America's Cup update

Nigel Cherrie looks at the form in next week's International Regatta

Three America's Cup challengers will take the plunge and square up against Team New Zealand next week in the International Regatta, the only official AC class competition before the start of the Louis Vuitton series this October.

Starting on Monday morning, the defenders will join Sweden's Victory Challenge, OneWorld of the USA and GBR Challenge for a week of exhibition fleet sailing and match racing on the Hauraki Gulf.

The organizers, Team New Zealand themselves, have copied the format of the highly successful America’s Cup Jubilee at Cowes last August and will round the week off with a spectacular long inshore fleet race, a day after the match race final.

But the whole event is still a double-edged sword.

It is well known around the waterfront that several challenging syndicates have lined up against other teams. It's pretty hard to hide what you are doing on the Hauraki Gulf in view of the rest of the world yet most will not discuss their training programmes with the media but the general goal for the overseas teams is to keep the Kiwi’s out in the cold and guessing while boosting the standard of the challengers.

That said, next week obviously provides Team New Zealand with some extra curricula competition and a rough guide to the form of three teams at least. There are mixed opinions along syndicate row but GBR Challenge's General Manager David Barnes believes the benefits to the British camp are too big to sideline the opportunity. "If there is racing we'll be there and if we get hammered, it's best you know," said Barnes yesterday.

The all-conquering NZL 60, which kept the Cup in New Zealand, is still regarded as the baseline so everyone will be gauging performances relative to the black boat. To stand any chance of prizing the Cup away from the Kiwi's, one team at least has to make a significant jump on the former winner as Team New Zealand could well take another step forward with their next yacht.

"We believe they ( NZL 57 and NZL60) are still the fastest [America's Cup class] boats in the world at the moment so for us to actually have our ex- Nippon boats lining up against NZL 60 is a really good opportunity to see their performance," added Barnes.

"Through all of our testing we believe we know the difference of GBR52 relative to what we have designed for our new boat, which really gives us a good benchmark alongside NZL 60 of where our new boat will be".

Besides that, the British team is also keen to start racing in earnest - in house match racing only goes so far. " We believe we are pretty competent as
far at boat handling, different moves and maneuvers and pre-start go but you need to get out there racing against the opposition and check in. You put a marker down and see where you are at," added Barnes.

While Barnes is keeping the crew lists close to his chest, he acknowledged that a number of positions will be revolved during the week. By mixing and matching, it boosts the level of the entire team and allows them to try different crew combinations in a pressured racing environment.

The man that has made it all possible for Britain, Peter Harrison, is in town to watch his boys and is out on the water today as the British mix with Prada and OneWorld in some informal racing.

The Swedish Victory Challenge boat, Orn, will be the first new generation America's Cup class yacht to race when they line up in the first fleet race on Monday with double Olympic gold medallist Jesper Bank behind the wheel.

OneWorld have not announced which of their two training yachts they will use; but the former America True is better in the light while the ex- Stars and Stripes will be selected if it blows.

See page two on 'Challenger Week', another occasion the ACC boats will line up in March and the Auckland view on illbruck