A dusty day in Nice 

Source: PhotosportEmirates Team New Zealand and Artemis (SWE) leg two of their Round Robin one match of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, Day 5, Nice,

Louis Vuitton Race Day 8

Some very dusty race goers today, including our boat driver Sally who, after two hours sleep, needed a day on the water like a hole in the head.

In fact for the first few hours I think she thought she had a hole in her head as she battled a splitter before the paracetamol kicked in.

Ironically she hadn't been to the Louis Vuitton party. Hers was clearly more raucous compared with the stylish and sophisticated affair in the chateau high above Nice with its stunning views of the city lights below curving around the Bay of Angels.

Nothing about Louis Vuitton would ever warrant the word budget, but in these leaner economic times the big blockbuster parties of the past would look inappropriate in every respect.

What we got was clever and creative, the Bay of Angels theme reflected in the entertainment with dancers cocooned in clear plastic balls surrounded by white feathers as they moved balletically with the music.

It was a reminder of the halcyon and way more extravagant days of 1999 when the Louis Vuitton Party was held at the Civic Theatre in Auckland.

Instead of plastic balls with ballerinas, we had giant-sized glass snow-shakers normally found at seaside souvenir stalls. Shake the container and it snows over the tableau inside.

Instead of a tableau, the LV versions had a skipper posing in front of an appropriate scene. Dennis Conner in front of the Statue of Liberty; Bertrand Pace with the Eiffel Tower, Dawn Riley from San Francisco in front of the Gold Gate Bridge. Fans blew fake snow around the skippers inside the domes as they revolved around the stage.

It was a gob-smacking vision but not as outrageous as the opera singer who emerged in full voice through the stage floor and just kept on rising. Her flowing white dress got longer and longer and longer and when she was about ten metres above the stage it was blown into the shape of a spinnaker which then had video of the yachting racing projected onto it. The singer trilled away as the audience sat stunned.

It was obviously unforgettable otherwise I wouldn't be recalling it so vividly. But that was then and this is now and it's all change - not least where the hours of revelry are concerned.

As predicted, knowing there was another crack of dawn start, those with work to do headed home early, life lessons learned. So when sore-headed Sally asked me this morning what the cure for her self-inflicted ailments might be I had sadly to advise her that age and experience were the essential elements for hangover prevention, neither of which she possesses. But then being young she still enjoys the recovery powers of youth and soon bounced back to drive us round the day's racing.

Not much to report frankly. On a one-sided track most races were processions including Emirates Team New Zealand's seventh win in eight outings, the Kiwis still setting the pace.