Version five boat gets afloat

Emirates Team New Zealand take their modified German AC boat out on to the Hauraki Gulf

Emirates Team New Zealand is back in the water at its home base in Auckland after a successful 2004 European campaign. Having won this year's Louis Vuitton season trophy for the pre-regattas held in Marseille and Valencia earlier this year, the team has re-grouped and is ready for an intense training period in the waters of New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf ahead of next year's races which start in June back in Valencia.

Emirates Team New Zealand will take full advantage of the summer in New Zealand to test its new boat, NZL68. For 2005 there will be a new version of the America's Cup racing yachts - known as version five. ETNZ has already built and fitted out its new version five boat and took it out on to the water for the first time recently - making the team one of the first America's Cup syndicates sailing in the new version of the design rule.

The main changes now allowed to the boats are a deeper keel and lighter bulb, a larger sail area - thanks to a longer spinnaker pole - and inflatable battens. Hull appendages, or hulas, are banned. As a result, the version five boats should prove lighter and faster - and thus make for some even more dramatic and exciting racing in Europe next summer.

It's been only six months since the team announced its challenge for the 2007 America's Cup, and in that time Emirates Team New Zealand has experienced some dramatic highs and lows. The destruction of the team's boat on shore, during a freak storm in Marseilles, was followed by an all-out scramble to organise a replacement boat for the Valencia races and then, ultimately, overall victory in the 2004 pre-regattas.

The efforts to overcome the challenge and produce credible results tested the entire team and helped in cementing the bond among its members. The nearly 100-strong team is now approaching the 2005 racing season with confidence and belief in itself and its ability to conquer any new challenges.

With summer in the southern hemisphere about to start, the team members are looking forward to several months of rigorous training of both crew and equipment in Auckland. Everybody is now based in one place for the first time and the hard work of preparing for the European summer regattas of 2005 can start in earnest, to lay the ground for the long and arduous campaign leading up to the America's Cup finale in 2007.

Grant Dalton, Managing Director of Emirates Team New Zealand, in Dubai for a review of the team's plans with its title sponsor, said: "The team numbers 95 people and it was not possible until now to get everybody working together full time in one place.

"There were moments before Emirates' and Team New Zealand's joint announcement last June when I wondered if this time would ever come. The funding we needed was massive by New Zealand standards, and the business people who make decisions about sponsorships of this magnitude wanted more than just hope for a good result. They wanted to see change and commitment from the team. They wanted a clear vision of the way forward to Valencia in 2007."

He added: "But there was always encouragement from people and organisations who knew us well and who continued to believe that it was possible to bring the America's Cup back to Auckland. We were immensely encouraged by Emirates' support and that's a relationship that is going from strength to strength.

"We have a demanding regatta programme in Europe starting in Valencia in June, northern Europe in August and southern Europe in September/October and of course our aim is to do at least as well in 2005 with our new boat as we did this year, and stay in the lead."

In addition to its America's Cup activity, the team achieved great success in the New Zealand National Match Racing Championship regatta at the end of November. Emirates Team New Zealand crews skippered by Dean Barker and Ben Ainslie dominated the regatta. Dean Barker was first and Ben Ainslie second ahead of crews from the BMW Oracle team. Racing in the final was close and could have gone either way. Ainslie won the first two races and Barker the final three, to take the title.

The result was particularly encouraging for Ainslie, twice an Olympic gold medalist for Britain, who is intent on making a rapid transition from the disciplines of single-handed Finn dinghy sailing to the afterguard for Emirates Team New Zealand. He sailed with Rod Davis, the team's afterguard coach, as tactician.

Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand skipper said: "It was a very good result for Ben and will give him a lot of confidence as he comes to grips with match racing. The performance lifted the level of match racing within the team and puts them in a positive mood for the start of the summer testing programme on the Hauraki Gulf."

Ben Ainslie said: "It was a great result for Emirates Team New Zealand. Match racing is very different. I learned a lot over the four days. It was great to have sailed with so many good yachtsmen."