The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series was convincingly won by the home team, Emirates Team New Zealand by a 3-1 score over Alinghi from Switzerland. ETNZ did a great job in the finals, coming back from being down 0-1, to then win 3 straight in tough windy conditions. Alinghi beat ETNZ in the last America’s Cup, so this was sweet revenge for the home team.

It was also a perfect reward for them, Louis Vuitton, and the New Zealand public. It’s probably good for the game too that Alinghi didn’t win again. It will give ETNZ and their sponsors a reason to keep the team alive while the Cup goes through its court battles. And it is great for Louis Vuitton, who walked away upset after the last Cup, to have this new event come to such a perfect story book ending.

It was a great event, with something like 52 races sailed in borrowed Cup boats over a 2 week period. Huge credit is due to the hosts and the shore team that kept the boats working and the show going on through bad weather and all other obstacles.

I was hired by Luna Rossa to help their new team compete in this event. It was a great team of sailors who all worked really hard together and sailed some good races. But racing Cup boats on a short course will expose every weakness and reward the teams who have trained together the most. In our Quarter final race against Russell Coutts and his BMW Oracle team we managed to put a penalty on them and get ahead, but some errors by us allowed them to pass and get far enough ahead to do their penalty turn on the finish line and beat us by a boat length. In the end, the best teams won, and we walked away having learned a lot and knowing that we finished about where we should have. It was a great experience for me personally and I am grateful to the Luna Rosa team and their sponsors for the opportunity to work with them.

Ciao, peter