2010 Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena

[Stuart Streuli]

Louis Vuitton Trophy sets sail for La Maddalena (Sardinia)

The Louis Vuitton Trophy is coming to Sardinia in May, with 10 elite sailing teams set to race for two weeks on the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean Sea off La Maddalena.

With just one month to go before racing begins on May 22nd, the host team, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, is eager to extend a warm welcome to teams, sponsors and guests alike.

“La Maddalena is among the best places in the world to sail,” said Vincenzo Onorato, the team principal of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. “The waters are warm, the wind conditions are very good and the people of La Maddalena will be gracious hosts. I want to welcome all of my sailing friends and fans of the sport to join us here in May.”

The Louis Vuitton Trophy - La Maddalena follows two successful regattas in Auckland (February 2010) and Nice (November 2009) over the past six months. Further events are planned in Dubai in November and Hong Kong in January of 2011.

For La Maddalena, two additional teams will join the eight who competed in Auckland, and both are world-class sailing squads. BMW ORACLE Racing, who won the America’s Cup Match in February, rejoins the Louis Vuitton Trophy after it missed the Auckland regatta due to its Cup commitments.

Luna Rossa, which has competed for the America’s Cup three times, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000, will race for the Louis Vuitton Trophy for the very first time, after sailing in a precursor event, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in 2009. Luna Rossa has assembled an impressive crew, including skipper Ed Baird, winner of the 32nd America’s Cup with Alinghi and tactician Torben Grael, who skippered Ericsson to a win in the last Volvo Ocean Race.

The addition of Luna Rossa will make for three Italian teams in La Maddalena, including Azzurra, the winning team in the Nice event. Also on the start list is the champion from Auckland, Emirates Team New Zealand. The full line-up for La Maddalena is 10 teams, representing eight countries:

Aleph, FRA, skipper Bertrand Pacé
All4One, FRA/GER, skipper Jochen Schümann
Artemis, SWE, skipper Paul Cayard
Azzurra, ITA, skipper Francesco Bruni
BMW ORACLE Racing, USA, skipper James Spithill
Emirates Team New Zealand, NZL, skipper Dean Barker
Luna Rossa, ITA, skipper Ed Baird
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, ITA, skipper Gavin Brady
Synergy, RUS, skipper Karol Jablonski
TEAMORIGIN, GBR, skipper Ben Ainslie

In the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas, the teams match-race equalised America’s Cup Class boats. For La Maddalena, the boats will be supplied by BMW ORACLE Racing (USA 87 and USA 98) and Mascalzone Latino Audi Team (ITA 90 and ITA 99).

La Maddalena is small town (population near 12 000) on an island with the same name that sits just one nautical mile off the Northeast coast of Sardinia. It is renowned for its beaches and its pink, rocky terrain and like Sardinia itself, offers up some of the most stunning backdrops for sailing in the Mediterranean.

The race village itself is set up about one kilometre to the east of the centre of town, near the southeast corner of the island. The heart of the race village will feature a big screen broadcasting all of the action from the race course. Crews will be in the race village interacting with the crowds during photo sessions, autograph signings and public press conferences. Food and beverage as well as team merchandise is also available, and the Louis Vuitton Junior Trophy will be contested by local junior sailors.

The easiest way to get to La Maddalena is to fly into Olbia’s Costa Smeralda airport (many flights transfer through Rome) and then transfer by road to Palau, approximately 40 kilometres to the north of Olbia. From Palau, there is a short ferry to La Maddalena. Alternatively, there are ferries into Palau from Corsica as well as Genoa and Napoli.

Racing is scheduled from the 22nd May through the 6th June. But teams will start official training sessions on the 18th May.

[Stuart Streuli]

10 Teams, Five Rounds, One Winner as the Louis Vuitton Trophy comes to La Maddalena, Sardinia

The best sailors in the world will be in Italy later this month as Sardinia prepares to host 10 top sailing teams at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena from 22nd May through 6th June.

Three Italian entries, including the host Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, Azzurra and Luna Rossa will be battling with teams such as the Defender of the America’s Cup, BMW ORACLE Racing and perennial favourite Emirates Team New Zealand, for supremacy on the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

An innovative regatta format has been developed that will allow all teams the greatest opportunity to advance to the next step, while rewarding teams who do well with second chances.

Initially, each team will sail every other team once in a single round robin. The top eight teams will advance to the next stage and the round robin seeding will continue to be used in later stages. Doing well in the round robin will have its rewards.

“Having each of the teams sail each other at least once is very important,” said Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio, the Principal Race Officer for the regatta. “The teams really want this opportunity.”

In the middle elimination rounds, top-ranked teams are matched against the lower ranked teams – that’s one of the rewards for doing well early – and the winning teams keep advancing, through to a semi final and final.

“If a top seed loses in the middle rounds, they’ll get a second chance to earn a way back in. Conversely, if a lower ranked team gets hot and starts winning, they’ll keep racing. It’s an interesting and fair format.”

The teams will race on four equalised America’s Cup Class boats supplied by the event – ITA 90, ITA 99, USA 87 and USA 98. The boats have now arrived on site and will be prepared for racing.

The logistics team is also now working in La Maddalena as the event organisers begin preparations to host the 10 teams, their friends, families, partners and sponsors, as well as sailing fans from around the world.

La Maddalena is small town (population near 12 000) on an island with the same name that sits just one nautical mile off the Northeast coast of Sardinia and offers up some of the most stunning backdrops for sailing in the Mediterranean.

The race village will be set up about one kilometre to the east of the centre of town, near the southeast corner of the island.

The 10 teams competing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena represent eight countries:

Aleph, FRA, skipper Bertrand Pacé
All4One, FRA/GER, skipper Jochen Schümann
Artemis, SWE, skipper Paul Cayard
Azzurra, ITA, skipper Francesco Bruni
BMW ORACLE Racing, USA, skipper James Spithill
Emirates Team New Zealand, NZL, skipper Dean Barker
Luna Rossa, ITA, skipper Ed Baird
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, ITA, skipper Gavin Brady
Synergy, RUS, skipper Karol Jablonski
TEAMORIGIN, GBR, skipper Ben Ainslie

Racing in the Round Robin is scheduled to start on the 22nd May, with teams training on site beginning on the 18th May.

[MLovett]

18 May, 2010

After several days of very strong winds due to mistral conditions in the area, the winds moderated for most of the morning and into the early afternoon allowing three of the four scheduled scheduled sessions to take place. But by mid-afternoon, with winds approaching 20 knots again, the final slot was cancelled to ensure the boats remain undamaged.

One of the teams to get in two training sessions today was the French Aleph team. Damien Iehl, in the strategist/traveller position described his day: "We started in lighter winds of 10 to 12 knots. Then, for the second session it went up to 22 knots. But for us, it was perfect. We are still adjusting to sailing with each other so it was great to get through several manoeuvres and practice starts. Our afterguard has changed a little bit since Auckland, and there have been some other changes amongst the grinders and the trimmers, but the basis of our team is the same, so our level is better now than it was before the event in Auckland.”

BMW ORACLE Racing was among the teams to sail in the morning session. The America’s Cup defender is returning to the Louis Vuitton Trophy after missing the Auckland regatta due to its Cup commitments. With new navigator Ian Moore on board, the team had a good training session with Azzurra.

“The sessions are quite short - 75 minutes - so you don't want to waste time,” Moore explained. “You get the crew on board, trim on to make sure everything is ok, and then get straight into practice starts with your training partner.

“We try to do two practice starts and then on the third start we sail a very short race, windward-leeward, and try to repeat that cycle if there is time. We might have copped a penalty in one of the pre-starts, but that's also good in a way, to learn what you can and can't get away with while it doesn’t count against you!”

With Moore moving to BMW ORACLE Racing from TeamOrigin, the British team has called upon veteran navigator Peter Isler, who sailed with them in the Pacific Series in February 2009, to rejoin the team for the Louis Vuitton Trophy. And Isler says he’s very happy to be back.

“These regattas are the best,” Isler said after getting off the water this afternoon. “I can't imagine anything better from a sailor's perspective. There's a lot of good racing, and I think we all have a lot of friends out there. In these events you spend time not just with your team, but also with your competitors, when you’re transferring boats or on shore. So you feel like you’re at a regatta and not just isolated with a single team. And above all, the racing is at a very high level. So I think everyone looks forward to it.”

Training resumes on Wednesday, with the opening press conference on Friday and the first races of the Round Robin on Saturday.

[Stuart Streuli]

Teamorigin issue sailing team list for louis vuitton trophy la maddalena

teamorigin louis vuitton trophy la maddalena

sailing team list:

Skipper and helmsman : Ben ainslie ; gbr
tactician : Iain percy ; gbr
navigator : Peter isler ; usa
strategist : Andrew simpson ; gbr
strategist/traveller : Santiago lange ; arg
runners/pit assist : Anthony nossiter ; aus
runners/pit assist : David carr ; gbr
mainsheet : Chris salthouse ; nzl
trimmer : Christian kamp ; den
trimmer : Mike mottl ; aus
grinder : Mark mc teague ; aus
grinder : Pawel bielecki ; pol
grinder : Chris brittle ; gbr
pit : Craig satterthwaite ; nzl
mast : Julian cressant ; fra
mid-bow : Matt cornwell ; gbr
bow : Matthew mitchell ; nzl

[Stuart Streuli]

BMW ORACLE Racing ready to race at the Louis Vuitton Trophy.
La Maddalena, Italy (May 20, 2010) The BMW ORACLE Racing team is ready to return to Louis Vuitton Trophy action in La Maddalena, Sardinia. 10 teams will battle for supremacy over the two-week regatta, racing off one of the Mediterranean’s most spectacular coastlines.
Competing on equalised America’s Cup Class boats (two of which have been provided by the team – USA 98 and USA 87), in Cup style match racing, the Louis Vuitton Trophy provides an important measuring stick for the team as it returns to monohull racing following its America’s Cup win in February.
“It’s really exciting to get back on the water and race against all of the teams again,” said skipper James Spithill (AUS). “It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve been in a competition like this.”
BMW ORACLE Racing missed the most recent Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland as the team focused on its America’s Cup Match.
“I had a chance to see some of the racing in Auckland and it was all at a very high level,” Spithill continued. “This will be a good test for us to compete against many of the teams who are potential challengers in the next America’s Cup.”
The team racing in La Maddalena features several new faces, including navigator Ian Moore (GBR), who comes to the team after stints with Emirates Team New Zealand and TeamOrigin.
The full crew list for La Maddalena:
Bow - Brad Webb
Mid Bow - Ryan Godfrey
Mast - Shannon Falcone
Pit - Matthew Mason
Port Grind - Brian MacInnes
Starboard Grind - Jono Macbeth
Main Grind - Joe Spooner
Upwind Trim - Ross Halcrow
Downwind Trim - Joey Newton
Main Trim - Dirk de Ridder
Traveler/Up Mast - Mark Mendelblatt
Skipper - James Spithill
Tactician - John Kostecki
Runner Strategy - Michele Ivaldi
Navigator - Ian Moore
Aft Grind - Simeon Tienpont
Aft Grind - Gillo Nobili
Coach/Afterguard - Philippe Presti