KEY POINTS:
EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND
Country: New Zealand
Boats: NZL84, NZL92
Syndicate head: Grant Dalton
Skipper: Dean Barker
Key designers: Andy Claughton, Clay Oliver
Estimated budget: $130 million
Boat colour: Black
Challenger ranking: 1
HISTORY
New Zealand's first challenge for the cup was in 1987 where they introduced the world's first fibreglass 12-metre yachts. KZ7 won 37 of 38 matches before losing to Dennis Conner in the challenger final. In 1995 Team New Zealand - led by Sir Peter Blake with Russell Coutts at the helm - ran one of the strongest campaigns in the history of the cup.
Team New Zealand dominated the challenger series before defeating Conner in the America's Cup match 5-0. New Zealand then became the first country outside the USA to successfully defend the cup in 2000. But shortly after the team imploded with many sailors, including Coutts, jumping ship to rival syndicates.
With a young and relatively inexperienced sailing team Team New Zealand gambled on a radical new hull design in 2003. The result? A 5-0 defeat to Coutts' Alinghi. Reborn as Emirates Team New Zealand, the team have many parallels with the 1995 team - most notably a strong leader in round-the-world race veteran Grant Dalton.
CREW
Headed by Dean Barker, Team New Zealand possess one of the most potent sailing crews around. There's a new-look afterguard with Americans Terry Hutchinson and Kevin Hall joining Barker in the back of the boat.
The sailing crew is a lot more experienced than last time.
Crew work will have to be perfect to win this regatta and Barker and his team know it.
"It is about being able to maintain a steady average all the way through," Barker says.
"Not necessarily doing anything brilliantly but just doing everything consistently well. It is such a long series if we can be consistently good all the way through, then I think that is what will be required to be successful at the end."
STRENGTHS
* A strong crew
* Good all-round boats
* Strong team spirit which will be needed during the long three-month regatta.
With many survivors of the disastrous 2003 campaign, there is a strong feeling of wanting to right the wrongs.
But spirit will not lift the world's oldest sporting prize off Alinghi. A quick boat and good sailors will. Team New Zealand have both.
PROSPECTS
Most are predicting Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing will battle it out in the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup. As to whether Team New Zealand can go a couple of steps further ... with a bit of luck ... absolutely.
