly. Perhaps it helps that two of the key players in the afterguard are brothers: Francesco Bruni, the skipper and helmsman, and Gabriele, the windspotter up the mast.

Ten years ago they were racing a 49er two-man skiff together and represented Italy in the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. Then in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series of Valencia 2007, they were racing against each other on two rival Italian teams, Francesco on Luna Rossa and Gabriele on 39 Challenge. Now they are reunited under the Azzurra banner.

Francesco is happy to be back on the same side as Gabriele. “I think that my brother has a very good feeling for the wind and doing his job very well here. After sailing on different teams it is good to back on the same side again.” Fraternal relationships do not always run smoothly, however, as Francesco admits. “I think that the relationship between brothers is always hard, you don’t have any filter.  So communication sometimes is not the best because we are too direct with each other.  When he does something good, I’m very warm with him.  When he does something bad sometimes I’m too hard on him.  But on average, if you count plus and minus, it’s a good plus to have someone very close to you - I mean family wise - on the boat with you.”

Likewise Gabriele is enjoying being reunited with his brother, who occupies the skipper’s role for the first time. “We are happy to be together again and sail together again in an important situation, as we did at the Olympics in 2000. We will grow together in this team. I think I know what he wants to hear and at which moment, although my direct communication is with the tactician Tommaso Chieffi. Tommaso is a good intermediate between Francesco and me. He is a very experienced guy and this is what we need, because we are still young at this game.”

While the brotherly bond between the Brunis is certainly strong, Francesco points out that everyone on the Azzurra boat feels a strong connection. “For us it is a big plus that we are all from the same nation and speaking the same language. We all speak Italian on the boat, and we share the same passion for the sport.”

M1: Azzurra d. Emirates Team New Zealand – Delta: 25 seconds

Azzurra 1, Team New Zealand 0

The first match of the Final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur was a straightforward match race. There wasn’t a lot of boat-on-boat action, but the Azzurra crew deserves credit for sailing a smart race. Skipper Francesco Bruni and crew gained the advantage on the first beat and then covered smartly around the course for the win.

With the course axis set at 340 degrees and the range at 1.2 nautical miles, the course was short and placed a premium on winning the pre-start. But with the wind strength around 7 knots, the pre-start was mostly sedate. Azzurra had the starboard-tack advantage, but the two crews seemed more intent on positioning off the line rather than trying to pin a penalty on their opponent.

Both boats started on starboard with Azzurra at the pin end and Team New Zealand three lengths to windward. Team New Zealand quickly tacked to port off the line. Azzurra tacked to port about a minute into the race and both boats enjoyed a slight left-hand shift. Azzurra enjoyed it more as the Italians won the first cross, on port tack, by a boatlength. Bruni and tactician Tommaso Chieffi crossed to the right and then employed covering tactics. Azzurra led by 14 seconds at the first windward mark.

There wasn’t much difference between the yachts on the run. Azzurra gained nicely when the two crews first jibed to starboard. Then Team New Zealand gained back later on the leg when they both jibed to port. The gains and losses seemed due to how much pressure the crews had during their manoeuvres. Such is match racing in patchy winds. On the crews’ final jibes to starboard for the leeward gate, Azzurra got directly in front of Team New Zealand, which allowed the Italians to begin the second beat with an 18-second advantage.

Azzurra had an initial loss at the bottom of the second beat, but made that back later on the leg once it got into similar pressure as the Kiwis. The Italians gained nicely on the top of the leg when they were able to tack on the Kiwis’ air. Azzurra led by 23 seconds beginning the run to the finish.

Azzurra’s tactician Chieffi made a bold call on the final leg when he gybed his crew to port after the windward mark rounding. They gybed out of a covering position, but seemed to find more wind on the left side (looking upwind) of the course and were making 1.5 knots more boatspeed. When the two yachts converged moments later Azzurra had firm control halfway down the leg. The finish was in sight, and the 1-0 lead was secure.

M2: Azzurra d. Emirates Team New Zealand – Delta: 17 seconds

Azzurra 2, Team New Zealand 0

Azzurra sailed another solid race, winning the first cross and covering around the racecourse to win the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur 2-0 over Emirates Team New Zealand.

Azzurra entered the pre-start of Race 2 on port tack. In the light, 8-knot winds the sailors consider that a death sentence because it’s hard to escape your opponents’ control. But Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni was up to the task. With about 2 minutes to the start he’d gone far enough forward on Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker to tack to port and lead the match to the outside of the committee boat. At the start Azzurra tacked to port and headed to the right side of the course while New Zealand took starboard onto the course before tacking to port.

With both boats on port tack Azzurra seemed to foot out to leeward of Emirates Team New Zealand. Azzurra tacked to starboard on the right side and when the two yachts converged about 5 minutes after the start Azzurra crossed so easily that Team New Zealand ducked behind to get to the right and minimize its loss. At the top of the leg Azzurra tacked to port and crossed with a boatlength advantage to round the windward mark 18 seconds in the lead.

The first run became skewed when the wind shifted left and both boats reached on starboard jibe. Azzurra led by 21 seconds at the leeward gate. Up the second beat the Italians protected the left side of the course and halfway up the leg got Team New Zealand pinned to leeward on starboard tack. The two yachts rode out to the port layline in that manner before tacking for the windward mark. Azzurra led by 18 seconds at the second windward mark.

Barker and Team New Zealand attacked on the run to the finish and after one cross halfway down the run appeared to gain the lead on the right side (looking upwind), but when Azzurra jibed back to port and converged with Team New Zealand, on starboard, the lead was back to 50 meters. Azzurra hung on for a 17-second win and won the series, 2-0.

One of Emirates Team New Zealand’s big strengths is longevity. The length of time and the number of races that the afterguard has been working together. Aside from skipper/ helmsman Dean Barker, two key players at the back of the Kiwi boat are tactician Ray Davies and windspotter Adam Beashel.

Where Beashel’s priority is to find the best breeze across the race course, from high up in his perch on the top spreaders of the mast, Davies has to balance the most favourable breeze against the tactical considerations of where the opposition is. This has been a particularly challenging compromise in the light winds of Nice. “It’s always a tough balance playing the boat or the wind,” says Davies. “In light airs it’s near impossible to cover someone downwind. There’s a crossover in the windspeed where you can’t afford to cover someone the way you can when it’s windier. You can’t afford to match someone tack for tack or gybe for gybe. Sometimes you’ve just got to go your own way.”

With starboard tack holding right of way over port tack in the Racing Rules of sailing, this puts an emphasis on going for the right-hand side of the course. “On these short beats you’ve got to protect the right,” says Davies. “The second race of the morning is the tough one, when you get the end of the morning breeze. Sailing after 10 o’clock here, you’ve got to forget about the other boat and just sail the breeze.”

Some people might have been surprised at how much separation across the course crept in between the Kiwis and the trailing Russians on Synergy during their semi-final showdown on Saturday for example. “We had quite a bit of discussion in the race against Synergy when there was a lot of separation,” Davies recalls. “We knew we were in reliable wind where we were but we reckoned that if we gybed back we’d get stuck between two different breezes. It would have been tempting to try and get back and them cover them. As it was, it was a huge gain for us down the run, but I bet they were hoping we’d come back and try to protect which would have dragged us back into the no-wind zone. We just had to back ourselves and stay with our plan and not cover the opposition, but there’s definitely a time and a place.”

When making those brave calls to go the other way from the opposition, Davies is relying heavily on Beashel’s judgement to see the breeze from up the mast. It’s a job that Beashel has done for some years now, and one that he’s grown comfortable with. “People talk a lot about local knowledge, but when you get up the rig you work things out pretty quickly. Sometimes your first picture is your best picture. I don’t like being up there before a start, because you can overcomplicate things. I like to get up there just 10 minutes before a start and get a snapshot, and say, ‘this is what is going to happen for the first beat.’”

Maybe the other reason is that, as Beashel admits, it can be a lot colder being 100 feet above sea level than down in the shelter of the cockpit below, especially on these early mornings in autumnal Nice. “It’s pretty cold up there, so it’s another reason to stay on deck,” smiles Beashel. But the heightened sense of awareness that you gain from being up high is one that he wouldn’t be without. “On the last race against Synergy, going into the finish, just as we gybed I could smell smoke, so you just had to look for the fire and you could tell where the wind was coming from.”

One of sailing’s most revered brands will square off tomorrow against one of its most iconic brands when Emirates Team New Zealand races Azzurra in the Final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

The final was scheduled to commence this afternoon, but light winds again frustrated competitors and organizers in their attempt to race. Although the championship was put on hold around 1440 CET, three races were held earlier in the day to wrap up the Semi Final Round and the Petit Final.

Azzurra of Italy advanced to the championship by defeating TeamOrigin of the U.K. in their showdown match. After a close first beat, the Italians luffed the British at the top of the leg to gain an advantage at the first mark.

Yesterday the Italians suffered in the strong winds and big waves. But today skipper Francesco Bruni and crew revelled in the 8-knot winds and won by 29 seconds.

“I think that we, as Italians, are used to sailing in lighter wind. We all know that,” said Bruni. “I think that we were driving the boat fast today as trimmer and skipper. Also the acceleration on the start line and how the boat reacts in turns, we’re just more confident in those conditions.”

Emirates Team New Zealand then took to the racecourse and booked its place in the final by defeating the pesky Synergy Russia Sailing Team.

Team New Zealand and Synergy had sailed three ding-dong battles, highlighted by yesterday’s second race when each team was penalised 1 point by a combination of the on-water umpires and International Jury. But this morning’s anticipated showdown proved to be more of a let down.

In a fashion similar to the day’s first match, the crews were evenly matched on the first leg. With both yachts on port tack and Team New Zealand to leeward, skipper Dean Barker, reigning champion of the Louis Vuitton Cup, luffed Synergy near the first mark.

During the incident the on-water umpires penalized the Russian-flagged yacht and Team New Zealand opened an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish. The Kiwis won by 4 minutes although the delta became skewed as Synergy completed a penalty turn on the finish line in light winds.

“We sort of parked it up and they didn’t give us enough room when we bore away,” said Barker of the incident at the windward mark. “It’s tough as the windward boat because you’re trying to not lose the race at that point. It was close through the manoeuvre. I don’t know if there was contact, I couldn’t see, but it was nothing like yesterday.”

After a break for lunch the four crews returned to the water to resume racing, but the Petit Final between Synergy and TeamOrigin was the only match sailed in winds between 4 and 6 knots. After trailing by 22 seconds at the first mark, Synergy scored a comeback win when it overtook the British on the first downwind leg.

“Not making the final is very disappointing,” said TeamOrigin General Manager Mike Sanderson, a past round-the-world race winner. “We put a lot more effort into this regatta than we did Auckland. We were here to win and to win it you need to get to final. I’d be lying if I said not making the final was a big disappointment.”

Racing tomorrow is scheduled to begin early with the warning signal slated for 0800 CET.

For detailed information about today’s matches please visit the official event Web site, www.LouisVuittonTrophy.com.

The final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur sees Emirates Team New Zealand racing Azzurra.

The pair has raced before only once in this regatta and Team New Zealand scored a 35-second win on 10 Nov. Team New Zealand comes into the round with an 11-2 record on the water and Azzurra at 9-5.

Like the semis the winner will be the first to score 2 points (barring penalties and jury decisions). In the first match Azzurra enters the start box on starboard tack and aboard ITA-99. Team New Zealand will sail ITA-90.

“Azzurra’s sailing really well,” said Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. “They’re fast, they’re starting well. They get in front and don’t give many opportunities.”

Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni likes the calmer conditions expected this afternoon, in contrast to yesterday’s strong winds and big waves.

“I think that we, as Italians, are used to sailing in lighter wind. We all know that,” said Bruni. “I think that we were driving the boat fast today as trimmer and skipper. Also the acceleration on the start line and how the boat reacts in turns, we’re just more confident in those conditions.”

The first race of the Final will be held this afternoon. Subsequent races are scheduled for tomorrow. A warning signal isn’t expected before 1300 CET.

The Petite Final between TeamOrigin and Synergy will be the first start this afternoon. It’ll be a one race match with the winner placing third and the vanquished finishing fourth.

“Not making the final is very disappointing,” said TeamOrigin General Manager Mike Sanderson. “We put a lot more effort into this regatta than we did Auckland. We were here to win and to win it you need to get to final. I’d be lying if I said not making the final was a big disappointment.”

In an interesting development, TeamOrigin chose to race FRA-93 in this match as opposed to its own GBR-75. Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski thinks he knows why.

“We’re looking forward to the last race in this very, very good event for us. We’ll see what we get out of it,” said Jablonski. “For sure 93 is faster in light wind. That’s why Origin chose this boat. Normally they would choose their own boat. Obviously, they know 93 is much faster. So we’ll have a tough time out there. In flat water and 7 knots, 93 is much, much faster.”

Semi Final Pair A

Emirates Team New Zealand d. Synergy Russia Sailing Team – Delta: 4:00

Team New Zealand 1, Synergy 0

Emirates Team New Zealand will meet Azzurra in the final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. The Kiwis advance after finally swatting away their nemesis, Synergy. The crews have sailed some thrilling matches in this regatta, but today’s heat was rather anti-climatic. After the first beat, anyway.

Team New Zealand started to the right to gain the starboard tack advantage. The Kiwis used it to leebow Synergy twice. On the third meeting Synergy was able to live on the windward quarter of their rival, much like in the first match between Azzurra and TeamOrigin.

In this match, however, Team New Zealand played the role of Azzurra and luffed from leeward. Both boats were on port tack and Synergy was obliged to keep clear. The on-water umpires deemed that Synergy did not keep clear and penalized the team.

Team New Zealand extended its lead around the course in the fading winds. The final delta was skewed in Team New Zealand’s favour because Synergy had to perform the 270-degree penalty turn on the finish line in the light winds.

The race committee hopes to start the Final this afternoon, but the morning wind has died and now it’s a matter of waiting for the afternoon seabreeze.

One of the most fundamental parts of the preparation for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur has been the equalisation of the two pairs of America’s Cup Version 5 boats competing here. For unlike the America’s Cup where the design of a team’s boat is vital to its overall result, at this regatta it is the opposite – the performance of each pair of boats should be identical, with results being solely down to the skill of each sailing team.



Italian shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato may not be competing at this regatta, but his team is very much in evidence as his 2007 generation Mascalzone Latino boats ITA90 and ITA99 are one of the two pairs. Luckily the hulls of these two boats are identical with the exception of the bows and keel bulbs. Mascalzone Latino CEO Francesco Aversano says they carried out much telemetry between the boats in the build-up to the 32nd America’s Cup and the performance difference between them is minute: “Their speed was almost the same - it depends on the wind and sea state, but more or less 2-3m/minute, so it has been easy for us to have the same speed of the boat by working on 99 to make it a little slower.” This has involved adjusting the rake of the mast.

However when recommissioning work began on the two boats on 1 September, there was a lot to do for their 16 strong shore team. The boats hadn’t been used since the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 and Aversano says they had been stripped of everything – no winches, electronics, etc. They put them back together, took them sailing in Valencia and then brought them to Nice. Aversano is convinced their performance is now as close as it can be. “With the short races, 20 minutes a leg, the difference isn’t enough. You can’t overtake someone just through speed,” he says.

The work was harder for the TEAMORIGIN shore crew who were responsible for matching up their own GBR-75 (formerly Alinghi’s 2003 generation SUI-75) with the Franco-German team ALL4ONE’s very different FRA-93. Matters were made no easier by the British boat being in the UK, FRA-93 in Valencia and a regatta to attend in Nice. 30 TEAMORIGIN shore crew were faced with the giant task of equalising the boats over the space of just three weeks. To do this the winglets were taken off the bulbs, but the main changes were made to the rigs that were set up in a similar way.

TEAMORIGIN’s Mike Sanderson explains: “The biggest thing that we did was to move heaven and earth to make sure that the boats had identical sails on them. The rigs are pretty similar and we set them up in a similar fashion. So as long as there were two pretty reasonable boats, doing that to them was going to make them as close as they could ever be.”

Surprisingly, rather than using the sails that came with either boat, they instead are using sails supplied by BMW Oracle Racing from their V5 Cup boats, and these had to be flown up from Auckland. Then there was then the challenging task of getting these sails to fit GBR75 and FRA93, particularly by altering mainsail foot lengths and their halyard lock systems.

GBR-75 and FRA-93 have been further equalised over the course of the regatta by swapping sails to detune the performance of 75. In the early matches, teams who won the toss to choose their favourite boat or favoured end of the line were selecting 75, the boat that Alinghi used to such devastating effect in the Louis Vuitton Acts of 2005 and 2006. But it speaks well of the equalisation of these boats that as the regatta has gone on, more teams have chosen 93 or sacrificed their choice of boat in favour of choosing their desired end of the start line.

There remains plenty of discussion about how the boats could be equalised further, even the prospect of a one-design being especially built for future editions of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. But in the meantime the Version 5 boats are performing an admirable task, remain as challenging as ever to sail and perhaps more importantly have been given a ‘raison d’etre’ post-Valencia.

Semi Final Pair B

Azzurra d. TeamOrigin – Delta: 29 seconds

Azzurra 2, TeamOrigin 1

Yesterday Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni said he wasn’t ready for the strong winds and big waves and got dominated in the pre-start of his race against TeamOrigin. Today, Bruni was much more at home in the 10-knot northerly and flat water, and led his team to the final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur with a 29-second victory over TeamOrigin. Azzurra wins the match, 2-1.

The pre-start of this match was docile compared to yesterday, when TeamOrigin’s Ben Ainslie gained two penalties on Bruni. The Italian said things snowballed out of control after the first penalty for jibing too close. Today, however, Bruni and Ainslie hardly mixed it up as both looked for positioning on the line.

The pair entered the course on starboard tack with TeamOrigin to windward of Azzurra. The match was close up the first beat, with Azzurra placing three leebow tacks on TeamOrigin, just keeping its bow ahead. On the third leebow Ainslie was able to live on Bruni’s windward quarter, but Bruni used his position to luff Ainslie. The two yachts were nearly stopped in the water when Bruni pulled his bow down and gained speed. He tacked to port and led by 18 seconds at the windward mark. From there, the race was all Bruni’s as he and tactician Tommaso Chieffi covered and extended the rest of the way for the final delta.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur is down to the nitty gritty. The bottom half of the leaderboard is decided. Only the top four remain.

One race remains in each Semi Final match, both of which are tied. TeamOrigin and Azzurra are 1-1. Emirates Team New Zealand and Synergy Russia Sailing Team are tied 1-1 on the water, but 0-0 on the scoreboard. A combination of the on-water umpires and International Jury took 1 point away from each team yesterday for a collision at the finish of their second race.

Both matches have one race left, and the winners advance to the final. Today’s racing is scheduled to begin with a warning signal at 0830 CET. The TeamOrigin-Azzurra match is first up. Azzurra will enter the start box on starboard tack aboard ITA-99. TeamOrigin comes in on port aboard ITA-90.

The Emirates Team New Zealand-Synergy match has been nothing short of entertaining. Through the regatta these crews have sailed three times. Team New Zealand leads 2-1. This race is scheduled to follow immediately after the TeamOrigin-Azzurra match, but there’s a concern about wind strength. The morning offshore flow is blowing between 7 and 10 knots today, but how long it lasts is the concern. The race committee has already announced that no warning signal for the semi finals will be made after 1100 CET. If this deciding match isn’t sailed, the tiebreaker would go to Team New Zealand based on the round robin standings.

The International Jury for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur has penalised Synergy Russia Sailing Team a half point for a collision with Emirates Team New Zealand at the finish of their second Semi Final race earlier today.

In the second race Emirates Team New Zealand had been penalised in the pre-start for gybing too close. The crew carried that penalty around the course. Approaching the finish, Team New Zealand was trying to either complete the 270-degree penalty turn or offset it with a penalty on Synergy when the pair wound up outside the committee boat end of the finish line.

Both crews had their genoas hoisted trying to get upwind and over the top of the committee boat, but Team New Zealand got close to the committee boat. The New Zealand crew tacked to port and hailed for water, calling the committee boat an obstruction.

Both boats were downspeed in the sloppy seaway and they collided, Synergy’s port side hitting Team New Zealand’s starboard side.

After the match the on-water umpires penalised Emirates Team New Zealand 1 point and Synergy a half point for the beam-on-beam collision that caused some damage to the 24-tonne yachts.

In a later protest hearing the International jury found that there was a hard collision between Team New Zealand and Synergy. The jury deemed that when Synergy, the starboard-tack yacht, became the right-of-way boat it altered course down towards Team New Zealand and didn’t do enough to keep clear.

“That change of course was an infringement of Rule 14 (Avoiding Contact), so we deducted a half point for that,” said Chief Umpire Bill Edgerton. “In the end we penalised Team new Zealand 1 point and Synergy a half point for the rule to make sure the crews don’t do massive damage. Then we deducted a second half point from Synergy for not doing everything to keep clear.”

Although the teams have each won a race in their match the score is now 0-0, setting up a one race, winner-take-all match tomorrow morning.

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning with a warning signal set for 0830 CET. The first race will be between TeamOrigin and Azzurra with the Emirates Team New Zealand-Synergy to follow.

For detailed information about today’s matches please visit the official event Web site, www.LouisVuittonTrophy.com.

Semi Final standings

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand 0, Synergy Russia Sailing Team 0

M2: Azzurra 1, TeamOrigin 1

Knockout Round standings

5th: All4One

6th: BMW Oracle Racing

7th: Artemis

8th: TFS – PagesJaunes

Emirates Team New Zealand has been the strongest team at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. Synergy Russia Sailing Team has been the most surprising. Those forces collided today in the Semi Final Round of the regatta, and tonight the two teams are in the protest room trying to resolve an incident at the finish of their second race.

Team New Zealand won a thrilling first race by 20 seconds. The heat featured three lead changes and the Kiwis won after gaining control in a luffing match with the finish line about 10 lengths away.

“It was all on, a very close race,” said Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies. “It was pretty tense onboard. You have to expect close races in this round. We’re down to the best teams and you have to expect close, ding-dong races otherwise they wouldn’t be worth winning.”

In the second race Team New Zealand was penalised in the pre-start for gybing too close. The Kiwis controlled the race around the track, but couldn’t get enough separation to perform the 270-degree penalty turn and convert the win.

A collision occurred when the pair was outside the committee boat end of the finish line. According to Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski, Team New Zealand called for water to clear the boat end. Jablonski said he responded to the call, but the yachts were downspeed and he had little steerage. The two 24-tonne yachts collided beam-on-beam and suffered some damage.

Although Synergy won the match on the water to even the score at 1-1, the protest was still hanging in the balance. A ruling was expected later tonight.

This regatta has suffered through starts and stops the past two weeks due to light winds. But that was all in distant memory today as the conditions on the Baie des Anges kicked up and added a compelling measure to the racing. Five penalties were issued and two teams were OCS as the conditions put a premium on boathandling.

After the morning offshore flow died, the wind shifted to the east and built to 15 knots, with gusts up to 18 knots. There was also a large seaway running as the winds offshore were blowing up to 25 knots.

TeamOrigin of Great Britain evened its match with Azzurra of Italy at 1-1. British skipper Ben Ainslie gained two penalties on his Italian counterpart, Francesco Bruni, in the 5-minute pre-start sequence. Bruni then misjudged his time and distance to the start line. After re-starting Azzurra was well behind TeamOrigin, which won the race by 2 minutes, 29 seconds.

“It was great to finally race in some wind and waves,” said Ainslie. “It was a ‘must win’ race for us and the guys did a great job all the way around. We have a long way to go yet in this competition, being first on tomorrow.”

“For sure today was harder for the crew, for everybody,” said Bruni. “To go from 15 days of very, very light wind and flat water to these conditions, to switch is hardest for me. I wasn’t as ready as Ben. I think he did a good job.”

In Knockout Round racing, the combined French/German team All4One placed fifth after winning two races. All4One earned a well-deserved win against Artemis by 27 seconds in its first race, and then met BMW Oracle Racing for 5th and 6th places. BMW Oracle had defeated TFS – PagesJaunes in its first race.

BMW Oracle controlled the match early, but made an unforced error at the windward mark. Approaching the first mark on starboard with All4One on its stern, BMW Oracle helmsman Gavin Brady tacked to port to round the mark. But All4One had to bear away to avoid hitting BMW Oracle, and the on-water umpires issued a red flag penalty.

BMW Oracle had to perform its penalty immediately on the run, and when it did so All4One sailed into a commanding lead. All4One won the match by 1 minute, 23 seconds to place 5th and drop BMW Oracle to 6th.

“This morning we had nothing to lose,” said All4One helmsman Sebastien Col. “We had the best conditions we could dream of for Nice. We were really waiting for these conditions because I think we have a strong team that can handle the boat well in a breeze. We started the regatta slowly and had some tough moments, but we are happy to finish well. It’s good for the team.”

Artemis of Sweden placed 7th on countback, and TFS – PagesJaunes finished 8th.

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning with a warning signal set for 0830 CET. The first race will be between TeamOrigin and Azzurra.

Semi Final standings

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand 1, Synergy Russia Sailing Team 1 (protest pending)

M2: Azzurra 1, TeamOrigin 1

Knockout Round standings

5th: All4One

6th: BMW Oracle Racing

7th: Artemis

8th: TFS – PagesJaunes

Rewa-Morgan made his name as a fitness consultant after working with the Ericsson Racing Team, who went on to win the Volvo Ocean Race earlier this year. At the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice he’s been working with BMW Oracle Racing. In the week leading up to competition Rewa-Morgan had the sailors going through a tapering programme of exercise and strength training. “We started off with full body routines, leading into heavy weightlifting and cardiovascular and full body exercises towards the end of the week,” he says.

Whereas on the round-the-world race the sailors had to be good, strong all-rounders, the AC boats require much more specialised athletes. “The needs of the grinders are very, very different to the needs of the afterguard.  There is lot more rotation involved for the trimmers, and the bowmen are doing a lot of dynamic movements for example. Also, we have a weight limit for the crew to think about, so we have to balance out the big guys in the middle of the boat with some light guys at the back. We do have a lot of beef in our grinders, probably one of the heftier teams out there. On average, our grinders are about between 105 and 110 kilos.”

Rewa-Morgan estimates the grinders will get through 4,500 to 5,000 calories of food per day, but it all gets burned up. “These guys are professional sailors. There’s not much fat, it’s mostly muscle, and I would say on average our grinders probably have just 12% to 14% of body fat.”

A good grinder can bench press anything over 100kg, according to Rewa-Morgan. The bench press, lying on a bench and pushing some heavy weights up from the chest, is the grinding community’s favourite way of comparing strength. Needless to say the sailors are as competitive in the gym as they are on the water. That all helps Rewa-Morgan with his job. “You try to harness their competitiveness.  You develop a culture where they know what they are doing when they get into the gym. So, when you throw in scores and competitions, they are obviously going to try harder just to beat the guy next to them.  You use it to your advantage. It could be a detriment, but if you know how to harness that competitive streak, it’s a plus for the team.”

Semi Final Pair A

R1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. Synergy Russia Sailing Team – Delta: 20 seconds

Emirates Team New Zealand has been the strongest team at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. Synergy Russia Sailing Team has been the most surprising. Those forces collided in the best match of the regatta, with Team New Zealand winning a hard fought match that was much closer than the delta indicates.

This match featured three lead changes and the Kiwis won it by getting the lead in the last quarter of the run to the finish. Synergy led at the first windward mark and leeward gate. Team New Zealand overtook on the second upwind leg by being to the left in a left-hand shift. Synergy was 15 seconds behind at the second windward mark when it gybe-set to starboard. Team New Zealand covered but Synergy was in a heading puff and rolled over the top and back into the lead.

The Kiwis gybed away to port and when the two boats converged again in a port-starboard situation, Synergy had to gybe to port to avoid fouling the Kiwis. The Synergy crew couldn’t quite pull off a clean gybe, and Team New Zealand luffed. Synergy had to press up hard on starboard to keep clear as windward yacht, and Team New Zealand bore away to a controlling leeward position. The crews had one last gybe to port, but Team New Zealand had control and scored the win.

Team New Zealand leads the best-of-three match 1-0.

R2: Synergy Russia Sailing Team d. Emirates Team New Zealand – Delta: 50 seconds

While it may not seem it on paper, this pair is incredibly even on the water. They’ve now completed three races and all have been decided within sight of the finish line. Synergy evened the match at 1-1 with a win on the finish line while Team New Zealand was stuck trying to complete a penalty turn.

Team New Zealand was penalised in the pre-start for jibing too close. The Kiwis led this match around the course, but couldn’t pull far enough ahead to complete the 270-degree penalty turn and clear the finish line in the lead. The two crews raised their genoas and lowered the spinnakers as they got into the final quarter of the run to the finish. The pair wound up outside the committee boat end and to leeward as Team New Zealand was looking for an opportunity to complete its penalty or offset it on the Russian crew. But Synergy stayed clear through all the manoeuvring. In fact, Team New Zealand was assessed a second penalty for causing a collision.

Semi Final Match B

R2: TeamOrigin d. Azzurra – Delta: 2:29

TeamOrigin evened its semi final match against Azzurra at 1-1 with a dominating performance. British skipper Ben Ainslie cleaned out Azzurra at the start, pushing the Italians over the line early at the boat end and gaining two penalties on them. Azzurra had to circle around the committee boat end to re-start and then had to perform one 270-degree penalty turn after entering the racecourse. By that time TeamOrigin was upwards of 10 boatlengths ahead. TeamOrigin led by 59 seconds at the first mark and never was threatened the rest of the way.

Knockout Pair A

BMW Oracle Racing d. TFS – PagesJaunes – Delta: 1:06

BMW Oracle Racing won this match in the pre-start. Entering on the favoured starboard tack, helmsman Gavin Brady dialled-up his counterpart on TFS – PagesJaunes, Bertrand Pace, and held him head-to-win for nearly the entire 5-minute period. With about 30 seconds to go and both boats well over the start line, Brady was able to spin his bow behind TFS and head back to the line. Brady got below the start line before the gun and had a clean start while Pace was left one length to windward of the line. It was a full 30 seconds before Pace was able to get behind the line and start properly. BMW Oracle Racing led by 55 seconds at the first windward mark and was never really threatened.

BMW Oracle Racing advances to the match for 5th and 6th place against either the winner of Knockout Pair B, Artemis or All4One. TFS – PagesJaunes moves onto the match for 7th and 8th versus the loser of the pair B match.

Knockout Pair B

All4One d. Artemis – Delta: 27 seconds

All4One, the host team at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, has advanced to the match for 5th and 6th place against BMW Oracle Racing after beating Artemis in their one race sail-off. All4One started on port tack at the boat end of the start line and took the right side of the racecourse. The two yachts slammed through the big seaway as they beat upwind on starboard tack, separated by a few lengths. All4One was to windward, however, and led by 7 seconds at the first mark. The combined French/German team extended that lead to 30 seconds at the leeward gate and then applied covering tactics on the rough conditions for the well-earned win.

The race committee hopes to sail the race for 5th and 6th this afternoon.

Friday’s racing saw some of the fiercest competition in the toughest conditions yet seen at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice.

After waiting for the wind to arrive earlier in the day, the sailors had to get themselves pumped up for some big action on the water. Waiting around is a big part of match racing, waiting for your flight of racing to come along, so being in the right mental state for competition is not that easy.

How, then, do sailing teams make sure that they remain focused and alert for that moment when they must set out on to the water? Azzurra’s windspotter, Gabriele Bruni, comments: “It’s something we have discussed a lot before this regatta, because we sailed in Auckland at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in shared boats. It’s a very important point. Everyone has to be focused on how the weather is developing and the racing, but at the same time you must be relaxed. You get used to it when you have been on the match racing circuit, but it’s difficult when you come from the Olympic classes where you are involved in every race. When you are racing, everyone has to be 100 per cent in the moment. But when you are back on shore, you have a coffee, you talk with friends, you do what you need to be relaxed and ready.”

At the cafés and restaurants around the port in Nice, people enjoy some wine or a beer as they enjoy a relaxed lunch in the Mediterranean sun. But not for Bruni. “Absolutely forbidden, not before you go racing, and just a little alcohol at dinner.” We like to talk about what’s going on in the other races as we watch on the big screen on shore. We always keep a little concentration on the regatta.”

Jim Turner, grinder on Synergy, agrees. “It’s hard not to switch off completely because it’s such a long day, you might not be racing for four or five hours. But you try and keep occupied and chat to other people about other races, so you don’t drift off. Everyone’s different, you learn what’s right for you. It’s nice to have a crew room here, where you can grab a coffee, and watch the TV screens to catch the other races.”

Triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie comes from a fleet racing background where you race and you go home, but he accepts the world of match racing as a different pace of life, where you need to switch on your game face at a moment’s notice. “Sitting around and waiting is just a part of the event, it’ a bit frustrating, but it’s something that everyone has to deal with. It’s good being among a good bunch of guys at Team Origin, and there are some good joke tellers amongst us.

“Also we’ve got a lot of Kiwis on the team, so we talk about rugby quite a bit. We’ve got All Blacks v England coming up this weekend so that’s been a topic of conversation a few times. We have a good time together on shore, but you need to keep your mind a little bit on the racing, you can’t switch off completely. Because when the time comes you need to maximise your focus for the race.”

Italy’s Azzurra opened the Semi Final Round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur with a solid win, but the second Semi Final match between Emirates Team New Zealand and Synergy Russia Sailing team was postponed until tomorrow due to light winds.

Today’s lone match began in winds between 8 and 10 knots from the north, but the velocity dropped to between 4 and 5 knots at the finish of the short, 5.2-nautical-mile race.

“We were hoping to get more racing completed but there just wasn’t enough velocity,” said Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio. “The direction was consistent enough from the east, but the strength was between 3 and 5 knots. The boats might’ve been able to sail upwind in that, but they’d never make it downwind in the sloppy seaway.”

Reggio stressed the importance of having steady conditions because of the nature of the semi finals. The first crew to score 2 points wins each series.

“We don’t want these series becoming sudden death,” Reggio said.

The postponement also affected the Knockout Round matches for 5th through 8th places. The pairings – BMW Oracle Racing versus TFS – PagesJaunes and Artemis against All4One – are setback a day.

In the Azzura-TeamOrigin race skipper Francesco Bruni led his crew to a decisive victory of 1 minute, 34 seconds. The Italians played the right side of the racecourse and snuck inside the British crew at the windward mark to gain the advantage.

Azzurra held the early lead on the first leg when it tacked to starboard well above the layline to the windward mark. The British tacked to leeward and outside the Italians and made gains in a right-hand shift.

TeamOrigin skipper Ben Ainslie tried to shoot the windward mark, luffing directly into the wind, but Bruni got a late overlap and the British had to bear away and let the Italians round the mark first. The British thought they’d closed the door on the Italians.

“We felt we were safely clear ahead when we entered the circle but that was not to be their (the umpires’) decision and so we trailed into the first mark,” said TeamOrigin General Manager Mike Sanderson. “Azzurra did a lovely job thereafter of protecting their lead to take the win. At the end of the day, to win the semis, one team still has to win two races we just used our ‘get out of jail free card’ a bit earlier than we had hoped.”

The Azzurra crew led by 9 seconds at the first mark and 27 seconds at the leeward gate. The Italians protected the right side on the next upwind leg and increased their margin to 1:16 as the wind started to fade.

“It was a very important race for us and now I’m more confident on the starting line,” said Bruni, the skipper from Sicily. “During the pre-start we fought for the right and won it. We made a mistake on the first layline (by overstanding), but (tactician) Tommaso Chieffi did a good job calling the wind shifts and we regained our lead.”

Tomorrow the first warning signal has been moved up a half hour to 0830 CET. The race committee plans to start the BMW Oracle-TFS – PagesJaunes match first, followed by Emirates Team New Zealand-Synergy Russia Sailing Team and then Artemis-All4One. Additional racing is planned but will be dependent on the weather.

Semi Final standings

M1: Azzurra 1, TeamOrigin 0

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand 0, Synergy Russia Sailing Team 0

Knockout Round standings

M1: BMW Oracle Racing 0, TFS – PagesJaunes 0

M2: Artemis 0, All4One 0

SF M1: Azzurra d. TeamOrigin – Delta: 1:34

Series: Azzurra 1, TeamOrigin 0

Skipper Francesco Bruni and his Italian crew played the right side of the course on the first upwind leg and led by 9 seconds at the windward mark. They took port tack off the start line towards the right, looking for the right-hand shift. But the Italians seemed to sail too far past the starboard layline and TeamOrigin was in the match at the first mark. Ben Ainslie’s British crew tacked to starboard to leeward of Azzurra, separated by a few hundred metres, but got lifted up to the mark. TeamOrigin’s big opportunity was to shoot the windward mark on starboard, but Azzurra was to windward and inside and rounded with the slight lead. From there the Italians did a wonderful job on the run to soak to leeward while TeamOrigin pressed its angle a little hotter. Azzurra increased its lead to 27 seconds at the leeward gate, and then protected the right side of the second upwind leg to increase its lead to 1:16 beginning the run to the finish. The wind died throughout this match, from a high of 9 knots to less than 5 at the finish.

The next scheduled race features TFS – PagesJaunes versus BMW Oracle Racing in the top half of the Knockout Round.

There’s a strong offshore flow this morning blowing across the Baie des Anges and racing should be as scheduled with the warning signal set for 0900 CET.

The first race has TeamOrigin taking on Azzurra in Semi Final Match 1. That race is followed by TFS – PagesJaunes versus BMW Oracle Racing in Knockout Round Match 1.

Semi Final Match 2 pits Synergy Russian Sailing Team against Emirates Team New Zealand in the third race of the day. The fourth race is between the other Knockout Round pair, Artemis and All4One.

The winners of the semi final matches are the first to 2 points and advance to the championship round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

The knock out matches are one race each, with the winners advancing to a race for fifth and sixth place and the vanquished racing for seventh and eighth place.

As the skipper, or ‘team captain’ as he prefers to call himself, Paul Cayard could probably have put himself anywhere in the afterguard of the boat, his feet safely on deck. Instead, he banished himself to the windspotter’s position a hundred feet above deck.

“The view is beautiful, but the boat sure does look skinny from up there,” said Cayard after his first foray up the rig. It goes without saying that you need a head for heights, but you also need to be ready to take the knocks. Every time the boat crashes through a wave, the top of the mast is moving arcing back and forth by a matter of metres. Hanging on is not easy, and bruises are inevitable.

So why is the oldest man on the boat the one who gets hoisted up the mast? Cayard laughs and describes his new role as “a man facing up to his mid-life crisis”. More seriously, he continues: “We talked about it for a while and we decided for Artemis that it would be better to have Terry [Hutchinson] be the helmsman. Morgan [Larson] is his tactician in the Quantum Racing TP52 campaign they’ve been doing.  So, they are real comfortable with that combination and I am happy to be the strategist.”

Cayard wears an earpiece and a microphone, which enables him to communicate with his team mates below. “This is how I stay connected to the guys and my job is to up the rig and look for wind and try to help them decide if the wind looks better on the right or on the left.  I also have to kick the battens through on the mainsail during manoeuvres, and protecting the spinnaker from getting stuck on the jumper struts.  So, whenever we are gybing or tacking I have to do some little physical things up there as well, but mostly my job is to try to help Morgan pick the correct side of the course.”

In recent months Cayard has taken on a good deal of new challenges in sailing, including getting back on a trapeze wire for the first time in almost 30 years to crew a 505 dinghy at the World Championships on his home waters of San Francisco. He also sails a 49er skiff with his teenage son Danny. So Cayard’s recent experience of standing on the side of high-performance dinghies, attached to the boat only by a harness and the tips of his toes, has stood him in good stead for his high-wiring act at the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

“Keeping in good physical shape is something that I have always been into, and something that I have always enjoyed. If I didn’t keep myself in good condition I wouldn’t be able to go up there and do the job.”

The Urban Community of Nice Côte d’Azur, the Town Council, the Regional Council of Alpes Maritimes and the C.C.I Nice Côte d’Azur are inviting the public to be part of the action and follow the duels on the water.

There are no advance reservations; the public must queue to secure a place on board. It has been hugely popular, with weekend queues stretching for miles.

You can register on the day at the Nice Côte d’Azur tent in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Village at the Quai de l’Amiral Infernet. Spots are going fast so don’t delay!

Small trains climbed the hill overlooking the Baie des Anges where guests discovered dancers dressed in white floating inside thousands of transparent balloons.
Suddenly, the skippers appeared on flower-covered chairs, carried by their grinders, some more keen than others. It was a great spectacle for the audience to see these sailors, more at ease behind a winch than on stage, parading before the crowd.
The dance floor was quickly packed, with live saxophone and drums complementing the DJ as the crowd grooved to the beat.
All too soon it was 2am and with racing tomorrow it was time for bed!

“Signora del Vento”: the Lady of the Winds

Built in Poland in 1962, the “Lady of the Winds” has been travelling around the Northern seas for over half a century. She was bought by The Italian Society of Navigation in 2006 who have fully restored this classic boat.
Azzurra honoured us with her presence over the weekend, taking a lucky few on board to watch the races. With its huge sail area of 3,2000 m², Signora del Vento was a sight to see, sailing alongside the race boats around the Baie des Anges.

France vs Italy on the Baie des Anges

The heat was on today when Azzura hosted fellow Italian, Pietro Beccari (Vice President of Louis Vuitton) as 18^th man in their battle against All4One who had Yves Carcelle (President of Louis Vuitton) on board as 18^th man.

The French were the winners on the day, with Yves Carcelle beating his Italian colleague, thus sealing the very first victory for the Franco-German team, All4One, in this Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice.

The rounds robin have concluded at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. Today is a lay day and tomorrow the racing is scheduled to resume.

The four yachts are sitting in their cradles and undergoing maintenance. The winds might’ve been light the past 10 days, but the carbon-fibre sloops require constant upkeep as these yachts are at least 2 years old and have largely been sitting idle since mid-2007. In fact, GBR-75 was built for the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup in New Zealand.

The crews are also undergoing a little maintenance in the form of R&R. Racing began on 7 November and the interruptions caused by light air wear on the sailors’ minds. Time away from the yachts is welcome.

So as the regatta takes a day off, take a tour of our Web site that is rich with multimedia content and features of many personalities involved with the event.

Visit the Virtual Eye section under Gallery to watch animated replays of the races.

The video gallery features the daily highlights packages.

The photo gallery includes stunning images from event photographers Bob Grieser, Franck Socha and Paul Todd.

There are also audio clips from various crewmembers in English, French, German and Italian.

Finally, for those who still enjoy the written word, the feature section includes profiles of people like Bruno Troublé, a founder of the Louis Vuitton Cup, Bob Grieser, a long-time Cup photographer, chief umpire Bill Edgerton, Emirates Team New Zealand meteorologist Roger “Clouds” Badham, Principal Race Officer Peter "Luigi" Reggio and the onboard observers, also know as match race policewomen.

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow with a warning signal scheduled for 0900, weather permitting.

Semi final round

M1: TeamOrigin vs. Azzurra

M2: Synergy Russia Sailing Team vs. Emirates Team New Zeland

(Winners are first to 2 points and race for championship, vanquished race for 3rd)

5th – 8th knockout round

M1: TFS – PagesJaunes vs. BMW Oracle Racing

M2: Artemis vs. All4One

(Winners are first to 1 point and race for 5th place, vanquished race for 7th)

Final Round Robin standings

1. Emirates Team New Zealand (9-1) 6 points

2. Synergy Russia Sailing Team (6-4) 4.5 points

3. Azzurra (7-4) 4.5 points

4. TeamOrigin (8-3) 4.5 points

5. BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) 3 points

6. Artemis (5-6) 3 points

7. All4One (3-8) 2 points

8. TFS – PagesJaunes (1-10) .5 points

Walk around the Louis Vuitton Trophy village in Nice, and you will come across all kinds of accents from all corners of the world. This event is a melting pot of nationalities, but you won’t find anyone more international than Shannon Falcone, the mastman on BMW Oracle Racing. His accent is very difficult to place, and Falcone is used to the quizzical looks from people trying to work out where on earth this 6’5 smiling giant comes from. “The accent comes from an Italian father, an Irish mother, growing up in the Caribbean and being sent off to boarding school in India,” laughs Falcone, who has clearly said this a few times before. In case you’re wondering, his passport records him as Antiguan.

Falcone’s easy smile suggests that he’d fit into any sailing team pretty easily, and not much appears to ruffle his laid-back attitude. Maybe that’s why he’s been a man in demand this past year. Already contracted to the BMW Oracle Racing team, Falcone was invited to join the Puma Racing team on the round-the-world adventure, the Volvo Ocean Race. Fortunately the schedule fitted well, and Falcone was given leave to sail with Puma for all but two of the stages around the world.

Puma finished 2nd in the Volvo Race, and Falcone loved the experience. “After the last America’s Cup, where you specialise in doing one specific role for years on end, it’s good to get the opportunity to race round the world. It gets you back to where you were when you were younger where you played a few different roles in the boat. It broadens your skills and your experiences, so that when you come back to this style of sailing, you have become a better sailor.”

From racing non-stop 24 hours a day through unpredictable conditions and through parts of the world never visited by racing boats, it is a big change of pace and surroundings to return to more familiar territory of match racing in AC boats. But Falcone is glad to be back doing what he does best. “Match racing is whole different thing from sailing round the world, but I love it and I like doing a job to the very highest level.”

Having returned from the Volvo Ocean Race earlier in the summer, Falcone has also been sailing on board BMW Oracle’s huge trimaran designed for the forthcoming America’s Cup. One moment he’d probably rather forget, but is constantly reminded of, is the time he fell off the trimaran while it was travelling more than 20 knots, not a pleasant experience, but fortunately one from which the big man emerged unscathed, both in body and reputation.

“I was up in the front and the next second I was in the water,” he recalls. “All the boys were ready to give me a lot of grief for that,” he laughs. “But luckily it wasn’t my fault – it was a bit of gear failure, so that was the reason I fell in.”

So it’s been an exciting year for Falcone, with many varied experiences in the sailing world. But for now, in Nice, he’s happy to be back doing his strong-man routine up by the mast of an AC boat.

The port of Nice has also seen junior sailors competing fiercely in the Open Bic, a small monohull that is revolutionising the competition and is already a best-seller with more than 2500 pieces distributed worldwide in less than two years!

Forty of France’s best junior sailors have been competing in a regatta conjointly organised by the Regional Council and the regional Sailing Committee, with the precious support of Nice Matin.

The regattas started on November 11^th, continued this weekend, and the finals will be held on November 22^nd when Eric Ciotti (Deputy, General Council President) will offer an Open Bic to the lucky winner who will also have the chance to go on board one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy race boats as 18^th man for the finals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Today, Victoria, 10, the youngest competitor, qualified for the finals, ending up in third place in the overall rankings. She is thrilled to be competing in this new class of boat and to have the chance to sail alongside the world’s best sailors. Although most of the other Open Bics around here were capsizing, Victoria managed to stay in control of her boat, sailing to victory. Bravo Victoria!

Emirates Team New Zealand has selected Synergy Russia Sailing Team to race in the semi final round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

Team New Zealand and skipper Dean Barker were the best team in the rounds robin, posting a 9-1 record in 10 starts. They consistently won in the pre-start and had flawless crew work around the racecourse.

“We’re a consistent team because we’ve been together so long as a group. That helps us through the tough times,” said Barker, the winning skipper of the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup.

The Kiwis, however, picked the hottest team at the regatta. Synergy, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, enters the match on a five-race winning streak and has polished its game since starting the regatta at 0-3.

“It’s hard when you get to this stage of the regatta. All the teams are strong,” Barker said. “They won’t be an easy opponent and if we don’t sail well they’ll beat us.”

The second semi final match has TeamOrigin from Great Britain racing Azzurra of Italy. Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni led his crew to a 1 minute defeat of Ben Ainslie and TeamOrigin in the first round.

The first crew to score 2 points will be the winner of each match.

Concurrent to the semi finals is knockout racing for 5th through 8th place. BMW Oracle Racing takes on TFS – PagesJaunes in one match and Artemis races All4One in the other.

Both matches are one race with the winners advancing to determine 5th and 6th, while the vanquished sail a one race match for 7th and 8th.

Tomorrow is an off day and racing is scheduled to resume Thursday, 19 November.

Today’s anticipated final match between Team New Zealand and Synergy was cancelled in the afternoon when sufficient wind failed to materialise on the Baie des Anges.

The cancellation of the match caused a re-scoring of the leaderboard based on Appendix C10.3 of the Racing Rules of Sailing, which awards partial points for those matches sailed twice.

“The ranking was established in a way we were hoping to avoid,” said Chief Umpire Bill Edgerton. “There’s no difference between the top four and bottom four, but there is a difference in their order.”

The final order placed Team New Zealand first followed by Synergy, Azzurra, TeamOrigin, BMW Oracle Racing, Artemis, All4One and TFS – PagesJaunes.

Final Round Robin standings

1. Emirates Team New Zealand (9-1) 6 points

2. Synergy Russia Sailing Team (6-4) 4.5 points

3. Azzurra (7-4) 4.5 points

4. TeamOrigin (8-3) 4.5 points

5. BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) 3 points

6. Artemis (5-6) 3 points

7. All4One (3-8) 2 points

8. TFS – PagesJaunes (1-10) .5 points

When it comes to longevity in America’s Cup circles, few can outstrip US photographer Bob Grieser. The grey flaxen-haired photographer-cum-fireball first covered the America’s Cup in 1974 back in the halcyon days of Newport, RI and hasn’t looked back since.

Grieser, 63, is a newspaper photographer by trade. His first assignments to the America’s Cup came during a lengthy stint at the Washington Star (before it folded in 1981). But more profound exposure to it was during his tenure as Chief Photographer for the San Diego bureau of the LA Times when 10 photographers worked under him, including a future Pulitzer Prize winner.

His top non-yachting assignments included photographing the Pope with President Carter in Washington in 1980. “I started barking like a dog,” Grieser reminisces, revealing a trick of his trade. “He wasn’t supposed to come near us but he did. I was trying to put on a wide angle as he picked up a baby. That was a good picture.” He also had a six week stint out in Somalia for the LA Times during the famine in 1992. 

When it comes to the Cup he has gone from newspaper photographer to team photographer, working first with Team New Zealand in 1992 and one of his most rewarding experiences, with PACT95 and their mermaid-adorned yacht. His top shot was “the mermaid coming into Mission Bay in a huge swell that was breaking at the entrance and I’ve got them surfing down a wave. I call it ‘surfs up’. That was a really cool shot.” Later he captured PACT95 breaking in two, which he turned into a poster entitled “Bay Day at the Office”.  He has since worked for AmericaOne and BMW Oracle Racing.

His most hair-raising Cup experience was in San Diego. “I had my own boat there and one time we were all using long lenses and the next thing we knew they were coming at us. We barely had time to switch to wide angle lenses when Dennis [Conner] and Bill Koch were circling around us.”

But in recent years he has worked solely for Louis Vuitton, where he says he hopes he is now part of ‘the family’.

Grieser is official photographer for the Louis Vuitton Trophy, a job he shares with New Zealander Paul Todd, both involved with the US/New Zealand-based photo agency Outside Images.

“I think it is fantastic,” says Grieser of the event. “It is great for sailing. It is good for photographers, it is good for the America’s Cup community. It gives people the chance to follow teams. It gives teams a chance to get a barometer on how they are doing crew-wise.”

Among the new faces involved he recommends: “Ben Ainslie is the one who impresses me. And Karol Jablonski is a tough sailor. He’s not afraid to mix it up. I’d put him in the ring with anyone.”

As to his style, Grieser says he still has the eye for a news photographer and while his colleagues spend most of their time looking down the “big glass” (ie long lenses), he prefers shorter lenses that can encapsulate the whole story in one frame.

When not travelling around the world as a yachting photographer, Grieser is still based in San Diego and says that when he gets back after this event, he will be itching to get down to the BMW Oracle Racing compound to see their new solid wing sail trimaran.

FLIGHT 7

M2: Synergy vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

The final match of the round robin pits the upstart Synergy Russia Sailing Team against the nearly flawless Emirates Team New Zealand. Both teams have qualified for the semi finals. In fact, Team New Zealand, currently at 9-1, has wrapped up the top spot and will get to choose its opponent in the next round. Could that opponent be Synergy? Or might it be TeamOrigin (8-3) or Azzurra (7-4)? This match might determine the Kiwis’ choice.

Synergy comes into the match at 6-4, having won five straight and six of seven overall. For a “new” crew Synergy has far outperformed some of the other “new” crews, ones which have far more experience. A win in this match would place Synergy in a tie for third place with Azzurra at 7-4, a tie that Synergy would win given its victory yesterday over Azzurra. That would be a nice feather in the cap of the “new” crew, but it would have little consequence in the next round. Team New Zealand’s choice of opponent will force the other two teams into a match.

Synergy comes into the match looking for revenge after losing a heartbreaker in Round 1. In light winds less than 5 knots, the Russian team was five lengths from the finish when it “ran into the wall.” Team New Zealand, seemingly dead in the water, found a private puff and rolled over the top for the win.

Synergy will enter the start box on port tack aboard ITA-99 while Team New Zealand comes in at the other end aboard ITA-90. The winds are forecast from the east around 10 knots. This is the only match scheduled today and the warning signal is slated for 1200 CET.

There’s one match outstanding to complete the round robin at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, but the four semi finalists are confirmed.

Emirates Team New Zealand will win the round robin and have the opportunity to select its opponent in the semis. Team New Zealand didn’t race today and has one match remaining, against upstart Synergy Russian Sailing Team, but the veteran team led by skipper Dean Barker has a 9-1 record and cannot lose the top spot.

The Kiwis will pick their opponent from a group including TeamOrigin (8-3) of the U.K., Azzurra (7-4) of Italy or Synergy. After starting the regatta 0-3, the Russian crew today won its fifth consecutive match and sixth out of seven with a hard-fought victory over Azzurra. Synergy now stands at 6-4.

The second half of the leaderboard has Artemis (5-6) in fifth, BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) in sixth, All4One (3-8) in seventh and TFS – PagesJaunes (1-10) in eighth. These four teams will race a knockout round to determine places 5th though 8th concurrent with the semi finals.

“We’re getting stuff done, but it hasn’t been easy,” said Peter “Luigi” Reggio, principal race officer for the regatta. “The last two days have been very similar to each other, unlike the eight or so before that; every day was different. In the last race we had 13, 14 knots. In the second flight we started to see whitecaps. We haven’t seen those since last Tuesday.”

After the morning northerly blew itself out today the wind shifted to the east and built. Synergy ensured its advance to the semis with the win over Azzurra in a classic match race.

The two crews were rarely separated by more than two boatlengths, but there was only one “Y” flag requesting a ruling from the on-water umpires. It was in the pre-start and it was green.

Synergy again got the right-hand side of the start line and Azzurra started at the pin. The Italians quickly tacked to port once on the racecourse and a tacking duel ensued up the 1.4-nautical mile leg to the windward mark with Synergy protecting the right side of the course.

There were stretches where the two yachts sailed overlapped on the same tack for up to 2 minutes, with neither showing a real speed edge. During one stretch on port tack Synergy, to leeward, was able to foot out and force Azzurra to tack away. Synergy then covered in a windward position and drove the match to the port layline to round the windward mark with an 8-second advantage.

The delta was down to 5 seconds at the leeward gate, but Synergy bumped it back up to 15 seconds at the second windward mark.

Azzurra was making a charge on the run to the finish, having closed to within one boatlength. But after a jibe to port Azzurra hardened up to roll over the top of Synergy. Then, with the asymmetric spinnaker loaded, the sail split from luff to leech just below the head patch. Race over.

“I think Synergy was strong on us but by pushing to edge we thought their spinnaker might blow. It was a 50-50 chance,” said Francesco Bruni, Azzurra skipper. “That was one of best races I’ve ever sailed in Cup boats. I really enjoyed it. Every leg was close and each crew did a fantastic job.”

Despite the closeness at that stage of the race, Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski felt in control of the match. He was positioned to leeward and ahead and it would’ve been a long way around for Azzurra.

“These spinnakers are more for downwind sailing so when you heat up you don’t go faster. The sail just loads up,” Jablonski said.

Although the leaderboard is determined, the pairings for the semi finalists and knockout round won’t be announced until after tomorrow’s race. The match between Emirates Team New Zealand and Synergy is scheduled to start at 1210 CET.

Other matches today included BMW Oracle Racing defeating Artemis by 36 seconds, TeamOrigin beating All4One by 48 seconds, Azzurra beating BMW Oracle by 1:01 and Artemis defeating TFS – PagesJaunes by 1:03.

At an event such as the Louis Vuitton Trophy, where teams are racing with other people’s multi-million dollar equipment, there is an added responsibility to ensure collisions don’t occur. Not only because breaking other people’s stuff is not polite, but because having one boat out of action could really put the event behind schedule.

“Our game plan here is to do everything we can to avoid collisions,” says Edgerton. “We have this very heavy penalty for contact – the ‘hard contact’ rule. But the thing is just to manage expectations for the teams and that is partly about being very straight and open with them, and also to remind everyone that this is about exhibition as well as about competition. This is about putting racing back in the public eye.”

Collisions are part of match racing, and asking sailors to pull back from tight situations in the heat of battle is easier said than done. So how does Edgerton believe he can rein in the sailors’ competitive instincts? “We actually can’t,” he laughs. “I’m not stupid! You can’t control that but you can temper it and as the event goes on, and the event becomes more competitive towards the semi-finals, we have less of a problem, because as the time on the boat is increased, every hour they spend on the boat means there is less risk of damage because there is so much more learning on board.

“So as time goes on, we can afford to ease up a bit over the course of two weeks because the teams have gone through that learning curve and they understand the situation better and they know how to handle it.”

Whereas it would be easy to think in terms of the umpires as the unsmiling judge and jury of match racing, Edgerton is looking for a more open relationship with the sailing teams. He prefers a more two-way consultative discussion with the teams, which is why he was keen to bring in the observers on to the back of the race boats. “It would be nice to think that all umpiring is just straight black and white - that it is this or it is that. It’s rarely as simple as that. We have observers on the back of the boats now which means we are giving more information to the sailors about we are seeing a situation developing. That is a dialogue that we’re having through radio from the umpires through to the sailors.”

One of the challenges of umpiring is to create a consistent set of interpretations that are applied evenly across all matches. This means it takes time to build the trust between a group of umpire and a group of sailors, so after more than two years’ break since the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series in Valencia 2007, it must feel like starting all over again.

However Edgerton says it is not as difficult as you might imagine. “It is still largely the same group of people we’re dealing with here. They are on different boats, but most of the relationships go back a way. We are using people who were all the top-line umpires from Valencia 2007, and we are using a lot of the same calls and interpretations, so I think the dialogue continues. It is just that instead of dealing with Ben Ainslie of Emirates Team New Zealand, for example, we are now dealing with Ben Ainslie on Team Origin. So there is enough continuity that I think everything is working OK.”

America’s Cup veteran Josh Belsky has recently ended an eight year tenure with Alinghi as one of their pitman – in charge of the most complex area of the boat, where all the rope concentrates, running in from the boom, mast and foredeck. Belsky, a New Yorker by origin, first competed in the America’s Cup in 1992 with America3 and in Nice is in the centre of the boat for the Russian Synergy team.

For the crews competing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, one of the hard parts is jumping between the different boats. In the America’s Cup, teams get to know their own boats intimately. On the World Match Racing Tour the boats are all one designs, although the type of boat changes from event to event. For the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice, the two Mascalzone Latino boats are similar, but their cockpit arrangement and set-up differs from TeamOrigin’s GBR75 and ALL4ONE’s FRA93.

Mostly this is like riding a bicycle. All the boats have masts, keels, steering wheels, near identical sail controls but their cockpit layouts differ and nowhere is this more apparent for the crews than in Belsky’s lair: the pit.

“It is a real challenge to jump from boat to boat,” says Belsky. “Having come from a team where I sailed for eight years, with our concept of a way a boat should be set up, and now to jump between boats and see the mentalities that went into the deck layouts and different set-ups – I think it makes for a challenge and makes you a little bit more heads up, to adapt to the different layouts and different ways to build speed tack to tack on different boats and different ways to get out of dial-ups due to the different ways the decks are laid out. I think it makes everyone a better sailor, because you become more adaptive.”

In the pit, Belsky says where lines run varies between boats, but, surprisingly, he says the biggest difference is in the amount of friction in them. “The way the lines are run - whether they go through ferrels or blocks, sheaves that turn – you find some boats are a lot more frictioned up and others run more smoothly. Then there are little ergonomic things – like the distance between the runner winches and the wheel and how many people you can fit in between. Cockpit depths. Obviously the Mascalzone boats are the same, but there are three very different ways of thinking here, between the Alinghi, Mascalzone and Areva camps. It is interesting to see the ideas that came out of each one.”

Of the four Belsky’s favourite is of course TeamOrigin’s 75, bought from Alinghi in 2007, on which he designed the pit area. Does he feel nostalgic sailing her? “It is a great boat! I like sailing it, it is very comfortable. I went to work on that thing for eight years. The midbowmen were commenting that you go down below on that boat and there is no structure down below on the floor, so one guy can drag all the sails from one side to the other – it is easy. On the other boats there is lots of structure.”

While there are physical differences between the boats, Belsky is adamant that this will have no effect on the outcome of the competition. “The teams are good enough that they can adjust from boat to boat. I talk to the pitmen on other teams and we all have the same view – you make your adjustments. I don’t think that that will affect anyone.”

In the meantime the Synergy Team he is sailing with is still coming to terms with the V5 Cup boats, graduating up from four seasons aboard a TP52. Belsky makes no bones of the challenge facing them. “These guys are good on the TP52, but this is a big eye opener for them coming from the TP52. It is just a completely different beast, apples and oranges. It is a vertical learning curve for all of us with this program and we can’t ask for more because every day it is getting a little bit better.”

FLIGHT 6

M1: Azzurra d. BMW Oracle Racing – Delta: 1:01

Azzurra booked its ticket to the semi finals with this victory over BMW Oracle Racing. Azzurra gained a slim lead on the first beat and rounded the windward mark just 9 seconds ahead. The Italians increased that advantage to 25 seconds at the leeward gate, but then was aided by a problem aboard BMW Oracle Racing. The crew had trouble gathering the A2 asymmetric spinnaker when the halyard got jammed during the douse. It took nearly one-third of the second beat for the crew to wrestle the A2 below decks. By the time it was under control the pair was on the port tack layline and BMW Oracle had few options but to follow the rest of the way around the course.

Azzurra remains in third on the scoreboard with a 7-3 record and BMW Oracle holds in sixth at 3-7.

M2: TeamOrigin d. All4One – Delta: 48 seconds

TeamOrigin completes its participation in the round robin with an 8-3 record. The British crew led by skipper Ben Ainslie put forth a workman-like effort in downing All4One. The Brits gained the lead on the first beat. With both yachts on starboard tack TeamOrigin seemed to foot out to leeward. When both tacked to port TEamOrigin was to windward and rode All4One past the starboard layline. TeamOrigin led at the first mark by 23 seconds and covered the rest of the way around the course for the victory. All4One closes the round robin with a 3-8 record and in seventh place.

FLIGHT 8

M1: Synergy d. Azzurra – Delta: 1:02

Synergy Russia Sailing Team cemented its place in the semi finals with a wire-to-wire win over Azzurra. Synergy’s win was aided when Azzurra’s asymmetric spinnaker split just below the head patch on the run to the finish, but at the time Synergy was protecting a lead it established on the first windward leg.

Synergy wanted the right off the start line and won it in the pre-start, starting at the committee boat end of the line on port tack. Azzurra was on starboard at the pin end but tacked to port immediately after getting onto the racecourse. This was a great match up the first beat, with Synergy protecting the right side every time the yachts came together. Synergy eventually used the power of starboard tack to drive the match to the port layline and led at the windward mark by 8 seconds. The Russian-flagged yacht led by 5 seconds at the leeward gate and chose to make a starboard rounding while Azzurra made a port rounding. That meant Azzurra had to jibe to the mark and then the crew tacked to starboard after beginning the beat. The two manoeuvres to Synergy’s none gave the Russians a little breathing room. Synergy led by 15 seconds beginning the run to the finish. Azzurra was making a charge on the run and had closed the game up to within one boatlength when the A2 tore from luff to leech.

Synergy now has a 6-4 record and has one more race remaining in Round 2, scheduled for tomorrow against Emirates Team New Zealand. Azzurra is through to the semis at 7-4, its round robin racing complete.

M2: Artemis d. TFS – PagesJaunes – Delta: 1:03

Artemis entered this match with a slim hope of advancing to the semi finals, but that hope was dashed when Synergy won the previous match. Artemis led this match at the first windward mark b 10 seconds and extended the rest of the way to improve its record to 5-5. But as helmsman Terry Hutchinson noted last evening, the crew has put itself at a disadvantage by not converting enough leads to wins.

Artemis now has a record of 5-5 and could get to 6-5 by winning its final match against BMW Oracle Racing. Artemis could finish tied with Synergy if the Russians lose tomorrow, but Synergy holds the tiebreak advantage because it won their head-to-head match at the beginning of Round 2. TFS – PagesJaunes finishes the round robin at 1-10.

FLIGHT 7

M1: BMW Oracle Racing d. Artemis – Delta: 36 seconds

BMW Oracle Racing halted its losing streak at four races with this victory over Artemis. With the wind blowing from the east between 12 and 15 knots, this was another classic match race on the first beat. BMW Oracle Racing came off the start line at the pin end with Artemis at the boat end. It took most of the beat, but BMW Oracle was eventually able to get to windward on port tack and drive the match out past starboard layline to the first mark. BMW Oracle led by 8 seconds at the first mark and then extended that a slight bit when Artemis had a rough set, the genoa coming down before the spinnaker hit the top of the rig. BMW Oracle then kept its covering position around the course to score a much-needed win for morale’s sake. Both teams are headed to the knockout round for 5th through 8th.

FLIGHT 6

M1: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Azzurra

BMW Oracle Racing has nearly run out of time to qualify for the semi finals and to keep its slim hope of advancement alive the crew must win its two matches today, beginning with this one. Azzurra beat BMW Oracle in the first round, so the U.S.-flagged crew should have motivation. Azzurra, on the other hand, needs one win in its two remaining matches to ensure advancement.

M2: TeamOrigin vs. All4One

TeamOrigin returns to the water after having suffered a stunning loss yesterday afternoon to Synergy Russia Sailing Team. This is the British crew’s final match of Round 2, but it is already set for advancement to the semis with a 7-3 record. Similarly, this is All4One’s final race of Round 2. With a 3-7 record, All4One is headed for the knockout racing for 5th through 8th place.

FLIGHT 8

M1: Azzurra vs. Synergy

This match is the final for Azzurra in Round 2 and is an intriguing match-up. Synergy comes in on a roll, having taken the scalp of TeamOrigin in a match yesterday afternoon. Was that a fluke, aided by getting the favoured side of the racecourse? Or has the upstart Russian team really made strides? This match could tell volumes.

M2: TFS – PagesJaunes vs. Artemis

TFS – PagesJaunes has one win in 10 starts, and this is its final match before the knockout round for 5th through 8th places. The French crew led by skipper Bertrand Pace could leave the water feeling good about itself with a win. Artemis, which is loaded with talent, seems to have sailed below its potential this week. Helmsman Terry Hutchinson pointed that fact out yesterday when noting that the crew has led at seven of nine first mark roundings, but only scored four wins. Artemis has a slim hope of advancing to the semi finals, but must win its final two matches, starting with this one, and hope for help elsewhere.

FLIGHT 7

M1: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Artemis

The final scheduled match of the day sees BMW Oracle taking on Artemis. BMW Oracle will enter the start box on port tack aboard FRA-93. Artemis comes in on starboard aboard GBR-75.

Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski and tactician Rod Dawson were wearing huge smiles dockside and expressing their pleasure over a job well done when Philippe Mourniac from All4One approached.

“Great job, guys. It was awesome to watch on TV,” said Mourniac, the Franco-German team’s navigator.

Synergy had recently completed a wire-to-wire win over TeamOrigin, restructuring the order at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur as perestroika revamped Russian politics in the 1980s.

Synergy today won two races and now occupies fourth place on the leaderboard with a 5-4 record, 1 point behind third-placed Azzurra. Synergy has two matches remaining in Round 2 and a victory in at least one would ensure advancement to the semi-finals.

“That would be an accomplishment. But we still have to win it,” said Jablonski, the 47-year-old skipper from Poland. “Today we had a good day and we’re happy with our performance in this event. Before the start, who would’ve counted on us going forward?”

The semi-finalists took shape today with Emirates Team New Zealand wrapping up the round robins. Kiwi skipper Dean Barker came out victorious over BMW Oracle Racing and TFS – PagesJaunes and leads the event with a 9-1 record.

England’s TeamOrigin holds second at 7-3. Italy’s Azzurra didn’t race today but remains in third place at 6-3. Synergy is fourth followed by Artemis at 4-5. BMW Oracle Racing is sixth (3-6), All4One seventh (3-7) and TFS – PagesJaunes eighth (1-9).

“The big deal for us is getting into the top four, and I think we’re comfortable,” said Ben Ainslie, TeamOrigin skipper. “It’s about getting better and trying to get results in the semi-final sail-offs. All the teams are battling a bit with the conditions and boats and trying to get used to it all. Like everyone else, we’re trying to get better.”

If a few breaks had fallen differently in Round 1, Synergy might be placed even higher. The team lost a heartbreaker to Emirates Team New Zealand just five lengths from the finish line. It lost another match that it led when the mainsheet broke. Despite the setbacks, the learning curve has remained vertical.

“The important thing for our team is the atmosphere,” Jablonski said. “We went through a difficult time at the beginning. If something goes wrong there are a lot of possibilities for the team to explode or not be happy, but we are holding together. We have good attitudes.”

That attitude was evident when Synergy took down TeamOrigin. Jablonski started to the right of Ainslie, won the first cross on the right side of the course, and opened a lead at the first windward mark that wouldn’t be overcome on the short, two-lap course.

“Both sides wanted the right, but we didn’t want it with a bad start,” Ainslie said. “I thought we were in position to make their start tough, but they did a good job squeezing around the committee boat.

“It’s good to see those guys doing so well,” Ainslie continued. “They’ve got some great sailors. It’s good to see that when they get the boat handling side figured out they’ve got some smart sailors who know what a wind shift is and can figure it out.”

Three flights remain to complete the second round robin over the next two days. And although the semi-finalists are taking shape, the day still belonged to Synergy, even if they have to scream at each other.

“We don’t have a communications system on board, so we have to talk loud to make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Jablonski said. “The communication with the guy up the rig is difficult because he has to scream. But it doesn’t matter. It’s in Russian half the time so no one else can understand!”

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.

FLIGHT 3

M1: TeamOrigin d. BMW Oracle Racing – Delta:

The Union Jack defeated the Stars & Stripes in a come-from-behind performance. BMW Oracle grabbed the lead on the first upwind leg and held a 17-second advantage at the windward mark. BMW Oracle had started to the left of TeamOrigin and then crossed to the right at the first meeting to gain control. BMW Oracle maintained that lead through the leeward gate. Up the second beat, however, the crews split sides with BMW Oracle going left and TeamOrigin going right. The lateral separation surpassed 1,300 meters and when the pair met about two-thirds up the course TeamOrigin held starboard tack and BMW Oracle was forced to tack to leeward. TeamOrigin took BMW Oracle to the port layline and led at the second windward mark by 13 seconds. BMW Oracle made gains on the run to the finish, but ran out of racecourse.

The win increases TeamOrigin’s record to 7-2 while BMW Oracle falls to 3-5.

M2: Synergy d. Artemis – Delta: 41 seconds

The upstart Russian crew is becoming a force to be reckoned with after scoring a solid win over Artemis. Synergy and Artemis had a split start, with Artemis on port at the boat. The Swedish-flagged yacht quickly tacked to starboard and both crews sailed to the left side of the course. Synergy was first to tack to port and at the first cross Artemis was forced to tack on the leebow. On the next exchange Synergy was farther to windward and Artemis was forced to tack to port to leeward. Synergy then drove the match to the starboard layline and led at the windward mark by 11 seconds. Synergy steadily increased that lead around the course for the win.

The Russian crew moves to fourth in the standings at 4-4 and relegates Artemis to fifth at 3-5.

FLIGHT 4

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. BMW ORACLE Racing – Delta: 9 seconds

Team New Zealand used a familiar formula to win its eighth match in nine starts. Skipper Dean Barker started at the pin, won the first cross and controlled up the beat to hold a 23-second lead at the first mark. The two crews took opposite routes through the leeward gate, with Team New Zealand making a port rounding and BMW Oracle going starboard. A left shift up the second beat allowed BMW Oracle to dig back into Team New Zealand, but the Kiwis took starboard tack across by two lengths at the first meeting on the second uphill leg, and the covered for a 14-second advantage beginning the run to the finish. The Kiwis had to sweat out the win as BMW Oracle closed up to overlapped at the finish from three lengths behind.

While Team New Zealand keeps its place at the top of the leaderboard at 8-1, BMW Oracle remained in sixth with a 3-6 record.

M2: Artemis d. ALL4ONE – DNF

Artemis dodged a big bullet in its hopes of advancing to the semi-finals when it completed a penalty turn on the finish line in light winds for the victory. All4One had gotten the penalty on the Swedish-flagged team on the first windward leg, getting its bow to leeward on port tack and luffing. Artemis, however, led at all three mark roundings and began the run to the finish with a 1:04 advantage. It was going to be tenuous whether Artemis could complete the turn and cross the line in the lead as the wind was blowing about 4 knots. But All4One blew a jibe to starboard when the A2 twisted into an hour-glass. The crew had to lower the sail to remove the twist and Artemis turned its 150-metre lead into 600-plus metres. All4One was scored DNF when it failed to finish within 5 minutes of Artemis.

Artemis is now fifth at 4-5, one loss behind Synergy in fourth. All4One drops to 3-7 in seventh place.

FLIGHT 5

M1: Synergy d. TeamOrigin – Delta: 1:34

Synergy Russia Sailing Team is becoming the spoiler of this regatta. The team is now 2-0 in Round 2 and up to fourth on the leaderboard after dispatching of TeamOrigin in perhaps its most impressive race yet. Synergy won the right side of the racecourse off the start line, won the first cross, led by 28 seconds at the first mark and was never threatened. Synergy is also doing it all as a first-time crew. The loss dropped TeamOrigin to 7-3 on the scoreboard but it remains in second place, one win ahead of Azzurra (6-3).

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand d. TFS – PagesJaunes – Delta: 1:55

Team New Zealand upped its record to 9-1 with a wire-to-wire win over TFS – PagesJaunes. Team New Zealand controlled the match on the first upwind leg from the left side and led by 27 seconds at the first windward mark. Team New Zealand stretched that advantage to 1:07 at the leeward gate, which it held to the second windward mark. The delta became inflated on the run when the A2 gennaker on TFS – PagesJaunes tore in half.

FLIGHT 3

M1: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. TeamOrigin

TeamOrigin won this match in Round 1 but BMW Oracle is more in need of a win if it hopes to climb into the top four and a spot in the semi-finals. The U.S.-flagged team yesterday dropped its last race of Round 1, which relegated it to sixth place, and this is its first match of Round 2. TeamOrigin enters the match in possession of second place on the leaderboard. The British team finished Round 1 at 5-2 and yesterday won its first match of Round 2 to increase its record to 6-2. TeamOrigin leap-frogged Azzurra for second when the Italians dropped two matches yesterday.

M2: Synergy vs. Artemis

Synergy and Artemis, along with BMW Oracle Racing, finished Round 1 tied for fourth at 3-4. Artemis won the tiebreaker because it was the only team of the three to beat one of the top three teams. Artemis helmsman Terry Hutchinson has been growing his game this week, particularly in the pre-start, but so has the Synergy crew, which is competing in America’s Cup class yachts for the first time. Synergy led this match in Round 1 until its mainsheet broke on the first upwind leg, which enabled Artemis to take the lead and the win.

FLIGHT 4

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

Team New Zealand has led this regatta right from the start. The Kiwis are a polished crew and it shows on the racecourse. There’s little discussion when manoeuvres are required, other than skipper Dean Barker saying, “OK, here we go.” This will be the second match of the day for BMW Oracle, and it enters the start box on the favoured starboard tack. BMW Oracle will be aboard FRA-93 and Team New Zealand on GBR-75.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Artemis

The French/German team ALL4ONE enters having gone 1-1 yesterday in its first two races of Round 2. After this match ALL4ONE will have one remaining in Round 2 and needs every opportunity to score a win. This will be the second match of the day for Artemis, which enters the start box on starboard tack and aboard ITA-90. ALL4ONE will be aboard ITA-99.

FLIGHT 5

M1: TeamOrigin vs. Synergy

M2: TFS – PagesJaunes vs. Emriates Team New Zealand

France’s TFS – PagesJaunes scored its first win of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur today as the regatta began Round Robin 2. Other winners included fleet leader Emirates Team New Zealand, No. 2 TeamOrigin and the combined French/German team All4One.

A new wind direction blew across the racecourse on the Baie des Anges, northeast, but the strength remained light, between 4 and 8 knots. That put a premium on getting to the right side where there seemed to be more pressure. One knot difference in windspeed can add 10 degrees of heading.

Russia’s Synergy played the right side to defeat BMW Oracle Racing in the first match of the day. The showdown was the lone outstanding match of Round 1 and determined fourth, fifth and sixth in the standings.

Synergy and BMW Oracle were separated laterally by more than 1,400 meters (.75 nautical miles) when Synergy tacked to starboard. The Russian team led by skipper Karol Jablonski led by 56 seconds at the first mark en route to a 14-second victory.

Synergy’s win placed it in a three-way tie for fourth in Round 1 with Artemis and BMW Oracle, all at 3-4. Artemis won the tiebreaker by virtue of its win yesterday over TeamOrigin of the U.K. Synergy placed fifth because it beat BMW Oracle, and the U.S.-flagged crew placed sixth.

The standings proved important because the schedule for Round 2 has been amended from a full round robin. Due to time constraints the eight teams have been divided into two halves based on the Round Robin 1 standings. The top four teams will race each of the bottom four teams once. Wins will be worth 1 point.

Round 2 began with the previously winless TFS – PagesJaunes scoring a wire-to-wire win over Italy’s Azzurra, which finished second in the first round. Skipper Bertrand Pacé and his crew started to the right of the Italians to play the right side of the course, and when they tacked to starboard they opened an insurmountable lead. TFS – PagesJaunes led by 33 seconds at the first mark and kept increasing its advantage and scored a victory of 1 minute, 45 seconds.

TFS – PagesJaunes was formed just two weeks before the regatta and the crew went through some growing pains in the first round. But all of that was temporarily forgotten with the win.

“We knew we could win races, it’s just taken a while for the crew to come together,” said Pacé, a past match racing world champion. “The afterguard picked the right-hand side of the course, and since we had starboard tack in the pre-start it was easy to get to the right.”

It was an afternoon for the French to beat up on the Italians. In the second flight of races All4One scored a 46-second victory over Azzurra. The match was close on the first beat, but All4One protected its early lead and led by 39 seconds at the first mark. All4One was the only crew to win today after starting to the left of its competition.

“We had two good starts today. First one was against Team New Zealand, but we didn't turn it into a point and we missed the opportunity to take the lead in this match,” said All4One helmsman Sébastien Col. “We refocused for the second match against Azzurra, where we more or less adopted the same strategy. The afterguard did nice job to keep the lead, knowing that in these light conditions it was not easy.”

In other Round 2 matches Emirates Team New Zealand defeated All4One by 47 seconds and TeamOrigin won over TFS – PagesJaunes by 2 minutes, 31 seconds.

FLIGHT 1

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. ALL4ONE – Delta: 47 seconds

Emirates Team New Zealand ran its record to 7-1 with its first victory of Round 2. The Kiwis trailed All4One off the start line, but had the favoured right-hand side of the racecourse. When they tacked to starboard they were lifted inside of All4One and led around the windward mark by 38 seconds. Team New Zealand stretched that lead out to 1:32 at the second windward mark.

M2: TFS – PagesJaunes d. Azzurra – Delta: 1:45

TFS – PagesJaunes had been the hard luck team of the first round robin, going 0-7 despite some near misses. Skipper Bertrand Pace and crew corrected that today with a solid, wire-to-wire win over Azzurra, which finished Round Robin 1 in second at 6-1. Pace entered the start box on the favoured starboard tack and started the race on port tack at the boat end with Azzurra on starboard at the pin. Pace’s afterguard, including Philippe Presti and Mathieu Richard, wanted the right side of the beat and about 1 minute into the match the crew tacked to starboard. When they did they were lifted with pressure and quickly opened a two- to three-boatlength lead. TFS – PagesJaunes led by 33 seconds at the first mark and increased that advantage at every mark of the course.

FLIGHT 2

M1: TEAMORIGIN vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes – Delta: 2:31

After scoring its first win of the regatta in Flight 1 TFS – PagesJaunes was hoping to follow-up with another victory. But TeamOrigin controlled this match throughout. TeamOrigin started to windward, tacked to the favoured right side, won the first cross and never was threatened. TeamOrigin led by 58 seconds at the first windward mark and navigated the light winds much better than TFS – PagesJaunes for the convincing win. TeamOrigin now stands at 6-2, one point behind leader Team New Zealand, and TFS – PagesJaunes is 1-8.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Azzurra – Delta: 46 seconds

The French/German team ALL4ONE got on the scoreboard today with a nice win over Azzurra. Both crews started on starboard tack with All4One to leeward. Azzurra was forced to tack away about 90 seconds into the match. All4One continued and then covered in port. The Mediterranean rivals traded tacks four times, with All4One tacking in front, before finally crossing to the right. All4One led at the windward mark by 39 seconds, and covered the rest of the way. All4One increased its record to 3-6 while Azzurra dropped to 6-3 after its second consecutive loss to a French team.

FLEET STANDINGS (Through Round 2 : Flight 2)

1. Emirates Team New Zealand, 7-1

2. TeamOrigin, 6-2

3. Azzurra, 6-3

4. Artemis, 3-4

5. Synergy, 3-4

6. BMW, 3-4

7. All4One, 3-6

8. TFS – PagesJaunes, 1-8

Peter Reggio is an ISAF-certified race officer. He’s conducted races for the America’s Cup, Louis Vuitton Cup and Olympics, as well as a host of one-design and rating classes.

“Luigi” is well known for being communicative and amenable to the competitors’ wishes. But his humour and patience are being put to the test at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

“It’s a challenging venue, for sure,” said Reggio, who recently turned 60. “The wind is an issue, but nobody can control that. What we can control is the course and the way we set things.”

Even the things under his control are a little out of hand. Reggio has to contend with the extreme depths of the Mediterranean Sea when setting the racecourse. The northerly winds of the morning mean he has to be farther offshore to set the starting line. The farther offshore, the deeper the water.

“The depths are 270 metres along the shore,” Reggio said. “But we’ve got a couple of buoys set in depths between 680 and 720 metres. Not feet, metres.”

Those are depths between 2,230 and 2,360 feet. Anchors reportedly take 20 minutes to reach the sea floor. That’s one reason why Reggio isn’t anchoring his committee boat. It simply takes too long for the anchor to reach the bottom. Another reason is the amount of line required. He would swing through too wide an arc.

The windward mark and right-hand leeward gate mark (looking downwind) are set with drogues and typically dropped just before the yachts reach the marks. If a course change is required, a mark boat flies the “M” flag, signalling missing mark and places the mark in the boat.

“The pin is ‘set’ but we’ve seen it move in varying breezes and directions upwards of 280 metres,” Reggio said. “One day the buoy went upwind 185 metres. It’s got probably 950 metres (3,116 feet) of line in 720 meters of water.”

Reggio does his best to keep the committee boat in one spot, but it invariably drifts backwards a slight bit. Three crews were called OCS in Round 1, and at least one learned a lesson.

“Being called over early was tough for us,” said Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski of his match last Sunday against Emirates Team New Zealand. “The bowman was calling us up with 4 seconds to go. I have to trust my bowman (Bernard Labro), who’s got quote a bit of experience. On the other hand, it’s difficult to make judgements because the committee boat isn’t anchored. It’s difficult to judge the proper position, so you have to be more conservative.”

There are other stories from the racecourse of the leeward gate marks drifting, but Reggio said the competitors have remained largely quiet about issues like that.

“They know we’re doing the best we can,” said Reggio. “We know if things weren’t right they’d tell us.

“It’s not a right or wrong thing,” he continued. “They understand our problems as much as we do. They’re willing to work through it. It’s something that takes a good bit of understanding on their part to make it work, and it’s appreciated a lot.”

Due to time constraints Round 2 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur has been amended. A full round robin requires 14 flights, 28 matches. But with the light winds of the area and the semifinals and knockout round scheduled to start Thursday, 17 November, event organizers have amended Round 2.

Rather than a full second round robin, as originally planned, the eight teams have been divided into two halves based on their placing in Round 1. The top four teams will race each of the bottom four teams once. Wins will be worth 1 point.

The amended sailing instructions read:

“Teams will be ranked based on their points scored in Round Robin 1. Ties will be broken in accordance with RRS Appendix C11.

“Teams ranked in positions 5-8 will race once against each team ranked in positions 1-4, and the Round Robin will be complete at that point under SI 8.8(a). A win will score one point. Other matches in Round Robin 2 will not be sailed.”

In the modified round teams will swap starting line assignments and yachts from the first round.

Round 2 is expected to begin this afternoon with two flights, four matches on the schedule.

FLIGHT 1

M1: All4One vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: Azzurra vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

FLIGHT 2

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. TeamOrigin

M2: Azzurra vs. All4One

FLIGHT 8

M2: Synergy d. BMW ORACLE Racing – Delta: 14 seconds

The last match of Round 1 saw Synergy gain its third win of the regatta. The Russian team and BMW Oracle Racing had a split-tack start, with Synergy on port at the boat end and BMW Oracle on starboard at the pin. The two crews held tacks to the outer edges of the racecourse, the lateral separation eventually surpassing 1,400 metres (.75 nautical miles). Synergy was first to tack, and seemed to find lifting pressure on the right side. Skipper Karol Jablonski led his crew around the windward mark with a healthy lead of 56 seconds. On the run the Russian crew increased its lead to 1:05 at the leeward gate. BMW Oracle made a furious comeback around the second lap, but still fell short.

The win by Synergy placed it in a three-way tie for fourth with Artemis and BMW Oracle, all at 3-4. Artemis wins the tiebreaker by virtue of its win yesterday over TeamOrigin. Synergy places fifth because it beat BMW Oracle, and the U.S.-flagged crew places sixth.

One match remains outstanding to complete the first round robin, and it’s an important one. BMW ORACLE Racing takes on Synergy of Russia in a race to decide fourth, fifth and sixth in the round. That’s become important due to the amended Sailing Instructions issued yesterday.

The second round has been changed to a sort of half round robin. The amendment reads:

“Teams will be ranked based on their points scored in Round Robin 1. Ties will be broken in accordance with RRS Appendix C11.

“Teams ranked in positions 5-8 will race once against each team ranked in positions 1-4, and the Round Robin will be complete at that point under SI 8.8(a). A win will score one point. Other matches in Round Robin 2 will not be sailed.”

In the modified round teams will swap starting line assignments and yachts from the first round.

If BMW Oracle wins this match it will place fourth, Artemis will finish fifth and Synergy will drop to sixth. But if Synergy wins Artemis will place fourth, Synergy fifth and BMW Oracle sixth.

The race committee's attempt to run the match yesterday were thwarted by the conditions. The first attempt was abandoned on the first run of the race when the 20-minute time limit expired with the leader, BMW Oracle, about two-thirds of the way down the 1-nautical-mile leg. Further attempts were postponed because of light winds less than 5 knots.

While many of the world class sailors competing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur know the conditions well along this magnificent coast line during the summer months, it is rare for them to be competing here this late in the season, when the weather is wholly different.  Why, for example, does the wind seem to shut down for a while at 11am each day during this regatta?

The man with the answers is meteorologist, Roger ‘Clouds’ Badham. Working here in Nice with Emirates Team New Zealand, Clouds has been involved with the weather side of the America’s Cup since 1987, along with Whitbreads/Volvo Ocean Races, Olympics, records and countless other regattas.

Having studied the weather in Nice for a couple of weeks now, Clouds reckons he has a reasonable handle on how the weather here works.

Pretty much the whole of the south of France, all the way around to Genoa, Italy, he says is affected by the ‘Mistral’, the fierce northwesterly that is funnelled between the Alps and Pyrenees. “That will give you anything from 30-100 knots,” says Badham. This wind either wraps around the coast from Marseille and the Golfe de Lyon or from the opposite way from Genoa, but, usually, it never quite reaches Nice, tucked away in the lee of the Alps.

What does affect Nice directly is a secondary effect of the Mistral – a small localised depression that forms in the lee of the Alps. Unfortunately this has a tendency to move around and can be hovering over Nice, over Corsica or anywhere between – its positioning vital to determining the wind direction. Hence why a strong Mistral can result in SSEerly or northeasterly wind off Nice.

While this is the ‘big picture’ weather scenario, of a more local nature is the unpleasant-sounding ‘drainage flow’, the cold air that floods down from the at present snow-covered Alps every night and is the reason why the weather mark for the early morning races is usually closest to the coast.

“The cold air drainage at night is quite deep and quite strong, but it doesn’t go offshore a long way,” says Badham.  “It flows down from the hills, across the airport and the town but it is channelled more according to the topography.” For example the flow is more consistent and strong on the flatter, western, airport side of the bay in the morning.

Racing early morning is good, but sadly this wind packs up mid-morning as the land begins to heat up – the exact time depends upon how cold the night was and how quickly the land warms up the following morning. Today, due to the cloud cover, the ‘drainage flow’ lasted until around midday.

With the heating of the land, convection occurs and with it a ‘sea breeze’, wind blowing on to the shore, typical of racing in the Mediterranean, only at this time of year the difference in temperatures between land and sea are not great enough for this to be strong. According to Clouds this has been the situation for the last few days and will continue into next week, with the sea breeze typically from the southeast rather than the more robust southwest, typical of what we experienced on Tuesday when the sea breeze peaked at 13 knots and a full afternoon of racing could be held.

“Generally the sea breeze is a pretty minor sort of creature and it will last for 3-4 hours at best and might reach 12 knots or it be struggling at 6-7 knots. So it comes in different disguises.”

And his forecast for next week? A number of fronts are coming across France but they are all quite weak and won’t prompt a Mistral to blow. This is the case, reckons Badham, until Wednesday-Thursday, with the northerly drainage flow in the morning followed by a shut-down until a soft easterly establishes itself in the afternoon. “Today the flow wanted to go into the east but it was sick trying to do it and it’ll be like that for the next couple of days and gradually it might get more robust,” concludes Badham, who recommends taking an umbrella to the Louis Vuitton party tonight.

Emirates Team New Zealand won the first round robin at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur despite losing the anticipated showdown match against England’s TEAMORIGIN.

TeamOrigin, with founder and CEO Sir Keith Mills riding as 18th man, won the thrilling race by 32 seconds. That gave the British team an opportunity to win the round robin outright, but it dropped to third when it lost to Italy’s Azzurra in its second match of the day.

Azzurra’s 1-minute triumph put it tied with Team New Zealand for the lead at 6-1, but the Kiwis won by beating Azzurra in Flight 5. TeamOrigin placed third with a 5-2 record.

“It was always going to be a tough match against TeamOrigin,” said Emirates Team New Zealand skipper, Dean Barker. “It was disappointing to lose the race, but you always learn more in your losses than your wins. We’re pleased with the way we’re sailing and we can do better.”

While the top three spots on the leaderboard are set, fourth through sixth remain up for grabs. There’s one match outstanding to complete the round, between BMW ORACLE Racing and Synergy, and it is tomorrow’s scheduled first match. It was abandoned today when the 20-minute leg time limit ran out on the first run.

The match has significant implications for the standings. If BMW Oracle wins it places fourth and Synergy finishes sixth behind Sweden’s Artemis. But if Synergy wins the three teams become tied at 3-4. The tiebreaker would place Artemis fourth, Synergy fifth and BMW Oracle sixth.

The French/German team ALL4ONE is seventh with a 2-5 record and TFS – Pages Jaunes is eighth at 0-7.

The standings are important because the second half of the regatta has been changed. Due to time constraints a half round robin will be conducted with the top four teams racing the bottom four teams. Each team has four matches scheduled before the semifinals and knock-out rounds begin next Thursday.

Today’s few matches showcased aggressive match racing with afterguards frequently seeking penalties on their opponent.

Team New Zealand and TeamOrigin took split tacks onto the racecourse. The key moment came at their third meeting near the top of the 1.3-nautical-mile leg. Approaching on opposite tacks, TeamOrigin held the starboard advantage and used it to dial down Team New Zealand. When the Kiwis got to the right TeamOrigin made a slam-dunk tack and pinned the Kiwis to leeward.

Moments later both boats were luffing head-to-wind with Team New Zealand to the right. TeamOrigin fell off onto starboard tack, built speed, tacked to port and sailed over the bow of Team New Zealand to round in the lead by 21 seconds en route to the victory.

“We have a huge amount of respect for Dean and all the guys at Team New Zealand,” said Ben Ainslie, TeamOrigin skipper. “Having spent a lot of time there sailing with those guys in the last America’s Cup, it’s always nice to have a good race with them, and to come away with a win was good. It was a very tight race.”

After the big win TeamOrigin had to take on Azzurra to win the round. Origin had the lead at the first mark by 37 seconds after getting a red-flag penalty on the Italian crew. But the Italians, having performed the penalty, found a nice wind shift with pressure on the run and turned the deficit into an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish.

“I don’t disagree with the penalty, but I don’t think it should have been a red flag,” said Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni. “My brother (Gabriele) has been doing a great job calling the wind from up the rig.”

FLIGHT 14

M1: BMW ORACLE Racing d. Artemis – Delta:

BMW Oracle scored a badly need victory, snatching it from the jaws of defeat near the top of the second beat. Artemis led around the first lap, holding an advantage of 9 seconds at the leeward gate. But the Swedish-flagged team seemed to have troubles with its genoa coming out of the mark. BMW Oracle Racing worked the left side of the beat and near the top took port tack across Artemis. BMW Oracle tacked to port to cover and led by 16 seconds beginning the run to the finish. The win was just the third of the regatta for BMW Oracle, whose primary focus lies elsewhere around the world.

M2: TeamOrigin d. Emirates Team New Zealand – Delta: 32 seconds

TeamOrigin, with founder and CEO Sir Keith Mills riding as 18th man, handed Team New Zealand its first loss of the regatta, a 32-second decision. This was a fascinating match as the two teams are loaded with talent.

New Zealand skipper Dean Barker won the start at the pin end once again. During the pre-starts all week he’s lured his competition into his windward quarter and then forced them to tack away. But TeamOrigin’s Ben Ainslie was able to use starboard tack to his advantage and protect the right side of the course, twice leebowing the Kiwis back to the left. The key moment came at the top of the first beat.

The two crews approached bow-to-bow at their third meeting, with TeamOrigin holding starboard. Ainslie used that advantage to dial down Barker and TNZ. Ainslie got Barker to commit to passing to leeward and then tacked to port, effectively putting a slam dunk on the Kiwis. The pair began a luffing match that saw it drift closer to the windward mark. Moments later, with the Kiwis to the right of the Brits and both nearly dead in the water, Ainslie bore off onto starboard, built speed and tacked to port, crossing the Kiwis and rounding the mark in the lead. The Kiwis were slow to build speed and trailed by 21 seconds.

Team New Zealand closed a bit on the run to the leeward gate, taking 10 seconds out of the Brits’ lead, but Ainslie and tactician Iain Percy put the clamps on Team New Zealand up the second beat and on the run to the finish.

FLIGHT 7

M2: Azzurra d. TeamOrigin – Delta: 1 minute

Despite the delta, this was another exciting match that was in play until the Italian crew crossed the finish line. TeamOrigin took the early lead on the first leg, winning the pin end in the split-tack start. Azzurra started on port at the boat end and then tacked to starboard about 2 minutes into the race. With both boats on starboard, Azzurra lifted up inside of the Brits, which were to leeward by about 10 boatlengths.

TeamOrigin gained the lead at the first meeting, but not by crossing. Azzurra had starboard rights and slam-dunked TeamOrigin. British skipper Ben Ainslie luffed twice and the on-water umpires deemed Azzurra did not keep clear. The umps gave the Italians a red-flag penalty for the incident. When Azzurra completed its jibe onto starboard tack, TeamOrigin tacked to windward and into a covering position and led by 37 seconds at the windward mark.

Azzurra, however, has had great luck on the runs during this regatta and that luck came through again. Azzurra jibed to starboard early on the run while TeamOrigin held port. When Azzurra jibed back to port, with more than 1,100 metres of separation, it was headed down to the mark in pressure while TeamOrigin was wallowing when it completed its jibe to starboard. Azzurra took a 56-second lead through the leeward gate.

Azzurra led by 49 seconds at the second windward mark and its lead was threatened late on the run to the finish when TeamOrigin closed up to within two boatlengths, but there wasn’t enough racecourse left and Azzurra held on for the win in dying winds.

The victory gave Azzurra second for the round robin at 6-1 and dropped TeamOrigin to third at 5-2. Emirates Team New Zealand won the round at 6-1, having beaten Azzurra in their head-to-head match.

Four matches remain to complete the first round robin and organizers are anxious to get them done today. Light winds have been the biggest foe in this match race regatta. Typically the strongest winds have been in the morning so the race committee has moved the first start back a half hour to 0830. Today’s matches will determine the final standings on the leaderbaord, which will be important going forward as the event format will undergo a yet to be announced change.

FLIGHT 14

M1: Artemis vs. BMW Oracle Racing

A win for Artemis will all but assure it of fourth place. In a best case scenario it could jump up to third, depending on other results. The match is one of two scheduled for BMW Oracle Racing, which holds fifth place. It needs to win both if it hopes to move up to fourth.

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

TeamOrigin also has two matches scheduled today. If the Brits win both they can claim the top spot on the leaderboard. But Team New Zealand has proved impermeable so far. The Kiwis have streaked out to 6-0 with deadly precision.

FLIGHT 7

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Azzurra

The second of TeamOrigin’s two matches is hardly a cake walk. If the Brits find a way past Team New Zealand they still have to take down Azzurra to win the round robin. The Italian team from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is enjoying its coming out party. Skipper Francesco Bruni has been solid in the pre-start, and luck has fallen his way when behind on the racecourse.

FLIGHT 8

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Synergy

The last scheduled match of the round sees the upstart Synergy team from Russia take on BMW Oracle Racing. Synergy has scored back to back wins against the French teams ALL4ONE and TFS – Pages Jaunes. Those also happen to be the two teams BMW Oracle has beaten. If BMW Oracle loses to Artemis in its first match of the day, this will be a sail-off for fifth place in the standings, an unfathomable occurrence at the beginning of the regatta.

In addition to the sailing team on the ACV5 boats being used at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, there is often an ‘18^th man’, a VIP guest passenger on board who stands near the back of the boat and is able to get a unique close-up perspective of the racing. But for the first time at this regatta, at the back of each of the boats is also a young woman...

With women’s match racing becoming an Olympic discipline for London 2012, so the umpire team, led by Bill Edgerton, decided to invite down to Nice four of the world’s top women match racers, placing them on board the boats during racing to act as the on the water umpires’ on board observers. This would help the umpires make their rulings, help the women learn about how the rulings are made and provide each sailing team with a link to the jury - effectively a win-win-win for all involved.

The lucky four in Nice this week, each hooked up to the umpire team via radios and earpieces, are world’s women no1 match racer from France, Claire Leroy the soon to be world no1 from the UK, Lucy MacGregor, one of her crew, Annie Lush, and also from the UK, Nicky Muller.

“I am an observer, so I help the umpires to call an overlap or no overlap and we relay some information to the competitors and if they want to ask some questions about a case then we can relay that to the umpires,” explains Claire Leroy. They also keep an eye on the instruments on board and can call this data through to the umpires if it is required – she gives the example of the angles on a downwind leg.

“It is really interesting for us to see how they communicate together and it is interesting to watch the cases too. I’ve learned a lot of things,” continues Leroy.

For LeRoy it is also her first time on an ACC v5, as used in the America’s Cup two years ago in Valencia. Today she was on ITA99. Compared to the smaller production boats she is used to racing at match racing events around the world, the sailboats being used at the Louis Vuitton Trophy are monsters.

“They are so different to the boats I am used to,” admits Leroy. “I was ready for it, but it was still cool. The noise is incredible and when you have waves there is all this vibration. It is interesting. It is not a small boat, so you have to anticipate more. You have to manage every discipline of the sailing, so it is good.”

LeRoy is also impressed by the teams themselves. Generally she sails with four, or six maximum. ACC boats require 17 people to sail them. This afternoon she was on with TEAMORIGIN. “It is interesting to watch how they do it. I was with them when they beat Oracle and every time they make good tacks, everything was avery calm. They can anticipate a lot. It was interesting.”

Today was a case of one match, one win for three of the top four teams at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

Emirates Team New Zealand, Azzurra and Artemis each won their lone match of the day, which was shortened to two flights as light winds in the afternoon turned the Baie des Anges off Nice into a virtual mill pond.

After day six, Emirates Team New Zealand still leads the event with 6 points on a perfect 6-0 record. Skipper Dean Barker and mates defeated BMW ORACLE Racing by 48 seconds in their lone match and have one remaining in the round against TEAMORIGIN. Based on the standings tonight the Kiwis need to win that match to win the round.

“We’re happy with how it’s been going,” said Barker. “We’ve been sailing with the same crew. You run the risk of injury or illness, but we’ve had the same crew throughout.”

Italy’s Azzurra moved into second place today after winning its match over the French/German team ALL4ONE. Azzurra and skipper Francesco Bruni lost the lead on the first leg and then regained it on the second, finding more pressure on their side of the course, to win by 1 minute, 56 seconds.

Azzurra has 5 points on a 5-1 record. It has one match remaining in the round and will place either second or third.

Azzurra leap-frogged TeamOrigin of the U.K. in the standings when skipper Ben Ainslie’s crew lost to Artemis of Sweden in the day’s first match. Artemis skipper Terry Hutchinson put forth a masterful performance in the pre-start and cleaned out his British rival. Artemis went on to win by 45 seconds.

TeamOrigin’s loss was its first of the event and dropped it to third with 4 points on a 4-1 mark. Ainslie and mates have two matches remaining in the round, against Team New Zealand and Azzurra. If TeamOrigin wins both it can still win the round robin.

Artemis solidified its fourth-place position with its dominant win. Hutchinson had been very critical of his pre-start performance in yesterday’s match against Team New Zealand, giving up lateral separation late in the sequence. Today, he pushed Ainslie around in the pre-start and left the British triple Olympic Gold medalist tacking to port almost two lengths to leeward of the line at the start gun.

“Today’s start set up similarly to yesterday’s. We just executed it better,” said Hutchinson. “Yesterday’s race was painful, but we debriefed and had good communication about what we did right and wrong. Today, we learned from our mistake.”

TeamOrigin tactician Iain Percy said the team put itself in a disadvantageous position at the start.

“We got ourselves a little late having misjudged the layline and gave them [Artemis] a powerful position,” Percy said. “For people watching, some of those moves seemed to be wrong, but the reality is that when you are starting with them bow forward by half a length at the favoured end wide right, the race is kind of over. Although sometimes it looks like you are making more mistakes, in fact you are trying to give yourself a chance to get out.”

The second half of the leaderboard sees BMW Oracle Racing in fifth with 2 points on a 2-3 record. BMW Oracle has two matches remaining, against Artemis and Synergy, and needs to win both if it hopes to move up into the top four.

Synergy of Russia today picked up its second win of the regatta and has 2 points on a 2-4 record. With one match remaining it is locked into sixth place because it defeated ALL4ONE today, which gave it the tiebreak advantage.

The French/German team ALL4ONE is seventh with 2 points at 2-5 and TFS – Pages Jaunes is eighth at 0-7. These two teams have completed the first round robin and can’t move up in the standings.

Two flights remain to complete the round robin and organisers hope to run through them tomorrow. In an effort to get racing completed tomorrow’s first start has been moved a half-hour earlier to 0830 CET.

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 14

M1: Artemis vs. BMW Oracle Racing

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

Flight 7

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Azzurra

Flight 8

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Synergy

FLIGHT 12

Wind: 7-9 knots

Course axis and range: 345 degrees, 1.3 NM

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. BMW ORACLE Racing – Delta: 48 seconds

Team New Zealand controlled this match throughout, although it was close around the first lap of the two-lap course. The Kiwis have attempted to start to leeward on starboard in every match, and got that position again. They believe that tacks late in the sequence are costly because smaller, No. 2 genoas are being used rather than the giant overlapping No. 1s. That makes the boats underpowered in the light winds.

Team New Zealand led by 13 seconds at the first windward mark as both boats took port jibe on the first run. Approaching the halfway point of the run BMW Oracle seemed to be getting its bow to leeward of New Zealand’s line and closing a bit. That’s when Team New Zealand threw a fake jibe at its rival, but BMW Oracle didn’t bite. Moments later the Kiwis made another fake jibe, going so far as to bring the boom to centreline with the mainsail battens popping from port to starboard, but then turned back to port when BMW Oracle completed the jibe to starboard. A minute later Team New Zealand completed a jibe to starboard and had clear air to the leeward gate, which it rounded to port in a jibe douse. BMW Oracle held starboard around the right-hand mark. Up the second beat Team New Zealand sailed free and clear and increased its lead to 47 seconds at the second windward mark. The run to the finish was a foregone conclusion.

M2: Artemis d. TeamOrigin – Delta: 45 seconds

Artemis scored a badly needed point and handed TeamOrigin its first loss in a match that was over when it started. Artemis helmsman Terry Hutchinson made mincemeat of TeamOrigin’s Ben Ainslie. Artemis started on starboard tack about mid-line while TeamOrigin was tacking to port almost two lengths to leeward. Artemis immediately had a 40-metre lead and never looked back, other than to make sure it was in cover mode.

FLIGHT 13

Wind: 3-7 knots

Course axis and range: 185 degrees, 1.2 NM

M1: TFS – Synergy d. TFS – Pages Jaunes (DNF)

A day after picking up its first win in AC class racing Synergy posted its second, once again by defeating a French team. Synergy won this light-air race on the first beat. Skipper Karol Jablonski brought the Russian crew onto the racecourse on starboard tack and well to windward of Bertrand Pace’s French crew. Synergy at times was sailing 20 degrees higher on the long starboard tack to the left side of the course, aided by either slightly more pressure or a lifted angle. Synergy led by more than 1 minute at the first mark. Synergy’s only real threat was the 20-minute leg time limit on the run to the finish. The Russians made it with a few minutes to spare, but TFS – Pages Jaunes was more than 5 minutes in arrears and was scored DNF per the Sailing Instructions.

M2: Azzurra d. ALL4ONE – Delta: 1:56

The Italian crew aboard Azzurra won the first cross in this match, but lost the lead later on the first beat when it tacked to cover ALL4ONE up on its hip. When Azzurra tacked to starboard to cover the wind was light and ALL4ONE was able to use its momentum to sail through to leeward. ALL4ONE took a 24-second lead around the windward mark but then gifted the match to Azzurra. ALL4ONE jibed away to starboard although Azzurra hadn’t made a manoeuvre. Basically, ALL4ONE jibed out of a covering position. The Italians held port before jibing to starboard later, and when they did they were headed on starboard with pressure while ALL4ONE was light and lifted on the other side of the course. Azzurra took a comfortable lead around the leeward gate and then, like Synergy, had to fight the time limit to score the point.

Despite the slow opening weekend to the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, Round Robin 1 is nearly complete and only one day late. If all scheduled matches are completed today, organizers hope to leap into Round Robin 2 beginning tomorrow. Some matches today will help define the top four spots for the first round robin, which could be important if the second round is cut short due to weather constrictions.

FLIGHT 12

M1: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

The sixth day of racing opens with a bang. Emirates Team New Zealand has shown deadly efficiency in streaking to a 5-0 record and top spot on the leaderboard. Skikpper Dean Barker has been as precise as a surgeon in his pre-start manoeuvres, always taking a lead onto the racecourse. BMW Oracle Racing is being guided by Gavin Brady, the team’s alternate helmsman who’s filling in for team CEO and skipper Russell Coutts. BMW Oracle badly needs a strong showing. Its two wins have come against ALL4ONE and TFS – Pages Jaunes its losses to Azzurra and TeamOrigin.

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Artemis

TEamOrigin is the only other undefeated team at the event at 4-0. Skipper Ben Ainslie has shown good instincts in the pre-start, and is ably backed up by tactician Iain Percy. The Brits need a victory to keep pace behind Team New Zealand and set up a head-to-head showdown in Flight 14 for Round Robin 1. Artemis has a loaded afterguard, but has been uneven in its performance so far. Yesterday, the team suffered a loss to Team New Zealand that was fairly one-sided. Skipper/strategist Paul Cayard said they made it easy on the Kiwis by giving up lateral separation in the pre-start.

FLIGHT 13

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. Synergy

TFS – Pages Jaunes enters this match still seeking its first win of the regatta. Skipper Bertrand Pace and his crew came together just two weeks before the event began, and have had some rough spots on the racecourse. They’ve been OCS in one match and yesterday had troubles at a leeward gate when the spinnaker was late to drop and the genoa was late to hoist. Synergy won its first match yesterday against ALL4ONE. The French/German team gifted them an early advantage by being OCS at the start and carrying a penalty for hitting the committee boat. But teams still have to convert the win, and Synergy did.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Azzurra

ALL4ONE skipper Jochen Schumann is mostly happy with his team’s performance, despite a 2-4 record. He points out that when the team starts well, it converts matches into wins. But starting well has been the problem, as evidenced by yesterday’s disaster against Synergy. ALL4ONE was OCS and gained a penalty for hitting the committee boat with its starboard stern. Azzurra has been steady in opening a 4-1 record and holding third place on the leaderboard. Skipper Francesco Bruni is happy with every aspect of his team, right down to the media personnel and chefs.

FLIGHT 14

M1: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Artemis

This match could well be for fourth place on the leaderboard, depending on how earlier matches fall. BMW Oracle will enter the start box on port tack aboard GBR-75 while Artemis comes in on starboard aboard FRA-93.

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

Similarly, this match could well be for top honours in Round Robin 1, depending on how each team fairs in earlier matches. Team New Zealand will enter the start box on starboard tack aboard ITA-90 and TeamOrigin will come in on port aboard ITA-99.

FLIGHT 8

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Synergy

This is a make-up match from an earlier flight. BMW Oracle will be aboard ITA-99 and enter the start box on port tack and Synergy will have starboard tack aboard ITA-90.

Living on the other side of the world, and with much notice that this event was happening, it must have been quite a logistical exercise mobilising Emirates Team New Zealand to come and compete in Nice...

We're very fortunate with Emirates that they get us up here in good style, and it’s been an interesting year. We’ve done a lot of TP52 sailing throughout the year, but yes, moving the 28 people that we have here for this event is still a big logistical exercise. Fortunately we've had a lot of practice with Louis Vuitton Acts in the past at moving things around.

There is a lot of new teams here who are still getting used to each other’s company, still learning the ropes, but with Emirates Team New Zealand you don’t have that excuse. You’re here to win, right?

Yes, absolutely, we’re here to win and we have high expectations. But it's still hard, because you feel rusty, and we haven't had the ability to sail much in these boats. The last time we set foot in one was Auckland for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series earlier this year. A lot of rust does creep in and so you try to iron out as many bugs as you can in the practice time that you have available. We've been a bit short of that practice time though.

In the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, two of those boats were your own, and the other two were  provided by BMW Oracle Racing. Here you're sailing boats that you don't know very well at all, so how much does that change the game?

It is different because the boats are not the same, but within reason the characteristics of the boat are still the same. It's about understanding the appendages and how the boats will react. Putting the boats on a shorter course also has quite an effect, the speed is less important and it's more like general match racing. Provided you understand what you've got, and you know your limitations and you’re not getting too clever, you can figure out how to sail a different boat reasonably quickly.

Do you feel like a team yet?

It’s always good to sail with the guys and we've been very fortunate to race in the TP52, where we’ve been getting most of the guys together. It's not quite the same but there are a lot of similarities and that helps us acclimatise to the sailing here in the AC boats more quickly.

As well as winning, what other objectives do you have for the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice?

For me this year the focus has been on fleet racing, so I’m looking to get back into the swing of things with match racing as quickly as possible. I've got a lot of confidence in the afterguard that we'll switch that back on pretty well. But it does take time and we've got to eliminate the silly mistakes.

On a day where the leaders at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur kept pace with one another, it was the Synergy team of Russia that made the day’s headline.

Synergy, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, scored an historic triumph by beating the French/German team ALL4ONE. Synergy got the early jump off the start line when ALL4ONE became entangled with the race committee boat (going OCS and earning a penalty for hitting the committee boat) and then sailed to a victory of 1 minute, 30 seconds.

“This is a great victory and great day for Russia,” said Maxim Logutenko, Synergy team manager. “It’s the first time Russia has won a race on this kind of boat. The start was a present for us, but in the rest of the race we did a good job. Karol did a great job helming and we’re happy with the crew work. We’re getting better and better.”

Only once before has Russia attempted to field a team for the Louis Vuitton Cup: That was in 1992, but the team never made the series. Synergy is here with an eye towards the future and the win was welcome because of the team’s hard luck the past few days.

On Sunday, it led Emirates Team New Zealand before “hitting the wall” just three lengths from the finish line and could only watch as the Kiwis sailed past to take the win. Yesterday, Synergy led Artemis up the first beat until the mainsheet broke. Such are the growing pains for a fledgling team.

“We’ve seen a broad spectrum of opportunities and happenstances. It’s been a good thing for the growth of the team,” said pitman Josh Belsky, the American who’s been on three America’s Cup-winning teams. “We’ve got some good international guys in key positions. We lack some horsepower; we’re probably the smallest team out here physically. But at the end of the day I look back and the owner, Valentin Zavadnikov, has a huge smile. He sees the potential for the future.”

At the top of the scoreboard, Emirates Team New Zealand kept its perfect record intact with a 23-second win in its lone match against Artemis of Sweden. Team New Zealand has 5 points on a 5-0 record.

Britain’s TeamOrigin, the only other undefeated team at 4-0, holds second place with 4 points. Italy’s Azzurra is third with 4 points on a 4-1 record, and BMW Oracle is fourth with 2 points on a 2-2 record.

Fifth is held by Artemis (2-3), which is followed by ALL4ONE (2-6), Synergy (1-4) and TFS – Pages Jaunes (0-6).

The wind conditions were again tricky on the Baie des Anges. The morning offshore flow died during Flight 9 and led to a lengthy postponement before the start of Flight 10. The day’s second flight was started in winds around 5 knots, and it was difficult for crews to pick a side of the racecourse. TeamOrigin’s lone win, with a decisive 2-minute delta over BMW ORACLE Racing, came in the trying conditions.

“It’s quite often a difficult decision to make whether you want to lose a lot to get the side you want, or whether you accept a close start on the un-favoured side,” said TeamOrigin skipper Ben Ainslie. “Today was like that. We had to make sure we didn’t lose too much in winning the left. We were a bit late and slow off the line, but it turned out to be the right decision.”

The interrupted schedule means teams are struggling to keep their consistency from day to day with the sometimes long stretches of inactivity.

“The toughest thing in this kind of racing is one day you sail two or three races and the next day you don’t sail at all,” said Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni. “The key for our team is to keep our rhythm going, keep our concentration up.”

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 12

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. BMW Oracle Racing

M2: Artemis vs. TeamOrigin

Flight 13

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. Synergy

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Azzurra

Flight 14

M1: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Artemis

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. TEamOrigin

Flight 8

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Synergy

Yachting at the level of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur is a highly international affair. Take the example of Torbjorn Tornqvist’s new Artemis team – their owner is Swedish, but lives in Geneva, their Team Manager (and pitman) Jared Henderson is from New Zealand while their afterguard - including Paul Cayard, helmsman Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Hall and Morgan Larson - are all American.

This leaves grinder Magnus Augustson in a unique situation being the only Swede on board, aside from Torbjorn Tornqvist himself.

“It is great to sail under the Swedish flag and it is a great team to be in. I guess we will have more Swedes in the future. I don’t know if that is the plan – they want good sailors,” says Augustson.

When it comes to match racing, Augustson is an old hand having sailed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 aboard the Swedish Soling and then being a regular crew on the World Match Racing Tour with Swedish ace, Magnus Holmberg. Augustson joined Holmberg aboard the Swedish Victory Challenge for the 31^st America’s Cup in Auckland. But since then, he says, he has not been sailed with Swedish teams – until now.

He joined Luna Rossa for the America’s Cup in Valencia and after this followed James Spithill, Michele Ivaldi and Joey Newton from the Italian team to the RC44 circuit and sailed with Jochen Schümann on the TP52 Platoon in 2008. While Artemis have their own RC44 and TP52 campaigns, Nice is their first occasion they have campaigned for the Louis Vuitton Trophy. It also marks Augustson’s debut with the team, following his recruitment this summer.  

“I really like the team. There are a lot of superstars, who are really, really nice people. It is a very open team. Everyone can say what they think. So it is a good environment.”

The Artemis team is set to compete in the other Louis Vuitton Trophy events in 2010, but in the meantime there is the no small matter of being 2-3 down at this event with two tough matches against TEAMORIGIN and BMW ORACLE Racing still to go.

FLIGHT 9

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. Artemis – Delta 23 seconds

Emirates Team New Zealand kept its position as the top team in tact with a workmanlike victory over Artemis of Sweden. The two yachts started the match on starboard tack, with Team New Zealand on the leebow of Artemis. The Swedish team helmsman Terry Hutchinson quickly tacked away to port and when the pair met for the first time on the racecourse they were in similar positions: Team New Zealand tacked on the leebow of Artemis. Kiwi skipper Dean Barker eventually got his crew to the right of Artemis in the top half of the beat and then covered into the windward mark. Team New Zealand led by 15 seconds at the first windward mark and then covered with deadly efficiency over the rest of the course to move to 5-0. Artemis fell to 2-3.

"There was always a little more pressure on the left," said Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies of the first beat. "On the second beat the race committee moved the mark 10 degrees left, but the wind shifted right so it was always a little skewed."

Both teams move to the sideline for a few hours until Flight 12 when Team New Zealand is scheduled to race BMW Oracle Racing in Match 1, and Artemis takes on TeamOrigin in Match 2.

M2: ALL4ONE d. TFS – Pages Jaunes – Delta: 50 seconds

The combined French/German team ALL4ONE scored a similar workmanlike victory over partial compatriot team TFS – Pages Jaunes on Remembrance Day in France. TFS – Pages Jaunes skipper Bertrand Pace appeared to want the right side of the racecourse, even holding to the right of the committee boat with 20 seconds to the start. ALL4ONE helmsman Sebastien Col was content to take starboard onto the racecourse at mid-line while TFS – Pages Jaunes tacked away to port shortly after the start. ALL4ONE gained control of the match on the first windward leg and then never gave Pace and TFS – Pages Jaunes an opportunity to come back. ALL4ONE led by 14 seconds at the first windward mark, 27 seconds at the leeward gate and 38 seconds at the second windward mark. ALL4ONE now stands at 2-3, tied with Artemis for fifth but owning the tiebreak advantage by virtue of a head-to-head win. TFS – Pages Jaunes, a team formed in the two weeks leading up to this event, is at 0-5.

FLIGHT 10

M1: Azzurra d. Synergy – Delta: 1:09

M2: TeamOrigin d. BMW Oracle Racing – Delta: 2:01

Both matches in Flight 10 were plagued by light winds in the pre-start and on the first beats. Consequently, when the leaders were established on the first beat they were never threatened around the rest of the course. In fact, the two deltas were among the largest of the regatta.

The wins kept Azzurra and TeamOrigin apace with regatta leader Team New Zealand, which is undefeated at 5-0. TeamOrigin holds second with 4 points on a 4-0 record and Azzurra is third with 3 points on a 3-1 record. BMW Oracle fell to 2-2 and Synergy, another newly formed team, remained winless.

FLIGHT 11

Wind: 9-11 knots

Course range and bearing: 195 degrees, 1.3 NM

M1: Synergy d. ALL4ONE – Delta: 1:30

The Russian Synergy team picked up its first win in AC racing by defeating ALL4ONE. The French/German team committed a huge error in the pre-start when it was OCS. ALL4ONE also picked up a penalty for hitting the committee boat. ALL4ONE was on port tack and aiming amidships for the committee boat. When helmsman Seb Col hardened up to avoid a t-bone collision, the starboard transom hit the committee boat on its port transom. ALL4ONE performed its penalty turn on the finish line while the Synergy crew, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, rejoiced in victory.

M2: Azzurra d. TFS – Pages Jaunes – Delta: 1:32

Azzurra strengthened its grip on third place with its win over TFS – Pages Jaunes. Despite the delta, this match was close around the first lap. Bertrand Pace and his French crew, formed just two weeks before the start of racing, were within one boatlength approaching the leeward gate. But the French crew had trouble hoisting the genoa at the gate and began the second beat bearheaded. Azzurra made a port rounding through the gate and quickly opened a 270-metre lead. Azzurra increased that advantage around the second lap for the win. The Italian crew has 4 points on a 4-1 record. TFS – Pages Jaunes remained winless in six matches.

FLIGHT 9

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. Artemis

The Kiwis lead the regatta with 4 points on a perfect 4-0 record. Artemis helmsman Terry Hutchinson was the tactician for Team New Zealand during the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup, helping them to the championship and a disheartening loss in the 32nd America’s Cup Match. Hutchinson was then dismissed, and hasn’t forgotten. Perceived slight or not, he’s got revenge on his agenda.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

The battle for bragging rights in France includes a German component. ALL4ONE yesterday won its first match of the regatta, and skipper Jochen Schumann said they could’ve won two others if not for poor starting. TFS – Pages Jaunes is still looking for its first victory of the regatta and comes in with a 0-4 mark. TFS – Pages Jaunes has the favoured starboard tack in the pre-start.

FLIGHT 10

M1: Synergy vs. Azzurra

Synergy has earned the moniker of hard-luck team early in the event. The Russian crew led by Karol Jablonski lost a tough match to Team New Zealand when it ran into a “wall” 10 lengths from the finish line and the Kiwis sailed past for the win. Yesterday, the mainsheet broke during their match against Artemis while in the lead. Azzurra is placed third in the event with 2 points on a 2-1 record and needs a victory to keep pace with the top teams.

M2: TeamOrigin vs. BMW Oracle Racing

Yet another match sure to provide fireworks. TeamOrigin is second in the regatta with 3 points on a 3-0 record. Skipper Ben Ainslie has shown controlled aggression in the pre-start and yesterday cleaned out ALL4ONE. BMW Oracle Racing is fourth with 2 points on a 2-1 mark. Team CEO and skipper Russell Coutts, was  expected to return to the helm today, but that has been delayed and Gavin Brady will remain as helmsman.

FLIGHT 11

M1: Synergy vs. ALL4ONE

M2: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. Azzurra

FLIGHT 12

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. BMW Oracle Racing

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Artemis

The last time Karol Jablonski sailed an AC boat, it was at the helm of Desafio Espanol in the Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia more than two years ago. So the Polish sailor can be forgiven if he doesn’t feel like he’s firing on all cylinders quite yet.

Then again, as the skipper of Synergy, the first ever Russian entry into Louis Vuitton competition, Jablonski is expected to lead from the front. He knows there is a lot of work to do. “As a new team we are still a bit rusty so we have to work on the communication and boat handling. It's completely different if you sail on your own and having this kind of competition gets you motivated or sometimes over-motivated, and you try to do things too fast or too good. But for sure doing this event we will be better from day to day. We have a great future ahead of us.”

Although the absolute direction of the team is yet to be determined, Jablonski sees Synergy competing in the season of Louis Vuitton Trophy events next year and the 34th America’s Cup - whenever that may be.

“This is going to be an America's Cup team of the future, but there is still a long way to go before then,” said Jablonski, who waited a long time before he got his break into top-tier match racing with Desafio Espanol. “The way to the America's Cup has been long but I was well prepared when I had the chance to join the Desafio Espanol team. They had a lot of experience. Being surrounded by experience, this is the fastest way to learn. You can't build an America's Cup team on your own, not without getting experienced guys on board. That's what we're doing here with Synergy. We have a mixture of Russian sailors and pro sailors. For sure over time we're going to have more Russians on board. But these boats are difficult to sail so you need good people in key positions.”

There are some very accomplished sailors on board the Russian boat. “We have Josh Belsky, three times America’s Cup winner in the pit, Bernard Labro from Alinghi on the bow, doing trimming there is Zachary Hurst from New Zealand and Chris Main from New Zealand, and Mikkel Rossberg. I have Rod Dawson calling tactics, so we have many guys with good experience. The good thing is those guys are really happy to help the inexperienced sailors and to help them learn. They are willing to give all the experience they have. So the Russian sailors are making a big jump and learning very quickly.”

Jablonski knows that Russia has a long way to go before it makes an impact on the top level of international sailing, but he believes it is only a matter of time. “Russia is a big country, with great sailors, but not much big boat experience. We'll have to put sailors through selection trials almost from zero, to teach them about sailing big boats. The Russians are very keen to learn and they bring a good positive attitude which is what you need for this game.”

Founder and former owner of Jordan Grand Prix turned BBC commentator, Eddie Jordan was in Nice today and sailed as 18^th man, appropriately, with the British team on Sir Keith Mills’ TeamOrigin for one of today’s races in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

“He loved it,” commented Team Director Mike Sanderson. “He is into his sailing. We had some nice breeze for him. He was on for the first race which was a pity because the second one was all go. That was a really tight race.”

According to Sanderson there are many Formula 1 fans in the TeamOrigin crew. “I am a full Formula 1 fan – I love it. It was great to have Eddie on board.”

Jordan was in Nice as his own boat is being used for hospitality by event sponsor Louis Vuitton.

“It was funny at Valencia at the Formula One Grand Prix, I met Ben [Ainslie] again and I was here yesterday by accident and he said ‘do you fancy coming out on the boat today?’ I thought how could I possibly turn down such a great offer and that is why I am here,” enthused Jordan. “You know F1 and sailing, certainly the America’s Cup, they are both highly intriguing, with very high technology, but it is also a sport as well, so I can see there is a huge analogy there.”

Of his sail today Jordan said: “I didn’t hear any bad words - I couldn’t believe it, I thought there would be a lot of swearing, just like there is in most sports in the heat of the moment! It was very calm, obviously Ben said very little, so he has full control and full authority over his people but he is also a calming effect. And I think any great manager or any great team leader or any great tactician has that ability to be very calm and to keep their people calm. It is a great sign of greatness.

“That was really impressive and a smooth sail. The manoeuvres were a bit like a Formula One pit stop, everybody knew exactly what to do and they moved quietly and efficiently about their business. I was really surprised how quiet it was: Very smooth, really efficient.”

Jordan was not the only motor racer sailing off Nice yesterday. 18^th man with the Franco-German ALL4ONE team was French motor racing driver, Paul Belmondo, son of the famous French actor, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Seasonal conditions returned today to the Bay of Angels off Nice and allowed race organisers for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur to reel off four flights of races, eight matches overall.

The flurry of races has helped give shape to the event scoreboard. Emirates Team New Zealand won its lone match of the day and remains the top dog with 4 points on a 4-0 record.

One point behind the Kiwis in second place is TeamOrigin of Great Britain. Skipper Ben Ainslie led the Union Jack to two victories today and now has 3 points on a 3-0 record.

Third place is held by Azzurra of Italy with 2 points on a 2-1 record. BMW ORACLE Racing won its two races today and is fourth in the standings with 2 points on a 2-1 record. Azzurra holds the tie-break advantage by virtue of its head-to-head win yesterday.

The Artemis team from Sweden holds fifth with 2 points on a 2-2 record and is followed by the French/German team ALL4ONE with 1 point on a 1-3 record. Russia Synergy (0-3) is seventh and TFS – Pages Jaunes (0-4) is eighth.

Today marked the first full day of racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta and the action was superb. An offshore breeze in the morning gave way to a southwesterly in the afternoon. The consistent conditions made for tight racing with the average delta in seven of the eight matches just 31 seconds.

TeamOrigin sailed two close matches, winning by an average of 22 seconds.

“The nice thing about today was that we had 12 to 13 knots of breeze on the racecourse, the most we’ve seen since we’ve been in Nice,” said TeamOrigin General Manager Mike Sanderson. “We’ve had relatively little practice in those conditions so every minute on the boat is really valuable for us.”

TeamOrigin’s second win came in the day’s final match against ALL4ONE, the host team for the regatta, when skipper Ainslie closed the door on his rival in the pre-start.

“We nearly nailed Ben before that, but it changed from one side to the other very quickly so we made a mistake there,” said Jochen Schümann, skipper of ALL4ONE. “We had some options just a second before that. That’s how close it is.”

The largest delta of the day was 2 minutes, 5 seconds, and it happened to occur in one of the most exciting matches – for half the race at least.

Azzurra and Artemis traded blows from the pre-start right through to the leeward gate. Azzurra got first blood when Artemis and helmsman Terry Hutchinson were penalised in the pre-start for not giving time and opportunity as a right-of-way boat. But the penalty was negated at the top of the first beat when Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni tacked too close.

The Swedish-flagged team led by a slim half-length beginning the run and extended that advantage when the Azzurra crew had trouble lowering the genoa because of an issue with the halyard lock. The crewman in the rig, Gabriele Bruni, released the snap shackle and the sail fell to the deck, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The problem prevented Azzurra from jibing to starboard with Artemis, which led to the Italian crew regaining the lead approaching the leeward mark. Azzurra took a slim lead through the leeward gate and then quickly extended when Artemis had a pair of bad tacks. Soon Azzurra built a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

“We had a nice leeward mark rounding and it was very light at that point, and I think they had a bad tack or something happened and we extended from there,” said Tom Burnham, the Azzurra strategist. “It got pretty light and shifty and we did a good job of connecting the dots and rounded the windward mark pretty far ahead. They came into us on the final run with a bit more pressure off the shore, but we were being conservative.”

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 9

M1: Artemis vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: ALL4ONE vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

Flight 10

M1: Azzurra vs. Synergy

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. TeamOrigin

Flight 11

M1: ALL4ONE vs. Synergy

M2: Azzurra vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

Flight 12

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. BMW Oracle Racing

M2: Artemis vs. TeamOrigin

For the French team, TFS-Pages Jaunes, their arrival at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur came very late. This is the fledgling French team's first regatta in America’s Cup class boats, and Skipper/helmsman Bertrand Pace says he had  to scrabble around to find a full crew: “It was very hard because two weeks ago we didn’t know we would be here.  I tried to find good guys for the right places, but obviously some people were busy. In the end I had two or three big problems and only found the guys very late.”

Pace says he had particular trouble filling the bow positions, while the wife of trimmer Herve Cunningham was sick and he had to stand down. Cunningham was only replaced last Friday by Lars Bergstrom. “I was very happy about that because he is a good trimmer and a very nice person,” says Pace of the new recruit. Pace had aimed to get a 100% French crew and managed this, with the exception of Bergstrom.

However Pace does have his full afterguard including tactician Philippe Presti, Mathieu Richard on strategy, Damien Iehl on traveller and with Erwan Israel navigating. The first three are all match racing skippers in their own right. “If we can keep this afterguard it would be great,” says Pace.

In Nice he has taken the roles of both skipper and helmsman, but this, Pace states, has been purely a short term decision, because he has more experience than the rest of his capable afterguard. “I am not fixed on that. We will see what happens and how it will be in the future.”

In the meantime he is trying to get his crew to work together as a team. “It is getting better and better each day and the atmosphere in the team is very positive. I think by the end we will be sailing much better than now, but we have been short of time.”

Pace says they are planning to compete in the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas in 2010. “Everyone is happy about that [these regattas]. It is very exciting to match race on these boats. The main thing is to equalise the boats. I think all the sailors are very happy to practice and do this kind of event, especially on big boats, because 17 people working together is never easy. It is a challenge for a team. But I am quite happy and we are working hard on communication and on the sailing plan, etc.”

At present though they are looking for funding to get them to next year’s Louis Vuitton Trophies. For Nice they have been sponsored by Page Jaune, the French version of ‘Yellow Pages’, but they came on board very late – just 10 days ago.

Flight 3

M1: TeamOrigin d. TFS – Pages Jaunes – Delta: 33 seconds

TeamOrigin and TFS – Pages Jaunes took split tacks onto the racecourse: TeamOrigin on starboard and TFS – Pages Jaunes on port. TeamOrigin won the first cross on port tack about halfway up the 1.3-nautical mile leg and then applied covering tactics on TFS – Pages Jaunes to the mark. TeamOrigin led at every mark rounding to move to 2-0 on the scoreboard while TFS – Pages Jaunes fell to 0-3.

M2: ALL4ONE d. Artemis – Delta: 28 seconds

This pair produced a proper match race, with covering tactics from the leading boat and attacking tactics from the trailing boat. In the end, the French/German team ALL4ONE scored its first win of the regatta in two matches in come-from-behind fashion. Artemis led the match around the first windward mark and through the leeward gate, where it chose to make a starboard rounding. That proved to be its undoing. ALL4ONE made a port rounding and took the lead as the mark was further upwind. ALL4ONE protected its starboard-tack advantage up the second beat, even dialing down Artemis at a crossing about three-quarters of the way up the leg.

It was the run to the finish that proved most exciting. Artemis trailed by 11 seconds at the windward mark and jibed to starboard soon after the rounding. It was the third convergence where the two were nearly bow-to-bow. Artemis had to jibe back to starboard to avoid fouling ALL4ONE, but hit a bad set of waves and the jibe went awry. The A2 spinnaker got twisted and ALL4ONE was able to open a three-boatlength lead, which it held to the finish. Both teams now stand at 1-1 on the scoreboard.

Flight 4

M1: BMW Oracle Racing d. ALL4ONE – Delta: 48 seconds

This match was the definition of irony for this regatta: BMW Oracle, sailing ALL4ONE’s FRA-93, defeated the combined French/German team. It was BMW Oracle’s first win of the regatta in two matches and ALL4ONE’s second loss in three matches.

Both crews started at the pin end of the line with BMW Oracle to leeward. ALL4ONE couldn’t live in BMWO’s dirty air and tacked away to port. At the first meeting BMW Oracle put a leebow tack on ALL4ONE, forcing the crew back to the right side. At the second meeting BMW Oracle was able to cross to the right. BMW Oracle opened its lead to nearly 100 metres proaching the windward mark, and was never threatened the rest of the match.

M2: Azzurra d. Artemis – Delta: 2:00

Paired in ITA-90 and ITA-99, this match was extremely close around most of the first lap. Artemis was penalised in the pre-start for failing to keep clear while Azzurra was pushing from behind. The two yachts started on starboard at the pin end, but Azzurra had the leeward position and Artemis had to tack away after clearing the start line. The pair engaged in a classic match race, trading tacks up the middle of the beat. Artemis was able to gain the lead at the top of the beat when it held starboard tack and rode Azzurra past the port-tack layline to the mark. On the last leebow tack Azzurra was deemed to have tacked too close and was penalized, offsetting Artemis’ penalty from the pre-start.

Both crews had clean hoists around the windward mark, but Azzurra had trouble lowering its genoa. The sail was up and robbing the A2 gennaker of wind for more than two minutes. Artemis was able to open its lead to 2 or 3 boatlengths, and then jibed to starboard. Artemis couldn’t jibe because it was still wrestling with the genoa. But that problem proved to be a saving grace.

Artemis, on starboard jibe, found a nice header but was too far to the left side of the racecourse (looking upwind). When it jibed back to port to approach the leeward gate, Azzurra was on the inside and jibed to port to cover. Azzurra led through the leeward gate by almost three boatlengths.

At the beginning of the second beat Artemis had two bad tacks and Azzurra opened a sizable lead that it maintained through to the finish.

Flight 5

M1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. Azzurra – Delta: 25 seconds

An anticipated match turned lacklustre when Azzurra was OCS at the start. The error was unforced on Italian skipper, Francesco Bruni, who had plenty of room to dip below the line to start properly. His resulting turn back allowed Team NZ to open a nearly 100-metre lead, which it extended throughout the match to extend its record to 4-0 at the top of the scoreboard.

M2: BMW Oracle Racing d. TFS – Pages Jaune – Delta: 44 seconds

BMW Oracle Racing won its second consecutive match over a French team. In Flight 4 BMW Oracle defeated ALL4ONE, the combined French/German team. In this match against skipper Bertrand Pacé, TFS – Pages Jaunes was penalised in the pre-start. The French led at the first windward mark by 7 seconds, but BMW Oracle took the lead on the run by rolling over the top of its opponent on starboard jibe. Pacé and crew kept the match close but had few opportunities to attack, and the delta became skewed when the French performed their 270-degree penalty turn on the finish line. BMW Oracle ran its record to 2-1 while TFS – Pages Jaunes remained winless in four matches.

Flight 6

M1: Artemis d. Synergy – Delta: 21 seconds

Artemis and Synergy took split tacks onto the racecourse with Artemis on starboard at the pin end and Synergy on port at the boat end. Artemis had a slim lead off the start line when, less than 3 minutes into the match, Synergy’s mainsail dumped. Crewmembers of the Russian yacht appeared to be running back towards the traveller area, but there was no confirmation on the cause of the problem. That mishap, however, allowed Artemis to open a two- to three-boatlength lead. The match stayed very close throughout, Synergy was just 9 seconds behind beginning the final leg, but skipper Karol Jablonski and crew never found an opportunity to pass. The win improved Artemis’s record to 2-2 while Synergy remained winless in three hard-luck matches.

M2: Team Origin d. ALL4ONE – Delta: 14 seconds

TeamOrigin helmsman Ben Ainslie took the game to his ALL4ONE counterpart Sebastien Col in the pre-start and came out smelling like roses. Ainslie crossed the start line at the gun while Col was left to tack to starboard off the stern of the committee boat. Ainslie opened the race with a four-boatlength lead, which was a critical margin given that the match was never separated by more than five lengths. ALL4ONE tried attacking on the first run, but TeamOrigin fended off every thrust, jab and parry. The deltas were 7 seconds at the first windward mark, 9 seconds at the leeward gate and 28 seconds at the second windward mark. It was an exciting race and perfect conclusion to the first full day of racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

A northerly wind this morning is producing cool temperatures of 9C (48F) in Nice as the wind blows cold air down from the snow capped Alpes-Maritimes. On the plus side the wind is between 8 and 10 knots and the sun is shining. Organisers are hoping for a active day of racing to pick up the pace get back towards schedule.

Flight 3

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. TeamOrigin

TFS – Pages Jaunes has sailed two races so far but remains winless. The crew put itself behind the eight ball on Sunday when it was OCS in its match against Artemis. TeamOrigin comes in with a 1-0 mark after having beaten Synergy on Saturday. This match could have fireworks in the pre-start because the respective helmsmen, Bertrand Pacé from TFS – Pages Jaunes and Ben Ainslie of TeamOrigin, know how to mix it up.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Artemis

ALL4ONE suffered an inglorious start to its regatta when it was forced to withdraw from Sunday’s match against Team New Zealand when the webbing holding the mainsail aloft failed. The crew had to retire because it couldn’t re-hoist the sail. Artemis won its first race on Sunday against TFS – Pages Jaunes. The crew features a number of personnel from the AmericaOne team of 2000, including skipper/strategist Paul Cayard, helmsman Terry Hutchinson, tactician Morgan Larson and navigator Kevin Hall.

Flight 4

M1: ALL4ONE vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

After taking on Artemis, ALL4ONE has to turn around and take on BMW Oracle Racing. The U.S. team comes in with a 0-1 mark after losing yesterday to Azzurra of Italy.

M2: Artemis vs. Azzurra

This match promises to be entertaining as the two teams look to be considered among the players at this regatta. Azzurra scored an emphatic win of nearly 3 minutes yesterday over BMW Oracle Racing. Skipper Francesco Bruni termed it an important win for the team, which was witnessed by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda commodore Riccardo Bonadero. The match will be the second of the day for Artemis, which entered the day at 1-0.

Flight 5

M1: Azzurra vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

Flight 6

M1: Azzurra vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

Tommaso Chieffi, as the tactician on Azzurra, tell us about the origins and ambitions of this new Italian team.

The team starts from the same basis as Italia, which was the team which raced at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland earlier this year. Francesco Bruni is the skipper, and most of the sailors are the same, and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda wants to revive the spirit from the first Italian challenge, called Azzurra, which took part in the Louis Vuitton Cup back in 1983.

It brings together the best sailors in Italy, all gathered together and competing in Nice, and eventually the other Louis Vuitton Trophy events next year. We don’t have budget or sponsorship yet, but the aim is to compete in all the Louis Vuitton events. We are very fortunate to be backed by two very strong entities, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the Joe Fly team, which belongs to Giovanni Maspero who is the sports director for Azzurra. This is a promising place to start from and a good place from which to mount a campaign for the America’s Cup.

With the exception of Emirates Team New Zealand, it doesn’t seem that one-nation teams have done very well in recent years. So do you think a team that is almost purely Italian can go on to be successful at the highest level?

Well, you never know until you try, and as Italians it’s true that we don’t have a very good reputation for being able to organise a team in every detail, and possibly on the technical side. But I personally do believe we have very strong sailors in Italy. So if you want eventually to participate in an America’s Cup it will be very difficult to put all the bits and pieces in place [in a purely Italian team], but yes, I do think there are advantages in being all Italian. Speaking Italian on board the boat is much more straightforward for us.

But you know, only time will tell. The team finished 4th in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, so that was a decent start, I would say. Putting the whole package together could be more difficult, but for the time being this is a good place to start. We enjoy coming to Nice, we enjoy the Cote d’Azur and if we can get a decent result here then we will move on from there.

Italy’s Azzurra of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda won today its first match of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur while Emirates Team New Zealand survived a hair-raising finish to keep its record perfect.

Azzurra scored the victory it was denied on Saturday when it defeated BMW ORACLE Racing of the U.S. Two days ago the Italian crew, led by skipper Francesco Bruni, was 200 metres from the finish line when the 20-minute leg time limit expired.

Today, the Italians scored an emphatic win of 2 minutes and 56 seconds to the pleasure of YCCS Commodore Riccardo Bonadero, who rode with his team as 18th man, and displeasure of BMW Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who was among his team’s afterguard.

“The team did a very good job all over the course,” said Bruni, the skipper from Sicily. “We didn’t feel robbed Saturday; we understand rules are rules. We wished the race committee had shortened the course, but we’re all learning. We are very happy about this point, it was very important for us.”

The two crews took split tacks onto the racecourse with BMW Oracle on starboard and Azzurra on port. Each crew got the side it wanted, but the wind shifted to the right and gave the Italians an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish.

“They got the first good shift and we were behind from there,” said BMW Oracle strategist Cameron Dunn of Australia. “We were happy coming off the line where we were, but the conditions were changing very quickly. When we came back at them the wind shifted right and they were wound up to layline. From there it was a soldier’s course, marching along. They sailed very well, so good on them.”

Emirates Team New Zealand entered its match against Russia’s Synergy Team with a perfect 2-0 mark while Synergy was 0-1. For a while it appeared that each team’s zero would be wiped from its scoreline. In the end this turned out to be the most exciting match of the regatta still in its early days.

Synergy led Team New Zealand by four to five boatlengths within 10 lengths of the finish line in very light and shifty winds. Then the Kiwis found a private puff and rolled over the top of the Russian team, which was dead in the water, and won by 22 seconds.

The Kiwis kept their record perfect at 3-0 and Synergy dropped to 0-2. The loss was crushing for Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski of Poland, who rallied his crew to lead the match after being over early at the start.

“Yeah it hurts,” said Jablonski, a match race world champion and three-time DN Ice Boat world champion. “I knew it was going to be tough to the finish because I could see the finish line and there was no wind at it. Everything can happen in one puff. We couldn’t do anything.”

The Kiwis kept their heads down and persevered. After rolling Synergy the spinnaker blew back into the rig, so the crew dropped it on deck and crossed the finish line without a headsail.

“We’ll take the point, but it’s not the kind of conditions we want to sail in,” said Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand skipper. “We worked hard to get back at them. They would gain, then we would take back some of it, but it looked like there was no way around them.”

The two matches were the only ones completed as regatta organizers were once again frustrated by very light and shifty winds. Racing for the day was postponed at 1430 CET when the Bay of Angels was calm. Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio holds out the hope that tomorrow he can complete four flights, or eight races.

“If the breeze cooperates we can do four flights; that’s not an issue,” said Reggio. “We’re starting to see the sun shine now and we haven’t had that all weekend. We’re hoping the sun will do its work and make the area come true to form with a northerly in morning and southeasterly in afternoon.”

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 3

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. TeamOrigin

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Artemis

Flight 4

M1: ALL4ONE vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

M2: Artemis vs. Azzurra

Flight 5

M1: Azzurra vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

Flight 6

M1: Artemis vs. Synergy

M2: ALL4ONE vs. TeamOrigin

Today, Virtual Eye added a new dimension to its coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur: live audio commentary from the raceboats. Guest audio commentator Ross Blackman of New Zealand rode as 18th man aboard Emirates Team New Zealand and provided live commentary to the virtual broadcast.

“This is why yachting lends itself so well to technology,” said Ian Taylor, the Executive Producer of New Zealand-based Animation Research, Ltd.. “With animation you can tell the story of how the race is progressing. Now, with live onboard commentary, the event can tell its own story.”

Play-by-play analysis is being provided by America’s Cup veteran Peter Lester of New Zealand, who’s in a studio watching the feed from off the water. The addition of Blackman’s onboard commentary takes viewers into the boat-on-boat action.

Blackman’s commentary added great insight during Team New Zealand’s match against Russia Synergy this morning, easily the most exciting match of the young regatta. The match featured an OCS and four lead changes, including one just 10 lengths from the finish when Team New Zealand rolled Synergy in its own private puff.

It also featured huge windshifts, which Blackman was able to talk viewers through as they happened.

“It was unbelievable. It was hero to zero and zero to hero,” said Blackman. “One of the hardest things is giving a description of the action and not your opinion. You can’t hear the skipper and tactician and strategist talking, but you can see the instruments. So you can relate the live wind conditions. As a viewer that’s the sort of stuff you don’t normally get.”

Blackman’s commentary is being fed to the production studio via cellphone, and Taylor is quick to credit Louis Vuitton for allowing them to push the boundaries of live coverage. The coverage has been well received in the far reaches of the world.

“The event sets a significant new benchmark in sailing with the first ever web broadcast using a mix of Virtual Eye and video, backed up with a superb commentary from Peter Lester and various media guests,” said Richard Gladwell, Editor of the Sail-World web site in New Zealand.

“While we are used to seeing this quality of broadcast on television, this standard is a first on the web, and one that runs without the usual stuttering reception that has been the bane of web broadcasting to date,” Gladwell said.

Taylor is so convinced that yachting is the perfect event for virtual broadcasts that he plans to present a paper at the World Yacht Racing Forum next month in Monaco stressing this point. He wants to see the rules relaxed to allow onboard commentary or microphones on the crewmembers to augment the virtual animation.

“In Formula 1 racing we can listen to Lewis Hamilton talking to his pit boss while going through a turn at 300 kilometers an hour and admire his skill in doing both things,” Taylor said. “In sailing, we’d like to listen to the crewman up the mast. That’s dangerous up there. He’s more than 30 metres off the water. But what’s he saying to the skipper? We want to know, and so do our viewers. If yachting is going to gather an audience, it’s got to wire the guys onboard.”

Flight 1

M1: Azzurra d. BMW ORACLE Racing – Delta: 2m:56s

Azzurra scored the victory it was denied on Saturday when it defeated BMW Oracle Racing. The crews took split tacks off the start line, with Azzurra heading right and BMW Oracle sailing to the left. Azzurra tacked to starboard on the right side of the course and into a lift. The Italian crew, led by skipper Francesco Bruni, won the first cross by about two boatlengths and never looked back.

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand d. Synergy – Delta: 25 seconds

This match easily was the most exciting of the regatta that is still in its early days. It featured an OCS and four lead changes in winds that shifted as much as 90 degrees and ranged in strength between 0 and 9 knots. In the end, Team New Zealand extended its winning streak to three races, but only due to the grace of a private puff in the final stages of the match.

Synergy seemed destined to claim its first win in two races. After being OCS at the start, Synergy passed the Kiwis on the first upwind leg and led around the first lap. The wind shifted around to the east/northeast on the first run, but Synergy was able to maintain its lead on the second upwind leg by being to the right of the Kiwis.

The Russian crew, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, kept its lead more than three-quarters of the way down the run to the finish but then sailed into a “wall.” Team New Zealand still seemed done, but skipper Dean Barker and crew found a saving puff about 10 boatlengths from the finish line and sailed over the top of the Russian yacht, which was dead in the water. Less than two lengths from the finish the Kiwis’ spinnaker blew back into the rig, so the crew dropped the sail on deck and shot the finish line without a headsail.

The third day of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur has an aggressive slate of matches planned as the race committee hopes to get back on schedule.

Light and shifty winds frustrated the regatta on its opening weekend and allowed the completion of just four matches. Eight matches are planned today.

Aiding the effort is the return of the two Italian yachts ITA-90 and ITA-99. They were out of service over the weekend as damage to ITA-99 from a practice accident on Friday was repaired.

Racing is scheduled to begin at 0900 CET. The wind this morning is light from the north, and is forecast to shift to an onshore flow in the afternoon.

Flight 1

M1: Azzurra vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

This is a re-sail of the match that was abandoned on Saturday due to time limit constraints. Azzurra held a substantial lead over BMW Oracle Racing and was 200 metres from the finish line with the 20-minute leg time limit expired. Today, the crews square off in the same yachts they drew for that match; Azzurra aboard GBR-75 and BMW Oracle on FRA-93. To sweeten the story line, BMW Oracle Racing founder Larry Ellison is expected to be aboard. This will be the first race for both crews at the regatta.

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. Synergy

Emirates Team New Zealand holds the early lead at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur with 2 points on a 2-0 record. The Kiwis are the only crew to have completed two races. Synergy lost its first race on Saturday against TeamOrigin mostly because it was penalised in the pre-start for failing to respond to a luff from the British.

Flight 3

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. TeamOrigin

TFS – Pages Jaunes has sailed two races so far but remains winless. The crew put itself behind the eight ball yesterday when it was OCS in its match against Artemis. TeamOrigin comes in with a 1-0 mark after having beaten Synergy on Saturday. This match could have fireworks in the pre-start because the respective helmsmen, Bertrand Pacé from TFS – Pages Jaunes and Ben Ainslie of TeamOrigin, know how to mix it up.

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Artemis

ALL4ONE suffered an inglorious start to its regatta when it was forced to withdraw from yesterday’s match against Team New Zealand when the webbing holding the mainsail aloft failed. The crew had to retire because it couldn’t re-hoist the sail. Artemis won its first race yesterday against TFS – Pages Jaunes. The crew features a number of personnel from the AmericaOne team of 2000, including skipper/strategist Paul Cayard, helmsman Terry Hutchinson, tactician Morgan Larson and navigator Kevin Hall.

Other matches scheduled include

Flight 4

M1: ALL4ONE vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

M2: Artemis vs. Azzurra

Flight 5

M1: Azzurra vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

By virtue of its second win in as many races Emirates Team New Zealand today grabbed the early lead at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.

Team New Zealand leads overall with 2 points. Sweden’s Artemis and Great Britain’s TeamOrigin each have 1 point on 1-0 records.

Led by skipper Dean Barker, the venerable Team New Zealand defeated ALL4ONE in today’s first match. The combined French/German team, led by skipper and strategist Jochen Schümann of Germany, was forced to withdraw at the beginning of the second upwind leg when the webbing holding the mainsail aloft failed. Team New Zealand finished the race uncontested to score the point.

“We rounded the bottom mark and straight after the webbing on the mainsail broke,” said Spaniard Jordi Calafat, who mans the traveller for ALL4ONE. “I went up the rig hoping to fix it, but here was nothing to do. It’s very disappointing.”

The day’s second match, between Sweden’s Artemis and TFS – Pages Jaunes was similarly one-sided.

TFS – Pages Jaunes skipper Bertrand Pacé gifted an early lead to Artemis, led by Americans Paul Cayard (strategist) and Terry Hutchinson (helmsman), when he had to restart after being on the course side at the start gun.

TFS – Pages Jaunes then sailed into a windless hole on the left side of the first leg. The crew’s boatspeed dropped to 6 knots while Artemis sailed away at 9 knots. Artemis led by 75 seconds at the first mark and was never threatened over the next three legs. The nascent team won by 2 minutes, 17 seconds.

“It’s the first time we all sailed together as a crew,” said Cayard. “But Terry, myself, Morgan (Larson, tactician) and Kevin (Hall, navigator) all raced together with AmericaOne in 2000. We’re in different roles here and just getting used to each other.”

Aside from the three leaders, none of the other five teams has scored a point at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. Two teams, Azzurra and BMW ORACLE Racing, haven’t completed a match yet while the three others, ALL4ONE (0-1), Synergy (0-1) and TFS – Pages Jaunes (0-2), are winless.

“We are a new crew, there are a lot of guys onboard new to these boats,” said Mathieu Richard, strategist for TFS – Pages Jaunes. “We made a mistake at the start today when we tacked to port in the pre-start. We were too close to the committee boat and had to luff up to avoid it. But it was not anchored and it was hard to judge where it was.”

The racing schedule has been thrown into disarray due to the unsettled weather pattern. Once again today, a light offshore wind in the morning succumbed to an onshore flow in the afternoon. But the afternoon breeze never built strong enough to allow for racing and, like yesterday, only two matches were completed.

“The conditions are tricky because the wind has been so light,” said Ray Davies, the tactician for Emirates Team New Zealand. “This can be a very variable place. With the potential for the mistral wind on either side, it creates very different conditions. But it’s what we expected.”

Event organisers hope to get back on schedule tomorrow with eight matches planned. The effort will be aided by the return of ITA-90 and ITA-99, the yachts on loan from Mascalzone Latino. ITA-99 was damaged in a practise accident last Friday, which put the pair out of commission for the weekend. But ITA-99 is now repaired, so tomorrow’s racing will have four boats on the water.

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 1

M1: Azzurra vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

M2: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. Synergy

Flight 3

M1: TFS – Pages Jaunes vs. TeamOrigin

M2: ALL4ONE vs. Artemis

Flight 4

M1: ALL4ONE vs. BMW ORACLE Racing

M2: Artemis vs. Azzurra

Flight 5

M1: Azzurra vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

M2: BMW ORACLE Racing vs. TFS – Pages Jaunes

(Note: Flight 2 has been completed)

Match 1: Emirates Team New Zealand d. ALL4ONE by DNF

Emirates Team New Zealand picked up its second win in as many matches when ALL4ONE was forced to drop out of this morning’s first match. After rounding the leeward gate ALL4ONE’s mainsail fell when the webbing holding the head of the sail to the halyard lock failed. The boom caused superficial damage to the starboard side steering wheel when it fell on it. Team New Zealand had led the match from the start and was approximately 40 seconds ahead at the leeward gate moments before the mishap. Team New Zealand completed the course unchallenged and upped its score to 2-0.

Match 2: Artemis d. Team Pages Jaunes, 2m:17s

The Swedish team Artemis, led by Americans Paul Cayard (skipper) and Terry Hutchinson (helmsman), scored its first point of the regatta by a comfortable margin. Team Pages Jaunes (née Team French Spirit), skippered by veteran Bertrand Pacé made it easy for Artemis by being OCS at the start. Later on the first beat Team Pages Jaunes sailed into a massive hole on the left side of the racecourse and was making only 5 to 6 knots boatspeed while Artemis was sailing at 9 knots. The Swedish-flagged team quickly increased its lead to more than 300 metres and was never threatened again.

The first match sees ALL4ONE taking on Emirates Team New Zealand. Team New Zealand, led by skipper Dean Barker, won its first match of the series yesterday when it defeated TFS – Pages Jaunes. ALL4ONE, the combined French/German team led by skipper Jochen Schuemann and helmsman Seb Col, is racing its first match. Team New Zealand picked GBR-75 as its stead while ALL4ONE has the starboard advantage entering the start box.

Match 2 pits Artemis against TFS. Artemis, with Americans Paul Cayard and Terry Hutchinson in the afterguard, didn’t race yesterday while TFS and skipper Bertrand Pace look to rebound from a 1 minute, 36 second loss. Artemis will race in GBR-75 while TFS will enter the start box on starboard tack.

Match 3 has BMW ORACLE Racing going against Russia Synergy. BMW Oracle Racing is being helmed by Gavin Brady of New Zealand, who’s filling in for team CEO and skipper Russell Coutts until he returns on Monday. Russia Synergy helmsman Karol Jablonski looks to shake off the rust shown yesterday in his debut. He was penalized in his first pre-start action since the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia, Spain. Synergy will race GBR-75 while BMW Oracle enters on starboard tack.

Match 4 might be the most intriguing of the day with TeamOrigin taking on Azzurra of Italy. TeamOrigin and skipper Ben Ainslie opened the series yesterday with a victory, while Azzurra was denied a victory. The Italians and skipper Francesco Bruni sailed a masterful race against BMW Oracle only to have the 20-minute leg time limit expire on them 200 metres from the finish. Azzurra gets to sail GBR-75 while TeamOrigin will have the starboard advantage.

The wind conditions are forecast to be light and shifty again. An offshore flow in the morning will give way to an onshore flow in the afternoon, with the strength forecast no more than 8 knots.

Half of the opening day’s scheduled matches at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur were completed in conditions that challenged race officials and tended to favour the leading yachts.

Emirates Team New Zealand and TeamOrigin share the top spot on the leaderboard after scoring triumphs in light and shifty winds. Team New Zealand defeated TFS – Pages Jaunes by 59 seconds and TeamOrigin won by 1 minute, 36 seconds over Russia Synergy.

The wind was light and shifty all day as an offshore breeze battled a gradient wind. It ranged in strength between 3 and 10 knots while shifting between the southwest and north/northwest.

Match 1: TeamOrigin d. Russia Synergy, 59 seconds

The key moment in the match came in the pre-start when TeamOrigin helmsman Ben Ainslie drew a penalty on Russia Synergy helmsman Karol Jablonski. Russia Synergy was penalized for not responding to a luff from TeamOrigin when both boats were overlapped. The on-water umpires made it a red-flag penalty because Russia Synergy got a controlling position from the incident. Russia Synergy had to perform its 270-degree penalty turn once on the racecourse, which allowed TeamOrigin to gain control of the match. TeamOrigin stretched its lead to more than 4 minutes at the third mark rounding and then had to sweat out the victory due to a 60-degree windshift near the finish.

Match 2: Emirates Team New Zealand d. TFS – Pages Jaunes, 1m:36s

A spirited pre-start resulted in a split tack start with Emirates Team New Zealand starting on starboard tack and TFS – Pages Jaunes on port tack. Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker held control of the match throughout, rarely giving his counterpart on TFS – Pages Jaunes, Bertrand Pacé, a chance to come back. Team New Zealand’s biggest lead was 1 minute, 39 seconds at the leeward gate.

Quotes

Mike Sanderson, TeamOrigin, General Manager

It got a little tense at the end. It was a little bit worrying because it got as light as 3 knots and we saw a 60-degree wind shift. It’s going to be a big part of this event, who can wriggle their way through those situations. Ben (Ainslie, skipper) did a nice job off the start line, getting the red-flag penalty. The rule’s pretty clear that they have to get out of there when we luff. They were lucky not to get two.

Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand, Skipper

It was a very hard day. Adam (Beashel, strategist) was up the rig and having difficulty assessing which side was better. It was difficult because the wind never established a gradient flow. We preferred the left initially, then wanted the right but there was no clear pattern. We had 6 to 7 knots at the start. It was down to 3 to 4 knots at times and up to 8 to 9 knots. I think we were always in control, but it’s hard to close races out when you sail in those conditions.

Tomorrow’s schedule

Racing tomorrow begins with the combined French/German team ALL4ONE taking on Emirates Team New Zealand. Other scheduled matches include Artemis versus TFS – Pages Jaunes, BMW ORACLE Racing versus Russia Synergy and TeamOrigin versus Azzurra.

After a very respectable 5th place at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland earlier this year, Team Origin’s Team Director Mike Sanderson is looking forward to showing the world that Team Origin is ready to take on anybody. “We’ve got a great bunch of guys here, all of a similar age. One of the huge appeals of joining this campaign is there is this group of British guys who have earned the right to be on a very good America’s Cup team. Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson - these guys are capable of stepping up at a critical time. That’s what I love about these guys - their determination to succeed. They have been there before, in the Olympics, especially with the Medal Race format. They can pull results out of situations when it really matters, when the pressure is on. That’s an exciting aspect of Team Origin.”

Although racing around in small singlehanded or doublehanded plastic boats might seem a million miles from racing multi-million dollar 80ft AC yachts, Sanderson says the Olympic experience is absolutely relevant. Between them, Ainslie, Percy and Simpson have six Olympic gold medals, and Sanderson has nothing but respect for his young afterguard. “It’s incredibly hard to win an Olympic medal - it’s about preparation, fitness, all the same aspects as you need to win the America’s Cup or the Volvo Ocean Race.

“Just as in the America’s Cup, you have to get all the pieces in place and Ben and Iain would agree with that, even to the point where there’s a lot of development in sails and masts and appendages. In the old days you might buy the best boat available for the Olympics, now these guys are developing - with the manufacturer - the best possible boat they can build. So that aspect is very similar to the America’s Cup. Everything they’ve done is very relevant.

“The other important ingredient is that Ben, Iain and Andrew are very, very good friends, and they’ve raced against or together with each other for 20 years. You can see that chemistry when you’re on the back of the boat. I certainly believe that’s a strength when it comes to pressure situations in the America’s Cup.” The history of Louis Vuitton Cups and America’s Cup is littered with teams which didn’t get along, and their performance suffered accordingly. Sanderson believes no such politics will cloud the back of the Origin boat.  

“The friendship between these guys, it’s a huge advantage. The guys are happy to live together, to live out of each other’s pockets, which is what you have to do at events like this. They have a lot of respect for each other, they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and they help each other at training, they go out to dinner with each other. For me that side is huge. If you’re that comfortable with each other’s company, the chances of you all singing the same song on race day are higher, and the chances of success have to be higher.”

Match 2 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur sees old teammates Dean Barker of Emirates Team New Zealand and Bertrand Pace of TFS – Pages Jaunes squaring off. Barker and Pacé were teammates in Team New Zealand’s defence of the America’s Cup in 2003.

The skippers led their teams onto the racecourse on opposite tacks. Barker took starboard off the line while Pacé was on port.

The racecourse for this match has been set on an axis of 240 degrees and the distance to the windward mark is 1.4 nautical miles from the start line. The wind is blowing between 8 and 10 knots and is forecast to build to 15 knots through the afternoon.

POSTED: 1148 CET

Emirates Team New Zealand led TFS - Pages Jaunes by 40 seconds at the first windward mark of Match 2. The wind was around 8 knots and the sea calm on the Bay of Angels.

An 8-knot north/northwesterly was blowing on the Baie des Anges, or Bay of Angels, this morning close to shore, but farther offshore the wind was more from the southwest. The forecast has it increasing this afternoon to 16 knots from the southwest.

The first match this morning sees TeamOrigin and its golden skipper Ben Ainslie taking on Russia Synergy, a new team to AC class racing. Ainslie has won three gold medals in the Olympics and is a formidable foe for Russia Synergy, which is led by Poland’s Karol Jablonski as skipper. Jablonski is no slouch, however, having won the match racing world championship and three DN Ice Boat Gold Cup championships.

Synergy will race GBR-75 while TeamOrigin is aboard FRA-93 and enters the start box from the starboard end.

The scheduled 0900 warning signal was postponed for 10 minutes when the clew ring on TeamOrigin’s A2 headsail pulled off. The sail was replaced and a new warning signal was scheduled for 0910.

POSTED: 0940 CET

TeamOrigin led Synergy at the first windward mark by 46 seconds. Synergy started at the pin end of the start line, but had to perform an 270-degree penalty turn after entering the racecourse due to a red flag penalty in the pre-start. A red flag means the penalty must be completed at the soonest possible moment. Lacking a red flag, the penalty may be completed at any time prior to finishing.

POSTED: 1000 CET

TeamOrigin sailed as much as a knot faster on the first run of its match against Russia Synergy and has opened a comfortable advantage at the leeward gate. Russia Synergy trailed by 2:04 at the gate, a loss of more than 1 minute on the 2-mile run.

POSTED: 1018 CET

TeamOrigin kept its foot on the throat of Russia Synergy up the second beat and increased its lead to 4:06 at the second windward mark. The wind has faded to about 5 knots from the north/northwest. The two crews are on the run to the finish.

POSTED: 1033 CET

With the Bay of Angels virtually calm skipper Ben Ainslie led TeamOrigin across the finish line at 1026.32 to win Match 1 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d'Azur. Russia Synergy finished 1:03 behind. Synergy made a big gain on the final run due to a windshift, but was too far behind to overcome the 4-minute deficit at the last windward mark.

The next scheduled match is Emirates Team New Zealand versus TFS -- Pages Jaunes, but it is currently under postponement. The wind on the Bay of Angels has died away to almost nothing. The forecast calls for the wind to build up to 15 knots from the southwest this afternoon.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, the inaugural event of the World Sailing Teams Association, is scheduled to begin tomorrow with four matches featuring all eight teams planned on the Baie de Anges, or Bay of Angels, off Nice.

Match 1 pits England’s TeamOrigin versus start-up Russia Synergy with the warning signal scheduled for 0900.

TeamOrigin features four-time Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie as skipper and helmsman and three-time medallist Iain Percy as tactician. The team is loaded with experience and placed fifth at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series last February in New Zealand.

“We started well at that event but had our issues at the end,” said Ainslie. “The format here is different from in New Zealand since the home team doesn’t advance to the final, so every race counts. We’ll have to be wide awake tomorrow morning.”

Synergy is a new team from a country, Russia, not known for its expertise in professional sailing. But the team has valued experience on the helm in Karol Jablonski of Poland and tactician Rod Dawson of New Zealand.

Jablonski led Spain’s Desafio Español to a third-place finish at the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup while Dawson has won a plethora of match race regattas. Still, Synergy has its work cut out in its first appearance in America’s Cup sloops.

“It will be a great day for everyone. It’s the first time Russia sails such a boat,” said Synergy general manager Maxim Logutenko. “We don’t think about the results tomorrow. It’s sport and we’ll try to beat them, but we don’t worry about the results. It’s a big day for Russia sailing.”

Synergy got a break at tonight’s draw for boats when it selected GBR-75 over FRA-93. GBR-75 was the preferred yacht for every team that got to choose. TeamOrigin, however, will enter the start box on the favoured starboard tack.

The wind tomorrow is expected to blow up to 15 knots in the morning before increasing to 25 knots or more in the afternoon. That might put an early halt to racing as the organisers are concerned with the sea state and the damage the AC sloops could incur from shock loading.

Other races scheduled tomorrow pit Emirates Team New Zealand against TFS – Pages Jaunes in Match 2 and ALL4ONE against Artemis in Match 4.

Match 3 features BMW ORACLE Racing of the U.S. against Azzurra of Italy. BMW Oracle Racing is a founding member of the WSTA and a well-known brand in professional racing.

The Azzurra team enjoyed prominence in 1983 when it was the first Italian syndicate to compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup. Now it has a new skipper and helmsman in Francesco Bruni, the 27th ranked match-racer on the ISAF Open Match Race Rankings list issued 28 Oct., 2009. Bruni has the unenviable task of taking on the mighty BMW Oracle team.

“We have a double responsibility: to carry the Azzurra name and to take the fight to BMW Oracle,” said Bruni, from Palermo, Sicily. “We are very calm about our match tomorrow. We feel our training has gone well and we are comfortable with the manoeuvres. We feel we can face anyone and are happy to take on BMW Oracle.”

Azzurra will race GBR-75 while BMW Oracle, which will be helmed by Gavin Brady of New Zealand, will enter the start box at the starboard end.

The event schedule was thrown into flux this morning when ITA-99, one of two sloops on loan from Italy’s Mascalzone Latino team, was damaged during practice on the Bay of Angels.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, but these crews always push at the highest limits,” said Bruno Troublé, spokesperson for the WSTA. “Even in practice, they’re always trying to gain an edge. We’re confident that the boat can be repaired and will return to racing soon.”

The combined French/German team ALL4ONE was sailing ITA-99 when it clipped the transom of the race committee boat. The mishap put a two-meter cut in the starboard side of the hull.

Twenty members of the Mascalzone shore team are on site and some have been working on the repair all day. The yacht could return to action as soon as Monday.

“It’s a practise accident, which is not good, we’re trying to make every effort to fix it,” said Jochen Schuemann, ALL4ONE skipper. “There is a cut on the outer skin. It is a big cut but should be possible to fix.”

Jochen Schumann, as the skipper of a brand new sailing team, tell us about the thinking behind the ALL4ONE Sailing Team.

We formed a new team by joining forces with K Challenge and the German Team, and it’s interesting to bring Europe’s two biggest nations together. There are some experiences in industry and politics where these two nations are making things happen in the European Union, and now this is a chance to do something on the sports side.

Culturally are you close enough to be able to make it work between the two teams that formed ALL4ONE ?

That’s a good question. I think there are enough similarities between our cultures. We are also an international team, I think we have seven nationalities on the team at the moment, but our roots are French and German. For example we have Swiss, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and a Kiwi with John Cutler.

When two teams come together to form one, there has to be a compromise, so how are you achieving that?

It’s a struggle for all the teams here, with the ongoing court case in the America’s Cup, and that’s why the Louis Vuitton Trophy is such an important event - to enable the teams to come back and train for, to sail together, a professional sailing event to focus on.

So, for a new team it’s good to have a competition to get your teeth into?

The week’s practice in Valencia and the week we’ve had training here, it means nothing compared with competing in a sporting competition. I think our team is fresh and prepared, but still unprepared. Two weeks is nothing, and we are nowhere near at the level we want to be, but that’s how it is when you start again. Our aim is to finish in the top four and that means that we’ll have to beat some of the other strong teams here.

How do you cope with sailing other people’s boats? You are known to be a perfectionist as a sailor.

That’s true, and sailing another team’s boat is not a perfect scenario, but the racing format at this event provides a cheap way to get the teams out racing on a level playing field. The funny situation is we have boats that we’ve sailed here before. We’ve been practising on the old SUI-75 which I did many years sailing on [when Schumann was part of Alinghi] and there is another boat here which is very similar to that boat [ITA-99], and it will also be interesting to sail the French boat [FRA-93] and the older Mascalzone boat [ITA-90]. The shore crew have done an excellent job to bring the boats here and have been spending a lot of time and work getting the boats ready for this.

How will you measure success at this regatta?

For the team, top four in the racing, but for the event, to have exciting media coverage and to have exciting racing between the teams. This is just the first of many Louis Vuitton Trophy events that we are looking forward to competing in during the next year.

The two teams were meant to practice this afternoon, but strong winds postponed the session. Instead, the trio began discussing how to get the most out of tomorrow morning’s session because the wind is forecast to build again tomorrow afternoon.

“We want to put the sails up, go upwind for a bit, then sail back downwind and meet you for some pre-start practice and racing,” said Schümann, the new skipper of the former K-Challenge team.

“We’d be willing to get right into it,” said the ever-aggressive Hutchinson.

Such is the air of openness and cooperation at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur. There are no boundaries at this match race regatta. The teams are here to race with the only agenda being victory.

“This event has value,” Hutchinson said. “The teams just want to go sailing.”

Sailing, however, has been problematic. Practice sessions were scheduled every morning and afternoon this week, but the wind and the sea state build quickly on the Bay of Angels off Nice. And it’s the sea state that has organizers most concerned with regards to shock loading the America’s Cup sloops.

“We’re trying to make the boats as even and reliable as we can make them,” said Laurent Esquier, CEO of the World Sailing Teams Association for the Nice event. “We have 40 shore crew here to work on the boats and sails, but the less damage the better.”

The draw for boats and ends of the starting line will take place tomorrow evening at an opening ceremony at the Nice Opera House, and is expected to be attended by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who also holds the titles of president of the region Nice Côte d’Azur and minister of industry for France.

The first warning signal is scheduled for 0900 on Saturday.

In a ceremony this evening buffeted by strong winds Benoit Kandel, the deputy mayor of Nice, handed over a slew of bikes to the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, represented by Bruno Troublé, at the race village at the Port of Nice.

Joining Kandel and Troublé at the ceremony was Miss Côte d’Azur, Anais Governatori, as well as members of the sailing teams participating in the match race regatta that is scheduled to begin Saturday and run through 22 November.

The City of Nice has provided 200 bicycles to the event for use by the sailors and event staff. Kandel thanked the teams for coming to Nice, which is hoping to gain prominence on the international yachting calendar. In September the IMOCA 60s made Nice a stopover in a race that originated in Turkey and finished in Brest, France.

“Louis Vuitton has a long history with the city of Nice,” said Troublé, who has organized the Louis Vuitton Cup, the Challenger Selection Series for the America’s Cup, since 1983. “Louis Vuitton opened its first store in Nice in 1908 and is very proud to host this event here in this wonderful town.”

Today also marked the opening of the International Media Center, which can accommodate journalists in four different languages; English, French, Italian and Russian.

Practice sessions today were cancelled due to the strong winds from the west/west-northwest that blew between 20 and 25 knots. Organizers are concerned with the sea state such winds generate, which can create huge shock loads on the America’s Cup sloops.

Although the 2009 sailing calendar is drawing to a close the action on the Mediterranean Sea will be heated over the coming weeks during the inaugural Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, slated to begin Saturday, 7 November.

The eight teams entered in the match race regatta have been practicing this week while tents and scaffolding were being erected in the race village at the Port of Nice. A giant TV screen is in place so that spectators can watch the waterborne action from the shoreside.

While some of the teams will be familiar to race fans the sailors will be even more familiar. World and Olympic champions such as Ben Ainslie (TeamOrigin), Dean Barker (Emirates Team New Zealand), Paul Cayard (Artemis), Tommaso Chieffi (Azzurra), Russell Coutts (BMW ORACLE Racing), Karol Jablonski (Synergy), Bertrand Pacé (French Spirit) and Jochen Schümann (ALL4ONE) are skipper and/or helmsman of their respective teams.

Suffice to say they’re among the best of the best. Barker, Cayard, Chieffi, Coutts and Schümann are all past winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the trophy awarded to the winner of the Challenger Selection Series for the America’s Cup.

“Artemis is looking forward to competing against the best teams in sailing in Nice over the next two weeks,” said Artemis skipper Cayard, who won the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1992 and was a finalist in 2000. “We are a new team but we are keen competitors. We’ll see.”

Inaugural event of the WSTA

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur is the inaugural event of the World Sailing Teams Association. Founded in September, the WSTA is a group of professional sailing teams that have banded together in an effort to create consistent exposure.

“Basically it has been an achievement to organise such an event in such a short time frame,” said Stephane Kandler, head of the ALL4ONE syndicate (née K-Challenge), a founding member of the WSTA and the host team for the regatta.

“The venue looks very good, very international,” Kandler continued. “We’re hoping for good weather conditions. Everything is very positive despite the fact it was completed in a short time frame. It will be a great event.”

Joining ALL4ONE are Artemis (SWE), Azzurra (ITA), BMW ORACLE Racing (USA), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS), Team French Spirit (FRA) and TeamOrigin (GBR).

Four yachts in play

The WSTA event is designed to be a cost-effective format for the teams. They do not bring their boats to the event. Rather, the four boats being used in Nice are on loan from three teams: ALL4ONE (FRA-93), Mascalzone Latino (ITA-90, ITA-99) and TeamOrigin (GBR-75). The boats have been equalised as much as possible to create a level playing field that will test the sailors’ skill more than their boat’s speed.

“We’ve mainly had to re-cut the mainsails and headsails,” said Laurent Esquier, chief executive of the WSTA for the event in Nice and a past manager of multiple America’s Cup syndicates. “We’re concerned each pair is as even as possible.”

In a move harkening to the Louis Vuitton Acts of 2005, the boats sit in their cradles without skirts shrouding the keels. Spectators quickly notice the lack of wings on the ballast bulbs. The wings add efficiency to the yacht’s performance, but have been discarded for the racing.

“The mainsails have been cut down so we don’t need the wings,” said Esquier. “It makes the yachts more affordable to maintain and less prone to damage.”

Two rounds robin are planned beginning Saturday before the fleet is split into groups for the semifinal and consolation racing. The final is scheduled 21-22 November.

The official event Web site is live at www.LouisVuittonTrophy.com. Follow the site for live tracking of race, video and audio reports and daily updates. The Web site can also be viewed through your mobile phone.

Mascalzone’s black-hulled ITA-90 and ITA-99 arrived on a cargo ship in their cradles and with masts stepped.

The two black-hulled America’s Cup Class yachts join ALL4ONE’s FRA-93 and TeamOrigin’s GBR-75 as the four yachts for the upcoming match racing regatta, scheduled Nov. 7-22. FRA-93 and GBR-75 were towed to Nice last week.

Eight teams are entered in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur, the inaugural event of the World Sailing Teams Association. They’ll sail a two-week regatta consisting of a round robin, knockout round, semifinals and final.

The teams include ALL4ONE (nee K-Challenge), Azzurra (from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda), BMW Oracle Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, Swedish Challenge Artemis, Synergy Russian Sailing Team, TeamOrigin and Team French Spirit.

Last week the Synergy Russian Sailing Team and Azzurra of Italy’s Yacht Club Costa Smeralda had a familiarization session using boats belonging to Sweden’s Victory Challenge, while ALL4ONE sea-trialled with its FRA-93.

Yesterday afternoon two of the boats, GBR-75 (provided by TeamOrigin) and FRA-93 (provided by ALL4ONE, previously known as K-Challenge) arrived here under tow after a journey of more than 400 nautical miles along the Mediterranean coast from Valencia, Spain.

“It’s great to see the first two boats here in Nice,” said Laurent Esquier, the CEO of the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) that, in partnership with Louis Vuitton and the Club Nautique de Nice, is organizing the regatta.

The other two boats, ITA-90 and ITA-99, supplied by the Mascalzone Latino team of Italy (which isn’t entered in the Nice event) will be shipped to the venue next week.

“We have a very hard-working team already on site in Nice, preparing the race village and the logistics for the regatta and everything is running to schedule,” said Esquier. “We look forward to welcoming the eight teams here at the beginning of November for some practice ahead of the racing.”


The confirmed line-up of eight world-class sailing teams for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, scheduled 7-22 November, includes:

ALL4ONE (FRA/GER)
Azzurra (ITA)
BMW ORACLE Racing (USA)
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)
Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE)
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS)
TeamOrigin (GBR)
Team French Spirit (FRA)

BMW ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and ALL4ONE (as K-Challenge) each competed in the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia. TeamOrigin raced in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series earlier this year. While the other four teams are new to ACC racing, experienced Cup sailors are sprinkled throughout their crew rosters.

eamOrigin is led by three-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie as skipper and also features two-time Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy as tactician. Mike Sanderson, who skippered the winning entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, is the team manager. As a sign of its commitment to the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur, TeamOrigin is lending its training boat, GBR-75, for the event.

“Having sailed in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series earlier this year we quickly realised the concept of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta completely fit the bill for our team from a sailing and organizational standpoint. We knew we had to be there,” said Sir Keith Mills, founder of TeamOrigin.

The second new entry sees the return of an iconic Italian sailing brand, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s Azzurra. In 1983 Azzurra was Italy’s first-ever America’s Cup syndicate. This team, however, incorporates the Joe Fly Sailing Team, which has been successful in one-design classes such as the Farr 40 and Melges 24.

On the water the team features Italian match-racer Francesco Bruni as skipper and veteran America’s Cup tactician Tommaso Chieffi. On the management side it includes Italian windsurfing legend Alessandra Sensini, who is the first female to win four Olympic medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze).

“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,” said Giovanni Maspero of the YCCS, the principal team manager. “We feel an enormous responsibility, but I am firmly convinced that our sailing team’s merit will provide excellent conditions to compete at the highest level.”

The full line-up for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur includes:
ALL4ONE (FRA, née K-Challenge)
Azzurra (ITA)
BMW ORACLE Racing (USA)
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)
Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE)
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS)
TeamOrigin (GBR)
Team French Spirit (FRA)