Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Bertrand Pacé, Dean Barker, Sébastien Col, Jochen Schümann, Ben Ainslie, Philippe Presti and many other champions have gathered in Nice to compete on the sunny waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Following the success of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland (New Zealand) last February, the best teams—now without the world’s oldest sports trophy due to legal entanglements—created the World Sailing Team Association in September. Their goal? To organize international high-level events.
“It is already an achievement to have managed to organize such an event in such a short time,” acknowledges Stéphane Kandler, head of the host team ALL4ONE (formerly K Challenge), and one of the founding members of the WSTA. “This event promises to be formidable,” adds Bruno Troublé, one of the organizers. “Everything is set to witness superb races. The only uncertainties we don’t control are the weather, which is unstable at the end of the season, and the risk of damage to a boat.” As for the weather, sunshine and wind delighted the sailors on Tuesday during training, less so on Wednesday when the wind blew too strong, between 25 and 30 knots.
A particularity of this new formula is that the teams take turns sailing on four America’s Cup-Class boats loaned for the occasion by three teams: ALL4One, Team Origin, and Mascalzone Latino (the latter not participating). “We just had to trim the sails a bit so that each pair is as fair as possible,” explains Laurent Esquier, general manager of the WSTA in Nice. Thus, it’s not the boat but the crew that will make the difference.
The draw for the match-ups and team presentations will take place on Friday evening at the Nice Opera House, in the presence of Mr. Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice and Minister of Industry. Starting Saturday morning, each team will face all their opponents twice during two Round Robins before the final phases, which will end on Sunday, November 22.
The public will be able to follow the races live from the Promenade des Anglais or watch the matches in 3D on a big screen in the village located at the port of Nice.
