Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice, Côte d'Azur

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur was the first in a series of regattas that compete for the Louis Vuitton Trophy. The regatta was held in Nice between 7 and 22 November 2009. The Louis Vuitton Trophy format uses existing International America's Cup Class yachts loaned to the regatta by various America's Cup racing syndicates, keeping costs relatively low for the competing teams.

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur
Date	7–22 November 2009
Winner	Azzurra
Location	Nice

The Louis Vuitton Trophy was organised after the success of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and the continued legal battle surrounding the America's Cup yachting competition at the time. Because of the long delays from the legal action, and the fact that the 2010 America's Cup became a Deed of Gift match without a defender or challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Trophy series was established as a competition for other America's Cup racing syndicates.

The Nice event was hosted by ALL4ONE Challenge and Club Nautique de Nice.

The Yachts

See also: List of IACC yachts

For the event Mascalzone Latino provided ITA-90 and ITA-99 while All4One and Team Origin loaned FRA-93 and GBR-75 respectively.

Teams

Eight teams participated in the Nice event. Despite loaning two boats to the event, Mascalzone Latino did not participate.

Ranking	Country	Team	Club	Skipper	Notes
1	Italy	Azzurra	Yacht Club Costa Smeralda	Francesco Bruni, Tommaso Chieffi
2	New Zealand	Team New Zealand	Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron	Dean Barker
3	Russia	Synergy Russian Sailing Team		Karol Jabłoński
4	United Kingdom	Team Origin	Royal Thames Yacht Club	Ben Ainslie
5	France/Germany	ALL4ONE Challenge	Cercle de la Voile de Paris/Kieler Yacht-Club	Sébastien Col, Jochen Schümann	Host
6	United States	BMW Oracle Racing	Golden Gate Yacht Club	Gavin Brady, Hamish Pepper
7	Sweden	Team Artemis	Royal Swedish Yacht Club	Paul Cayard
8	France	TFS - Pages Jaunes		Bertrand Pacé

The Races

Round Robin One

7 November - 14 November
Up to four flights per day were scheduled through the conclusion of the round robin and lasted no longer than one hour in duration. The first three days were characterised by light winds and only two races were completed each day. However, on day four the race organisers completed four full flights (eight races) to get the regatta back on schedule.

Team Name Races W L Team New Zealand 7 6 1 Azzurra 7 6 1 Team Origin 7 5 1 Team Artemis 7 3 4 Synergy Russian Sailing 7 3 4 BMW Oracle Racing 7 3 4 ALL4ONE Challenge 7 2 5 TFS - Pages Jaunes 7 0 7

TNZ BOR ART A4O TFS SYN AZZ ORG Total TNZ 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 6 BOR 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 ART 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 3 A4O R 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 TFS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 SYN 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 3 AZZ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 ORG 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 5

A = Abandoned, P = Postponed, R = Retired

Round Robin Two

14 November-18 November
Stage 2 was a half round robin where the top four teams raced the bottom four teams. As the half round robin was not completed, teams received half points for matches sailed twice.

Team Name Races W L RR1 Total Points Team New Zealand 3 3 0 6 9 6 Synergy Russian Sailing 3 3 0 3 6 4.5 Azzurra 4 1 3 6 7 4.5 Team Origin 4 3 1 5 8 4.5 BMW Oracle Racing 4 1 3 3 4 3 Team Artemis 4 2 2 3 5 3 ALL4ONE Challenge 4 1 3 2 3 2 TFS - Pages Jaunes 4 1 3 0 1 0.5

SYN BOR A4O TFS Total TNZ 1 1 1 A 3 AZZ 0 1 0 0 1 ORG 0 1 1 1 3 ART 0 0 1 1 2 TNZ AZZ ORG ART Total SYN A 1 1 1 3 BOR 0 0 0 1 1 A4O 0 1 0 0 1 TFS 0 1 0 0 1

A = Abandoned, P = Postponed, R = Retired

Knock-Out Series

19 November-22 November
Stage 3 is the knockout semifinals and final.

Ranking Phase

Teams in the bottom half of the Round Robin will sail off for places 5-8.

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	BMW Oracle Racing	1
	4	TFS - Pages Jaunes	0
						BMW Oracle Racing		0
						ALL4ONE Challenge		1
	3	Team Artemis	0
	2	ALL4ONE Challenge	1			Third place
						TFS - Pages Jaunes		0
						Team Artemis		1

Finals

As Team New Zealand won the Round Robin, they got to choose their Semi Final opponents from the top four. The first to score two wins will win each series.

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	Team New Zealand	1*
	4	Synergy	0*
						Team New Zealand		0
						Azzurra		2
	3	Azzurra	2
	2	Team Origin	1			Third place
						Synergy		1
						Team Origin		0

*Team New Zealand were penalised a point and Synergy was penalised half a point for failing to avoid a collision. Synergy were then further penalised half a point for not doing everything to keep clear in the same incident.

2009 Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice
Azzurra First Title

Junior Series

During the regatta forty junior French sailors competed in Open Bic boats. The winner received an Open Bic boat and a chance to be 18th man during the Trophy finals.

External links

• cupinfo.com
• www.louisvuittontrophy.com/home/ - Official Website