By SUZANNE McFADDEN
As the challengers file out of the Viaduct Harbour this morning, Sir Paul Reeves will bless their boats, signalling the start of the long battle towards the America's Cup.
The start? Is it just me or does it feel like the last cup never ended?
Syndicate Row never went to sleep. As swiftly as one huge team shed came down, one even bigger sprouted in its place. The designers, sailors and lawyers have hardly surfaced for air since March 2000, when one cup ended and new challengers began. Old hands Prada have been scooting around town for the last five years, and Dennis Conner lives here, doesn't he?
Around $1.5 billion has already been blown on a fleet of yachts which will be considered almost archaic in less than a year's time.
Everyone's been racing everyone else (except the coy Team Dennis Conner camp) for what seems like months now. Russell Coutts' Alinghi won the first round, scoring valuable psych-points, and now the Swiss team is cock of the walk going into racing proper in the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Already we have feted the 10 syndicates with a rousing heroes' parade and the crews have celebrated just being in Auckland in an out-of-this-world party. In an empty warehouse where balls of fire shot to the ceiling, rival sailors stood shoulder to shoulder, occasionally clinking their designer beer bottles.
Billionaire Patrizio Bertelli laughed like a victor with his Prada team-mates, and the young Hugo Stenbeck, son of the late head of the Swedish Victory Challenge, bonded with the team he had just inherited.
Yep, it sure seems like we're halfway through a regatta that just keeps rolling on.
Yet it will soon all be over for one syndicate - the unlucky last who goes home first. No one wants to suffer the ignominy of trailing the fleet in the qualifier for the America's Cup - of having your cup dream sunk when there's still around 70 races to be sailed.
Sure, when the challengers finally get down to serious business today (wind gods allowing), all we want to know is who is fastest. There is no prize for having the flashiest paint job, the loudest horn or the richest helmsman. By the weekend we could have a pretty good idea who is quick - and who is not.
While the slicker boats will be nudging each other for early supremacy, don't forget to keep an eye on the other end of the fleet, where success is in simply surviving.
After two weeks' racing, one syndicate will be sent packing. The mega-millions they've spent over the past 2 1/2 years just to reach Auckland will have blown away on a Gulf breeze.
Maybe it seems a rough deal, but it is what the challengers chose - a new race agenda to supposedly find the strongest and fastest team to overthrow Team New Zealand.
Elimination won't come easy to any of the tycoons who want to nick off with our cup. Remember, these are men who hate the word "lose"; who have only really known success.
Bruno Trouble expects fireworks. "With the money they have spent, there can be no excuses about not having good enough sails," said the cup veteran. "No way can anyone go to Larry Ellison and say, 'sorry boss, we had the wrong mast'."
Another French character of the cup, Luc Gellusseau, is quite happy his Le Defi Areva team is tycoon-free - even though they are candidates for an early exit.
"Having a billionaire is not a holiday. With money comes a lot of politics. And you can waste money if you have too much," he says.
"A lot of people ... think they are going to the America's Cup. The one problem is there are too many of those people. Only one can be the best." By this weekend, we should have a better idea of who that is.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule, results and standings
Seriously, Syndicate Row never really went to sleep
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