Yachting: Dalton happy with Cup yacht's performance on gulf sailings

Team New Zealand have wound up their summer training programme in Auckland.

Next week their new race yacht, NZL84, a tender, three chase boats, five masts, 17 40ft containers and keels and bulbs will be shipped to Valencia for the next stage of their America's Cup campaign.

The way forward

From April the syndicate will base themselves in Valencia, where they will compete in three pre-regattas in May/June/July.

"It's time," chief executive Grant Dalton said. "If we are behind in one area - and we are probably behind in lots - it is venue development. But there are many advantages to the stability created by being here."

The Emirates-sponsored syndicate will return to Auckland around August/September, when they will train on the Hauraki Gulf from late spring and launch their second boat around Christmas.

While based in Spain, the syndicate will provide core crew for two yachts competing in the TP52 circuit.

Dean Barker, Jeremy Lomas, Jared Henderson, Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Hall, Grant Loretz and Don Cowie will sail on Warpath and Ray Davies, Stu Bettany, Jono Macbeth, Tony Rae and Joe Allen on Mean Machine.

"The reason for those boats is not to dull the senses ... and to develop relationships," Dalton said. "We can continue doing our testing in Valencia without them."

The new black boat

Tuesday marked the end of a series of in-house races against the new NZL84 and NZL81, the sister-ship to defender NZL82, over a full cup course.

"It is an improvement on the old boats but you would expect that. This boat, like all new boats, will be a bit of a trade-off ... you get this, you don't get that," Dalton said.

"I think already we can do better. The danger any team face is standing still."

Dalton has said the new black boat represents "steady development from an existing theme" rather than a breakthrough in design.

Which means the hull shape is now closer to the Alinghi and Oracle boats - narrower, more slab-sided and fuller in the bow.

How it will look compared to the other new-generation boats is difficult to predict.

"I believe that Alinghi and Oracle will stay in the same family ... in that they carry their LCB [longitudinal centre of buoyancy] quite a long way forward," Dalton said.

Team New Zealand were investigating ideas to try to understand what others might do. Ideas included jumper-less rigs, and other thoughts on reducing wind and water drag.

"Oracle I think are quite advanced in aerodynamics and drag reduction in their rigs. there are massive gains to be made."

Will NZL84 race this year?

"It is a bit of a case of who blinks first," Dalton said.

Team New Zealand, Oracle, Team Luna Rosa, +39, Desafio Espanol, Mascalzone Latino and Germany have all been assigned sail numbers and could have new boats ready to race in May.

"I can't work out why they won't race. We want to race the new boat, there is a lot to be gained. Probably the other teams will be thinking the same - but if they stay in the shed, so will we, but I don't think that will happen."

Dalton believes if anyone has anything radical it will be on show this year. "You are going to want to play it out this year."

The opposition

Alinghi have dominated the pre-regattas, surprising many following the loss of Russell Coutts. Their well-balanced boat has been a click faster than the rest across a range of conditions. "Most teams will never beat them," Dalton said.

He would not comment on how he thought NZL84 would go against the Swiss boats.

"If we have done a good job we might have got to their pace, but we certainly won't have exceeded it. Why would we have? They have been on the incremental since the last Cup, whereas we have been taking mammoth steps to try and catch them.

"Overall I think we are still moving and happy where we are."

Dalton also raised the question of how much effort Alinghi would put into the pre-regattas from now on, or whether they would even take part.

Oracle are not far from launching their first new boat. "They are building rigs and sailing them as quick as they can build them," Dalton said.

Luna Rossa are understood to have their new boat in Valencia. It is expected to be in the same mould as the Oracle/Alinghi boats.

This year's aims

"We have to understand if we have got our boat in the right spot and whether it is fast enough," Dalton said. "We would certainly like to get on an even footing with Alinghi."