They will start racing for the America’s Cup again in about a year … ”they” being the expensive syndicates which engage in ocean yacht racing. But first, they will have to decide the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup, which will become the challenger. The way they choose a challenger will be way different.

Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup in 2000 and they will host the events in the waters off Auckland next year.

There turned out to be a problem, though, as the challenger never was able to win even one race of the best of nine series against the defenders from New Zealan. The teams that were involved later complained that the stronger teams wasted time and wore themselves out having to compete against weaker syndicates and then the winner had just ten days off before having to face the defender, Team New Zealand.

This year, ten teams from seven countries already have spent several months working out a new format to which they all mostly agree.

Contests for the sixth Louis Vuitton Cup will start on October 1st, 2002 and the winner should be known by the third week of January, 2003.

First, there will be two round robins. In each round robin, each team will match race each of the others, gaining one point per win. The two syndicates which stand ninth and tenth in points then will be eliminated.

The remaining eight will go into the Quarter-Finals, beginning November 12th, 2002. They will be seeded according to the points totals from the round robins. The teams ranked one through four will be Double Chance Teams and five through eight will be Single Chance Teams.

Team One will choose their next opponent from the Double Chance Group and Team Five will pick theirs from the Single Chance Group. Teams Two and Six, then will pick their opponents from their respective groups. Everybody then will race in a best of seven series and the two losers from the Single Chance Group are eliminated.

Then the two losers from the Double Chance Group will race the winners from the Single Chance group, again in a best of seven, and the two winners go to the Semi-Finals, where they will be seeded third and fourth.

The Semi-Finals are to start on December 9th, 2002. The First and Second seeds race each other in a best of seven and the winner goes to the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals. The second pair race a best of seven series. The loser is eliminated and the winner races the loser of the other Semi-Final in a best of seven. The winner of that series reaches the Finals.

The Vuitton Cup Finals will be a best of nine series, just like the America’s Cup, and will begin on January 11th, 2003.

The best of nine America’s Cup series begins for the 31st time on February 15th, 2003, with the Challenger going against Team New Zealand.

Advantages will be, more important races throughout the series, since more will offer the possibility of elimination; the strongest teams, which will qualify early, will be out of the picture, giving the weaker teams a chance to work on their technique and team work and, frankly, to show their sponsors before the public.

Disadvantages are, the strongest teams, by qualifying early, will be out of sight for long periods, two teams will be eliminated very early, and the format is fairly difficult to explain to the general public.

I can hardly wait.