KEY POINTS:
It is a few days out from the America's Cup match, and all is quiet at the Team New Zealand base.
The team have been given the day off, allowing managing director Grant Dalton a moment to reflect.
Out of the boardroom window, the black boats NZL84 and
NZL92 are sitting in the boat shed and a giant New Zealand flag flutters in the breeze.
Across the port, Oracle are wrapping their chase boats for transportation, there is no sign of life at Luna Rossa. It's hard to remember when the likes of +39 and Shosholoza last raced.
A not-so-subtle reminder of what Team New Zealand have achieved.
"I am really proud," Dalton says.
"Every now and then I have to pinch myself about how we got here. We are so grateful for the people that have helped us get to where we are today.
"I remember talking to [Luna Rossa skipper] Francesco [de Angelis] after the final and he looked like a dead man walking. You put yourself in that position, it would be bloody hard. We are very lucky to get this far."
To understand how far Team New Zealand have come, you have to rewind to 2003 and one of the saddest chapters in New Zealand's sporting history - an inexperienced team ripped apart by Ernesto Bertarelli's powerful Swiss syndicate Alinghi, a black boat so fragile it failed to finish two of the five races.
Dalton watched the drama unfold from his couch.
Upset at what he had witnessed he heeded the call of his peers and put himself forward for the job of resurrecting the broken and bruised syndicate.
"It was such a bad time there were calls for decimating the entire place," Dalton recalls.
"One of the very first people I met with was Dean [Barker]. I met him at his house and sat with him for three hours.
"I saw in Dean a character that we are seeing now, that a lot of people still do not see. I saw him as very focused, highly intelligent, bruised beyond belief but resolute in the fact he could come back.
"You saw the headlines every day: 'Dean Barker has to go'. I just could not for the life of me see why that was the right move.
"Knowing already Ernesto [Bertarelli] had taken away the requirement of nationality, it wasn't like it was a one-stop shop, there was opportunities all over the place.
"I think Dean has absolutely proved himself, no matter what happens next."
The other thing Dalton saw was a brand that was strong but had had a bad day. Dalton set himself a deadline of 12 months to find the $150 million needed to fund a challenge. Days before the deadline, he asked for more time.
"You had to have faith you would get to the next stage.
"A lot of guys did have faith otherwise they wouldn't have signed before we had the money. The fact that the guys signed on for the right reasons in the first place, that has made the place a lot easier to run. Rob Waddell, a good grinder, could have gone anywhere."
Although the securing of Emirates as a naming sponsor was the key to getting the syndicate to the start line, Dalton says the team will forever be indebted to the many people who donated goods and services - a generosity that is a point of difference between Team New Zealand and other teams.
The team immediately set about repaying such supporters by winning on the water, claiming the 2004 and 2006 America's Cup championship seasons.
Dalton says their journey to the America's Cup match has been a series of stages, where each one had to be completed, spot-on, before they moved on.
"The first one was raising the money and getting the right people, the second one was getting going and strengthening NZL81 and NZL82, the third one was designing and building new boats, the fourth one was racing them.
"The fifth - and the only one left - is the match itself. It is another stage, albeit the ultimate stage, before we can tick all the boxes. We know the size of the mountain and how good Alinghi will be."
While Dalton respects Alinghi, he feels nothing for them.
"I just know they stand between us and the Holy Grail. I don't feel animosity. I am not caught - and I hope this organisation is not caught - in the wake of 2003. We don't think like that anymore. The team has moved on from that stage."
He believes that if there were any demons left, they were expelled last year when his team beat Alinghi to win the final match-racing regatta.
"Psychologically, because there are a lot of new people here, I don't think we were ever caught in '03. But when we won last year, if there was any residue left, that was probably the thing that swept it away and we started to believe."
Looking ahead to the match, Dalton knows the Swiss will be fast.
"I have always known that, we have seen that, everyone is telling us that. Brad [Butterworth] has always said their objective is to have the fastest boat and let the boat talk.
"Nothing to date, in anything we have seen, indicates anything different. They have our immense respect. [But] we don't fear them. You never fear your opposition. We'll be going as fast as we can go. Whether that is fast enough to beat Alinghi, I don't know. One of the things about it now is it is just yacht racing, in its purest sense. It is going to be a yacht race against the best team since 2003."
