2003 Louis Vuitton Cup

6th Louis Vuitton Cup
Date	1 October 2002 - 19 January 2003
Winner	Alinghi
Location	Auckland, New Zealand

The 6th Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Auckland, New Zealand in 2003. The winner, Alinghi, went on to challenge for and win the 2003 America's Cup.

The teams

The Yacht Club Punta Ala was the challenger of record.

Club	Team	Skipper	Yachts
Société Nautique de Genève	Alinghi	Russell Coutts	SUI-64
Royal Ocean Racing Club	GBR Challenge	Ian Walker	GBR-70
Union Nationale Pour La Course au Large	Le Defi Areva	Luc Pillot	FRA-69
Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia	Mascalzone Latino	Vincenzo Onorato	ITA-72
Seattle Yacht Club	OneWorld	Peter Gilmour	USA-65 & USA-67
Golden Gate Yacht Club	Oracle BMW Racing	Peter Holmberg Chris Dickson	USA-76
Yacht Club Punta Ala	Prada Challenge	Francesco de Angelis	ITA-74
New York Yacht Club	Team Dennis Conner	Dennis Conner	USA-66 & USA-77
Gamla Stans Yacht Sallskap	Victory Challenge	Mats Johansson	SWE-63 & SWE-73

Alinghi

Founded by Swiss businessman Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi featured Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth who had both joined from Team New Zealand. Jochen Schuemann was also involved in the team.^[1]

GBR Challenge

Put together by Peter Harrison and New Zealander David Barnes, the team was skippered by Ian Walker.^[2] GBR 70 was known as Wight Lightning while GBR 78 was called Wight Magic.

Le Defi Areva

Despite 2000 skipper Bertrand Pace joining Team New Zealand, Le Defi returned in 2003 with Luc Pillot skippering FRA 79.^[3]

Mascalzone Latino

Headed by shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato, Mascalzone Latino featured an all-Italian crew. The syndicate was only established in 2001 and Paolo Ciann served as helmsman.^[4]

OneWorld

Part-financed by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen, OneWorld was based in Seattle. Skippered by Peter Gilmour, the team was docked one Louis Vuitton point by an arbitration panel for being in possession of design secrets from another team.^[5]

Oracle BMW Racing

Founded by Larry Ellison who bought the assets of 2000 syndicate AmericaOne. The team was skippered by Peter Holmberg and also featured Paul Cayard and Chris Dickson. USA 71 and USA 76 were designed by Bruce Farr.^[6]

Prada Challenge

Prada's crew included members of the 2000 Young America syndicate. They were again skippered by Francesco de Angelis and Rod Davis was in the afterguard.^[7]

Team Dennis Conner

Team Dennis Conner's USA 77 suffered a massive blow when it sunk off the Californian coast in July before the Cup began.^[8]

Victory Challenge

Principal backer Jan Stenbeck died of a heart attack in August 2002.^[9] This was Sweden's first America's Cup bid since 1992.

Round robin

Team name	Races	Won	RR1 Pts.	RR2 Pts.	Total Pts.	Ranking
Alinghi	16	13	7	6	13	1
BMWOracle	16	12	5	7	12	2
OneWorld	16	13	8	5	12*	3
Prada Challenge	16	11	4	7	11	4
Victory Challenge	16	7	3	4	7	5
GBR Challenge	16	7	4	3	7	6
Stars & Stripes	16	6	5	1	6	7
Le Defi Areva	16	2	1	1	2	8
Mascalzone Latino	16	1	0	1	1	9

* OneWorld was docked one race win.

Finals

Quarter finals

	Quarter Finals					Repecharge
	4	Prada Challenge	0
	1	Alinghi	4
						Prada Challenge		4
						Victory Challenge		0
	5	Victory Challenge	4
	8	Le Defi Areva	1

	Quarter Finals					Repecharge
	7	Stars & Stripes	4
	6	GBR Challenge	1
						Stars & Stripes		0
						OneWorld		0
	3	OneWorld	4
	2	BMW Oracle	0

Finals

	Semi Finals					Repecharge					Final
		BMW Oracle	0
		Alinghi	4									Alinghi	5
							BMW Oracle	4				BMW Oracle	1
							OneWorld	0
		OneWorld	4
		Prada Challenge	2

References

1. Alinghi Swiss Challenge BBC.com
2. GBR Challenge BBC.com
3. Le Defi Areva BBC.com'
4. Mascalzone Latino BBC.com
5. OneWorld Challenge BBC.com
6. Oracle BMW Racing BBC.com
7. Prada Challenge BBC.com
8. Team Dennis Conner BBC.com
9. Victory Challenge BBC.com

External links

• ultimatesail.com