Yachting: Eight teams to contest America's Cup-class regatta

Eight teams will battle it out on the water when America's Cup-class yachting returns to Auckland next month.

Apart from hosts Team New Zealand, the other crews entered in Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland come from European-based syndicates.

They are Aleph (France, skipper Bertrand Pace), All4One (France/Germany, Jochen Schumann), Artemis (Sweden, Paul Cayard), Azzurra (Italy, Francesco Bruni), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Synergy (Russia, Karol Jablonski) and Team Origin (Britain, Ben Ainslie).

Missing are America's Cup holders Alinghi of Switzerland and American syndicate Oracle, who were both in the fleet for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland last year. This time around, Alinghi and Oracle have their focus on their bitter one-on-one duel for the Auld Mug.

Their best-of-three showdown, which will be sailed in giant multihulls, begins off the Spanish city of Valencia next Wednesday.

The Auckland regatta will run from March 9 to 21 and, unlike last year, the Dean Barker-skippered Team NZ will not get direct entry into the final.

Instead, like the other crews, they will have to qualify through round-robin and knockout stages.

The Pacific Series last January and February was organised to give sailors some action while the lengthy court battles between Alinghi and Oracle put the America's Cup in limbo.

- NZPA