The 6th

Louis Vuitton Cup The Louis Vuitton Cup is the name of the Challenger (America's Cup), Challenger Selection Series sailing competition from 1983, named after its Sponsor (commercial), sponsor, Louis Vuitton. The winner of the competition became the Challenger (A ...

was held in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, in 2003. The winner,

Alinghi Alinghi, or Alinghi Red Bull Racing because of the sports marketing branding by Red Bull, is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America's Cup, as well ...

, went on to challenge for and win the

2003 America's Cup The 31st America's Cup was contested between the holder, Team New Zealand, and the winner of the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, Alinghi. Build Up The 2002–2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, held in the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland, New Zealand saw nine teams from ...

Teams

The Yacht Club Punta Ala was the challenger of record.

Alinghi

Founded by Swiss businessman Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi featured

Russell Coutts Sir Russell Coutts (born 1 March 1962) is a world champion New Zealand yachtsman. He won an Olympic gold medal and skippered three Americas Cup victories in 1995, 2000, and 2003. Early life Coutts was educated at Otago Boys' High School ...

and Brad Butterworth who had both joined from Team New Zealand. Jochen Schümann was also involved in the team.

GBR Challenge

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

Le Defi Areva

Despite 2000 skipper Bertrand Pacé joining

Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a Sailing (sport), sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The team has been branded as Emirates (airline), Emirates Team New Zealand at America's Cup competiti ...

, Le Defi returned in 2003 with Luc Pillot skippering FRA 79.

Mascalzone Latino

Headed by shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato, Mascalzone Latino featured an all-Italian crew. The syndicate was only established in 2001 and Paolo Cian served as helmsman and the crew included Flavio Favini, Shannon Falcone, Giuseppe Brizzi, Davide Scarpa, and Pierluigi De Felice. and Francesco De vita

OneWorld

Part-financed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

mogul

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...

, OneWorld was based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. 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. The design team included Laurie Davidson, Bruce Nelson and Phil Kaiko and the sailing team included 10 Olympic medallists, three round-the-world winners, 60 world championship titles in various classes, and 16 America's Cup winners. The crew included Kevin Shoebridge as a trimmer, Mark Mendelblatt as backup helmsman, Kevin Hall, Rick Dodson, David Endean, Grant Spanhake, Peter Waymouth, Matt Mason, Joey Newton, James Spithill, Jeremy Scantlebury, Alan Smith, Andy Fethers, Andrew Taylor, Scott Crawford, and Olympians Craig Monk, Don Cowie,

Ben Ainslie Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie (born 5 February 1977) is a British sailing (sport), competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at four ...

, Kelvin Harrap,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

and Jonathan McKee.

Oracle BMW Racing

Founded by

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer a ...

who bought the assets of 2000 syndicate AmericaOne. The team was skippered by Peter Holmberg and also featured Paul Cayard, Matt Welling, Bob Wylie, John Cutler, Phil Jameson, Brad Webb, Brian MacInnes, Cameron Dunn, and Chris Dickson. USA 71 and USA 76 were designed by Bruce Farr. Roy Heiner sailed the trial boat.

Prada Challenge

Founded by Patrizio Bertelli, Prada's crew included members of the 2000 Young America syndicate. They were again skippered by Francesco de Angelis and Rod Davis, Pietro D'Alì, Thomas Burnham, Hartwell Jordan, Piero Romeo, Gavin Brady, Francesco Bruni, Andrew Hemmings, Steven Erickson, Matteo Plazzi, Gilberto Nobili, Massimo Gherarducci, Alberto Barovier, and Torben Grael were in the crew.

Team Dennis Conner

Team Dennis Conner's USA 77 suffered a massive blow when it sank off the Californian coast in July before the Cup began. The helmsman was Ken Read and the team included Terry Hutchinson.

Victory Challenge

Principal backer Jan Stenbeck died of a heart attack in August 2002. This was Sweden's first America's Cup bid since 1992 and the crew included Magnus Holmberg, Lars Linger, Stefan Rahm, Mikkel Røssberg, Jesper Bank, Mats Johansson, Roger Hall and Olympian Magnus Augustson. Their boats were designed by Germán Frers and Cole (Skip) Lissiman was their coach.

Round robin

* OneWorld was docked one race win.

Finals

Quarter-finals

Finals

References

External links

Ultimatesail.com
{{America'sCup Louis Vuitton Cup

Sport in Auckland Sailing competitions in New Zealand 2003 America's Cup International America's Cup Class Auckland waterfront Waitematā Harbour