By Keith Taylor
January 15, 2003
Source: www.milleniumcup.com

The superyacht regatta, the Millennium Cup 2003, gets underway February 10-13. It will set the stage for racing for the America's Cup which starts two days later on the 15th.

The four-day rendezvous for both sail and motor yachts has attracted an eclectic mix of luxury vessels from international ports as diverse as Hong Kong and Antigua, Halifax and Guernsey, Boston and Monaco. Auckland and Sydney are both well represented. With 40 superyachts already entered and entries coming in every day, event organizer Lane Finley is confident that this year's field will be bigger than the billion dollar fleet of 55 vessels that contested the first Cup. Of the early entries, 16 are vessels that competed three years ago.

The biggest and fastest sailing yachts in the Millennium Cup will be battling for first to finish honors in two round the buoys events and the passage race to Kawau Island, followed by a second race back to Auckland. Smaller and older craft will have their chance to win under the IRC handicap system, a formula that takes into account the speed-producing features and potential of widely diverse designs. Powered craft will pit the skills of their skippers and navigators against each other in predicted log competitions, in which boats transit the day's course in a set time without the benefit of time pieces or instruments, using only a compass for direction and engine revolutions to estimate speed.