KEY POINTS:
VALENCIA - Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton says he's comfortable with the innovations unveiled today for the next America's Cup yachting regatta.
In fact, Team NZ would have made changes similar to those contained in the new protocol released in Valencia, if they had managed to win back the Auld Mug.
"There's nothing unexpected at all in there for us actually," he said.
"There's a lot in what they've done that we would have done, and my over-riding feeling is that it probably isn't bad for Team NZ."
The protocol was agreed to by defenders Alinghi and Spain's Desafio Espanol, the new "challenger of record", or representative of all potential challengers.
However, a venue is yet to be confirmed with ACM chief executive Michel Bonnefous saying the location of the next America's Cup would be announced before the end of the year.
Negotiations were continuing with Valencia's local authorities and, if agreement was reached, the match would be held in 2009.
If the event was moved elsewhere in Europe, the date would be put back to 2010 or 2011.
The key change is that the next cup match will feature a new, bigger yacht, with a maximum overall length of 27.5 metres compared with the present 24m.
However, the new class of boat will not be sailed competitively until at least 18 months after the new rule is published sometime before the end of the year.
During the interim period, the existing cup boats will continue to be used for racing.
The protocol also allows Alinghi to take part in the challengers' series.
Dalton said Team NZ had to accept what they were given because they lost the option of controlling their own destiny when they were beaten by Alinghi.
But his initial view of the protocol was that it would give larger size teams that were up and running an advantage.
"Not only do you have to maintain and race competitively existing boats, in other words you better have a couple of good ones," he said.
"But you also need a pretty serious design team standing by and ready to launch the new boat. So that's all good for us."
Dalton said the uncertainty over where and when the next America's Cup would be held -- the organisers expect to make an announcement by the end of the year -- wasn't a problem for Team NZ.
However, it probably would be for teams that didn't have a strong sponsor base and who would find it hard to find investors to get on board when there was doubt over timing and other details.
Team NZ's main backers -- the Government, Emirates, Toyota -- were already engaged in the America's Cup, he said.
"They can get their heads around that, so that plays for us."
Dalton said changes Team NZ might have made if they had won the cup included a new class of boat and allowing the defenders to race in the challengers' series.
"Certainly it appears that our documents crossed in the night at some stage," he said of the similarity between Team NZ's ideas and the actual protocol.
- NZPA
