Team NZ offer challengers early test

By JULIE ASH

Team New Zealand's first real test of strength will come early in the New Year.

They will line up against Seattle's OneWorld Challenge, Britain's GBR Challenge and Sweden's Victory Challenge in an international regatta between February 11 and 17.

Syndicates opting not to compete at this stage are Oracle Racing, Prada and Alinghi.

"We invited all the teams that were down here for the summer and it was a good response," Team New Zealand executive director Tony Thomas said.

"A couple of teams responded by saying that it would interfere with their sailing programme and they weren't available at the moment, but they may review it later."

The event replaces the Road to the America's Cup regatta, which invited syndicates to match-race in the yachts from the Team New Zealand campaign in San Diego in 1992.

Thomas said that next year's regatta would involve a fleet race to decide the top four teams, who would then square off in match-races.

After that would come a longer fleet race along the East Coast Bays, finishing under the harbour bridge.

"With the Road to the America's Cup regatta, Team New Zealand only sailed in the last day or so once a challenger was found," Thomas said. "This time they are sailing all the way through it."

The teams would race their own yachts - most of which will probably be 2000 generation boats.

Rather than a test of technology, the syndicates would look at it as a chance to see how their crews worked and managed the conditions.

Thomas said there was no point reading too much into the results, because the winner of this regatta would not necessarily win the America's Cup.

"No one is going to show off their new technology."

Tourism New Zealand will host up to 50 international journalists during the regatta, and challenger series sponsor Louis Vuitton also expects to bring in another large group of media to the event. The Louis Vuitton Cup series starts in October, before the 31st America's Cup regatta in February 2003.