Team NZ bring all the parts under one sail

The next stage in Team New Zealand's quest for the America's Cup begins in Auckland today.

For the first time since officially launching their challenge in June, the entire syndicate will gather and training will begin on the Hauraki Gulf.

While the design team have been working for the best part of a year and members of the shore crew, weather team, sailing team and operations unit were involved in this year's pre-regattas in Europe - the entire team, which is closing in on 80 members, have not been in the same building at the same time.

Following on from their success in Europe where they beat arch-rivals Alinghi, Oracle and Prada to win the 2004 America's Cup Class championship, Emirates-sponsored Team New Zealand will spend the next five months in Auckland before heading to Europe for the next round of pre-regattas, which start in Valencia next June.

The team's race boats NZL81 and NZL82 are expected to arrive back from Valencia over the weekend.

NZL82 will immediately head to the boatshed for repairs after its hull was badly damaged in a storm which blasted through Marseille after the first regatta.

Despite the damage to NZL82 the syndicate hopes to launch into its sailing programme next week with NZL81 and the former illbruck boat GER68, which the syndicate is borrowing.

The illbruck boat, similar in shape to that of Oracle and Alinghi, was built for the last America's Cup but was never sailed after the syndicate failed to raise enough money.

In the next few months Team New Zealand will also change at least one of their boats into version five of the design rule, which is a requirement to compete in next year's pre-regattas.

After each cup the defenders can alter the design specifications. Included in the new design rule is a ban on hull appendages, which means Team New Zealand will have to remove the hulas on NZL81 and NZL82 and may lean towards taking the illbruck boat to Europe next year.

The pre-regattas are designed to make cup racing a more regular feature on the sailing calendar.

This year's regattas counted for nothing but from next year teams will acquire points which will be used to seed them in the challenger series which starts in April 2007.

The countdown

Twenty-eight months (851 days) until the start of the challenger series

* Pre-regattas: June-October 2005

* Pre-regattas: 2006

* Pre-regatta fleet race: March 2007

* Challenger series: April-June 2007

* America's Cup: June 2007