Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill has declared Team New Zealand the early favourite to advance through to face the US team in the finals of the next America's Cup.
The skippers of the six America's Cup teams gathered together for the first time in London overnight for a press call aheadof two days of competitors meetings. Along with 2013 challengers Luna Rossa and Artemis, the line-up included two new teams - a British challenge led by Ben Ainslie and a French team headed by Franck Cammas.
Spithill said the group of challengers are the toughest line-up he has faced going into and America's Cup, but believes Emirates Team New Zealand - the challenger for the 34th America's Cup - remain the favourite.
"To be honest, you'd probably have to say Team New Zealand because of history and time together, there's no shortcutting the amount of time that team has been together. But then you have to look at some of these new teams, you could go through every team and list their strengths," said Spithill.
Sitting next to Spithill - the man who led a stunning comeback from 8-1 down to vanquish the Kiwis and retain the America's Cup last year - Team NZ skipper Dean Barker admitted the wounds from the 2013 event are still raw. But he believes the team are in a much better place to challenge for the next Cup.
"Obviously it was an extremely disappointing result for us last year in San Fran and we took some time to reflect and look back at what had happened. I think the one thing we quickly established is the team has got some fantastic attributes and it was really only by the smallest amount that we were unable to go the extra step," said Barker.
"Having been through a process now of evaluating and reviewing the team, bringing in some new faces, some new talent, the team is in a much stronger place to kick off to the next challenge."
The publicity event in London was light on detail for the 35th America's Cup, but at least one key question was answered with the confirmation Luna Rossa will take over as the challenger of record following the withdrawal of Team Australia. The challenger of record is responsible for negotiating the terms of the next event on behalf of all the challengers, but Max Sirena, the skipper of the Italian team, is plumping for a more collaborative approach.
Sirena said he has been working behind the scenes to establish a working group so that the all the decisions will be made collectively.
"We have started to put in place a challenger committee, the main reason I pushed really hard for that and I had the support of all the other teams here on stage because in the last America's Cup the challenger of record has been a big issue and we need to make a few changes," said Sirena.
"We are working together to put together this committee and that will be defined in the coming days. The main reason is because we need to work together as a group like in every other sport. In Formula 1 and MotoGP the teams all work together to make the rules and the changes."
An announcement over the venue for the 2017 event still appears some way off. Dr Harvey Schiller, the new commercial director of the America's Cup events authority said organisers are still working through the relative merits of the final two shortlisted venues of San Diego and Bermuda.
