Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

TeamOrigin's Mike Sanderson shares his view on the event

America’s Cup racing (or perhaps we are not allowed to call it that) fires into life again tomorrow in Auckland with the first round robin matches of the much welcomed Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

10 teams are competing. They include all the heavy hitters from the 32rd America’s Cup in Valencia – defenders, Alinghi, plus Louis Vuitton Cup winners Emirates Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle Racing with Russell Coutts behind the wheel and Luna Rossa, being steered by Peter Holmberg. There is also repeat business from Team Shosholoza where Paolo Cian is on the wheel and Sebastien Col and K-Challenge.

Top of the new teams competing is of course Mike Sanderson, Ben Ainslie and the posse of our boys from Sir Keith Mills’ TeamOrigin, while other new teams into the mix are former Mascalzone Latino skipper Vasco Vascotto, now heading Damiani Team Italia and a new look, quasi-Brit crew led by Ian Williams on board China Team and Greek Challenge, helmed by Gavin Brady. In short, a fascinating line-up.

Unlike the Cup events we have become used to, however the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is very much more like a World Match Racing Tour event. The ‘equipment’ is the version 5 boats belonging to Emirates Team NZ and BMW Oracle Racing, so NZL84 and 92 and USA 87 and 98. All four boats will be used for the two round robins that get underway tomorrow, while only the Kiwi boats will be used for the final rounds.

For the British audience, TeamOrigin may have competed at the CNEV regatta in Valencia last autumn, but this is the first occasion they will be racing in the international spotlight to such a degree.



“It is amazing to be honest,” Mike Sanderson told the thedailysail this morning. “Everyone is fully into it - Auckland has definitely turned it back on. The city seems to be very much in a party mood. We are already getting big crowds and things down to the boats and I think Auckland is going to come out to watch in numbers.”

Since the 2003 America’s Cup, the Viaduct Basin has undergone a face lift with half of the land where the team bases once were being turned into offices or apartments. As a result the heart of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is between the Emirates Team New Zealand base and where Alinghi once were on the seaward side of the harbour.

While the bandstands and candy floss stalls reside outside in the strip between, the former Alinghi base is being used as the nerve centre for crews, press and hospitality, while the hardwork, such as maintenance for the four boats, etc takes place at the Team New Zealand base.

“They have done a great job,” continues Sanderson. “It is a typical Dalts [Grant Dalton] organisation - all military precision. Between Dalts and Kevin Shoebridge and Ian Stewart they have done a wonderful job to date. It seems very organised.”

This past week all ten teams have been down in Auckland training on the boats. “We haven’t missed a day,” says Sanderson.” We had one day blown out when it was too windy, but we had one reserve day. So in total we have had five days of practice. We have had the whole variety of conditions. One day it was blowing up to 20 knots and everyone did very well really. It is going to be amazing to see all these teams in equal hardware, because it will answer a lot of questions that’s for sure!”

With ten teams and four boats, time on board was limited. “So you would be sitting there on a transfer boat, and you get on for your two hour window and off you go. Each day we scheduled to train with someone. Normally we’d try and get two practice races and another two practices starts in and then a few manoeuvres as well - some peels, some gybe sets, etc. It is fun, it is like a normal match race regatta. You return up. You have a little tour of the equipment, you have a practice session, you jump on and go like crazy, so it is pretty hard case really.”

While the boats have been dumbed down to some extent, they remain Cup boats with huge rigs and monstrously large bulbs - ie a big big handful to sail. The Kiwi boats have fixed their adjustable jumpers, while the Oracle boats have neatly solved this by fitting their jumper-less rigs on. There are also no roached jibs.

“So it is all still pretty full on. They are only using two or three jibs and they tell you which ones to use. You have two spinnakers on board, one of which has all your branding on it and one which is a back-up, which stays with the boat. It is a great concept. We will all have to use the same sails and the boats are as identical as they can make them.”

Obviously there are marked differences between Emirates Team New Zealand’s boats and those of BMW Oracle. However only the matched pair from each stable will race each other. “You can definitely see how the two programs have spent their time,” muses Sanderson. “The Kiwis had a lot less keels and spent a lot more time on finesse – the little bits and pieces, how they were going to sail the boat. And you can tell that the Oracle guys spent their time on the R&D side of the campaign so their boat builders were doing other things like changing keels or masts.” (Ie they had much more budget to get extra hardware).




But to sail them it is pretty similar says Sanderson, as with V5 AC boats they all ended up in a fairly similar place. “We are pretty fortunate because we’ve got Barry McKay, doing the pit for us, who was the pitman for Team New Zealand and then we have Chris Salthouse doing the main sheet, and he was doing the mainsheet for Ben [Ainslie] while he was at Team New Zealand. So those were a couple of key guys we bought in for this event specifically.

“Then with regard to the Oracle boats, we have got Craig Monk grinding for us here, who was on the Oracle boats and played a big part in their deck layouts, and Robbie Naismith. So we have a couple of key people from each team with us.

“We have a fairly good idea of lots of the techniques that they used before we got here and we’ve done our homework and looked at photos of how they sailed them and bits and pieces. So we have a list of things which are different from boat to boat, and in fact all four boats, because 92 is a little bit different from 84, among the Team NZ boats, and 98 is a little bit more refined than 87 which was their first new boat. But all very much on the same theme.”

Tomorrow TeamOrigin lines up against Luna Rossa in the Kiwi boats. “We are probably looking forward more to racing people in the Team NZ boats,” says Sanderson. “We think that Ben and Chris’ familiarity with the Team NZ boat has to be a good thing for us. But we have enjoyed the Oracle boats and some of the best winning we have done this last week in practice have been in the Oracle boats. So we are pretty relaxed either way to be fair.”

For the regatta TeamOrigin is missing a few key crew. Neal McDonald, Rob Greenhalgh, Ian Moore and Justin Slattery are all off doing the Volvo Ocean Race and navigator Stan Honey also can’t make it. He has been replaced for this regatta by AC veteran and former BMW Oracle Racing navigator Peter Isler. Thus the TeamOrigin afterguard is Sanderson, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson and Peter Isler.



“What we tried to do was where we had lost people due to other commitments, we tried to replace them with guys who were pretty familiar with V5 boats, so we could just get up to speed as quickly as possible. Apart from a few days at that Spanish CNEV regatta, we haven’t sailed as a team in a Cup boat. These five days of practice and the five days in November have been pretty important.”

However in addition to this they are likely to be swapping between Chris Draper, who is on traveller and being a spindly 49er helm will be shot to the top of the rig to wind spot, when it is light and patchy. When it is stronger he is likely to be replaced by man about town Freddie Carr, to provide added grinding muscle.



“It is short course stuff. So much of it is going to be about boat handling, we have to got to make sure we get the thing around the track. Some of the beats could be as short as 1.2 miles or something, so really short. It is very sprint race orientated, but it is really exciting and it has changed so many things which we’ve all become accustomed to. We are all used to the jib disappearing down the forward hatch on America’s Cup boats. We are going to be into much more… there just isn’t time to do that here in this racing and of course you have to use the same jib. So there are lots of things.”

Fortunately one of Sanderson’s talents is being adaptable and while some of the more experienced Cup teams will no doubt be sticking to what they know, the shorter courses could favour those who have changed the way they sail the boats to this new format.

The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is also set to be more of a spectacle. Rather than being way out into the Hauraki Gulf, racing is to take place off North Head, opposite down town Auckland.

“The race course is going to make for some exciting viewing, so that is great as well. It is down by North Head, so the idea is that people will use that as a grandstand – which they always used to at Whitbread starts and things and finishes, that hill used to be teeming with 10,000s of people. The weather in NZ this summer has been unusually good. So hopefully they will hang around for the next few weeks.”

As to the competition, there are obviously the big players but Sanderson reckons that with this event not being a design and technology competition, we can expect to see many more winners. “Apart from the big ones, there are also the K-Challenges and people like that - they have now done a lot of sailing together and their crew work was always very slick and the French have always been great Cup boats sailors and now they are in equal hardware. So the list is bigger than it has ever been before because of this equal hardware. Everyone, I believe, will win races. It is shifty enough, puffy enough, we are in equal boats - there are a lot of things that are not typical Cup boat fashion, so it will be an interesting event. There will be lots of passing…”

It strikes us that the format for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is a really good one being halfway between Cup racing and the World Match Racing Tour. Regardless of what happens in the America’s Cup it would be a very smart move if this format were copied and taken to other venues around the world.

“It just seems so logical when you see everyone here,” agrees Sanderson. “The thing is that people are now really experienced at sailing these boats and chucking them around. To date I think they have broken a spinnaker pole and a couple of little bits and pieces, but I have been amazed. Everyone is out there match racing them hard and gybe setting, etc. Okay we have got through a few spinnakers, but it is nothing like, if you added up all the work which people had to do after 10 teams went out for a day, shore-crew wise. It is a fraction of that. It is very cost effective. It is very enjoyable so far.”

Racing kicks off in Round Robin 1 tomorrow with TeamOrigin facing Luna Rossa (Ainslie v Scheidt!) at 1200 local time tomorrow.

The action can be seen on TV in UK on Sky Sports. Coverage during Round Robin 1:

#1 30/1/09 1830 Sky Sports 2
*repeats stc 2400 Sky Sports 2
2630 Sky Sports 2
2830 Sky Sports 2
0830 Sky Sports 2

#2 31/1/09 1830 Sky Sports Xtra
*repeats stc 2400 Sky Sports Xtra
2700 Sky Sports Xtra
0600 Sky Sports Xtra

#3 1/2/09 1900 Sky Sports Xtra
*repeats stc 2200 Sky Sports Xtra
2500 Sky Sports Xtra
0930 Sky Sports 3

#4 2/2/09 1830 Sky Sports 2
*repeats stc 2130 Sky Sports 3
2330 Sky Sports Xtra
2900 Sky Sports Xtra
0900 Sky Sports 2

#5 3/2/09 1830 Sky Sports 2
*repeats stc 2130 Sky Sports 3
2330 Sky Sports Xtra
2600 Sky Sports 3
0900 Sky Sports 2

#6 4/2/09 1830 Sky Sports Xtra (NB RESERVE DAY)
*repeats stc 2130 Sky Sports Xtra
2330 Sky Sports Xtra
2600 Sky Sports 3
0900 Sky Sports 3

More photos on the following pages...