PARIS The first LOUIS VUITTON World Series event will be held in Nice, France on the 7- 22 November 2009.

The Louis Vuitton World Series is an outgrowth of the successful and highly-competitive Louis Vuitton Pacific Series that took place in Auckland in February earlier this year. The launch of the LVWS is positive news for top-tier professional sailors as it guarantees a global world series aboard high-tech Version 5 ACC monohull racing boats.

The series will feature a 10-team field competing in shared ACC yachts in a round robin, one-on-one match racing format where the two finalists go head-to-head to determine the winner. Points will be accumulated throughout the series to determine the ranking of the season.|

The second Louis Vuitton World Series event is scheduled for March 2010 in Auckland, New Zealand, followed by a Series in La Maddalena (Italy) in May 2010.

Teams confirmed for the first event in Nice include: BMW ORACLE Racing (USA), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Italia by Joe Fly (ITA), K-Challenge (FRA), Mascalzone Latino (ITA), Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE), Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS)Team French Spirit (FRA).

All the LVWS events will be sanctioned by ISAF, the international sailing governing body and will take place over the next two years alongside the Americas Cup, but will not compete with the pinnacle of sailing. The format is cost-effective teams don’t have to build boats accessible and turnkey for the participants.