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Team New Zealand tackle some big seas - Source: Photosport -
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The World Sailing Association and Louis Vuitton have announced the addition of two sailing teams for the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta to be held in Nice next month (7th to 22d November).
This brings the regatta total to eight confirmed teams, which is the ideal number for end-of-summer expected weather conditions.
"We are extremely pleased to welcome TeamOrigin, the British team led by Sir Keith Mills, which becomes a preferential shareholder in WSTA and intends to compete at all of the Louis Vuitton regattas over the next 12 months," says Laurent Esquier, CEO WSTA.
TeamOrigin, skippered by three-times Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie with two-times Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy as tactician and managed by round the world winning yachtsman Mike Sanderson, will also provide their training boat GBR-75 for the Nice event.
"When looking at our team's future sailing programme we knew we wanted to compete in events that would give all parts of our team and not just the sailing team, further hands-on operational experience," said Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal.
"Having sailed in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series earlier this year we quickly realised the concept of the WSTA's Louis Vuitton regatta projects completely fit the bill for our team and so we knew we had to be there.''
The second new entry sees the return of an iconic Italian sailing brand, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's (YCCS) Azzurra. In 1983, Azzurra was Italy's first-ever America's Cup challenger.
The new Azzurra team will be led by YCCS member Giovanni Maspero of Joe Fly, and on the water skippered by Francesco Bruni with Tommaso Chieffi as tactician, whilst managed by multiple Olympic medallist Alessandra Sensini and others.
