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The Louis Vuitton Cup

The way the America's Cup challenge is run is rather different from usual yacht races.

First of all, all the groups (or syndicates) who want to try to win the cup from the Defender (the syndicate or country who hold the cup because they won it last time) have to race each other to see which of them becomes the Challenger. Only the one boat, the Challenger, races the one boat defending the cup.

All of the races have only two boats racing at a time, so there are a lot of races. When you win a race, you get a point, and the boat with the most points at the end of the various rounds, is the winner and becomes the challenger.

Because it is so hard to become the challenger these days, with so many countries trying for the cup, there is now a cup specially for the challenger. This is the Louis Vuitton cup.

In Auckland in 2000, the winner of the Louis Vuitton cup is the one who challenges Team New Zealand for the America's Cup itself.

On 25 January, the last two challengers, Prada and America One, start the series of races that will determine who wins the Louis Vuitton cup, and gets to challenge for the America's Cup. The first boat to win five races will be the winner.

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