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Louis Vuitton, America's Cup formats Posted: Wednesday September 25, 2002 1:42 PMSYDNEY (Reuters) -- Nine syndicates from six countries will fight for the right to challenge the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the present holders of the America's Cup, for the 31st edition of the sailing competition off Auckland. The challengers will first compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup, which starts on October 1, before the winner, the Challenger, meets the Defender in the best-of-nine America's Cup match. The structure of the Louis Vuitton Cup has been greatly changed since the last race, largely in order to give the winning challenger enough time to get ready for the America's Cup itself, which starts on February 15 2003. The challengers series begins next Tuesday with two round robins involving all nine challengers, where each win is worth one point. At the end of the rounds, the top eight teams are seeded and the ninth is eliminated. In the seven-race quarterfinals, the eight are divided into two groups -- the top four in the double chance pool, the bottom four in the single chance. The two winners in the 1-4 seeded double-chance group go straight to the semifinals, while the losers race the winners from the 5-8 ranked single-chance pool in a repechage. The semifinals, beginning in December, pit the top two qualifiers against each other -- the winner advancing to the Louis Vuitton Cup final. The loser has a repechage against the winner of the third-fourth seed semifinal sail-off. The final will be a best-of-nine series from January 11 2003 and the winner will then have a break of almost a month to prepare for the America's Cup match against Team New Zealand.
Louis Vuitton Cup dates:
Round robin 1 - October 1 - October 11
Round robin 2 - October 22 - November 1
Quarterfinals - November 12 - November 19
Quarterfinals repechage - November 23 - November 30
Semifinals - December 9 - December 16
Semifinal repechage - December 20 - December 28
Finals - January 11 - January 21 2003
The America's Cup final is a best-of-nine match between the winning challenger and defender Team New Zealand.
Race 1 - Saturday February 15
Race 2 - Sunday February 16
Race 3 - Tuesday February 18
Race 4 - Thursday February 20
Race 5 - Saturday February 22
Race 6 - Sunday February 23
Race 7 - Tuesday February 25
Race 8 - Thursday February 27
Race 9 - Saturday March 1
If a crew wins the first five races the last four races will be cancelled. Race course Racing for the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup will be held on one of four courses in the Hauraki Gulf. Each course is about 10 miles from the syndicate bases at the Viaduct Harbour in downtown Auckland. The course will be an 18.5-nautical-mile windward-leeward configuration comprising three upwind and three downwind legs of about three miles. The yachts will start upwind and finish downwind, with starboard mark roundings.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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