Deny deny deny

Team New Zealand are playing their cards closely to their chest

The report in New Zealand's Independent that Team New Zealand are to receive as much as NZ$50 million in sponsorship from the Emirates airline may be premature.

Even if all the indications are that the Dubai-based airline are promoting themselves more in the New Zealand market, TNZ PR guru Warren Douglas told thedailysail "if only the Independent story was true and life was that simple... Every time there's media speculation about sponsorship, one way or another, it causes us grief. Our response to this latest speculation is the standard 'Team NZ does not discuss sponsorship matters in public. It is the team's provate business.' End of comment."

Many negotiations of this kind are subject to confidentiality clauses, so if there is truth in the Emirates sponsorship deal and a leak has come from within TNZ it could prove embarrassing.

Meanwhile Douglas says the team are carrying out work on NZL82 which will be sailing in June before being shipped to Europe to take part in the first America's Cup 'Acts' in Marseilles and Valencia. Work on NZL81 follows afterward, while the hull of the former illbruck, GER68 is to arrive in July.