Yachting: Sponsorship deal aids Team NZ

Team New Zealand will be able to transfer data instantaneously from its yachts to its shore crew for analysis following the signing of a new sponsorship deal.

Until now, the boats had to come back to shore before the data could be downloaded, creating a time lag.

But Team NZ boss Grant Dalton today announced Vodafone New Zealand as the latest addition to the syndicate's list of corporate backers, supplying the team's global telecommunications needs.

Financial details of the Vodafone deal were not disclosed.

It is the first time Vodafone has been involved with Team NZ, whose sponsors in previous campaigns have included rival telecommunications company Telecom.

Dubai-based Emirates Airlines is the syndicate's lead sponsor, while Toyota New Zealand is one of two second-tier "elite" sponsors, with the others still to be confirmed.

Dalton said the yachting syndicate still has one major sponsor to sign up to meet its planned budget for the 2007 America's Cup.

He added that agreement with "an overseas company" could be reached within a month.

Dalton was speaking after "When we knock off that last slot, I'll be sleeping a little bit easier," Dalton said.

"You can never have too much money, but once the next one is put down, that will be the last of the big sponsorships we need."

Meanwhile, the gear problems that plagued Team NZ during their America's Cup defeat two years ago have stayed away during testing off Auckland so far this summer.

Dalton said that there had been no structural issues with either NZL81 or the former illbruck yacht now known as NZL68.

"We've given them absolute hell but we've had no breaks," he said.

"I cannot think of one single breakdown we've had since we started sailing in December, not even a hydraulic leak, which is good. Our reliability seems good."

During the cup loss to Swiss challengers Alinghi two years ago, Team NZ's race yacht, NZL82, failed to finish two of the five races.

The same boat is undergoing repair after it was damaged in a storm while at a regatta in Marseille last year.

Dalton said the testing so far had been "in a macro sense".

"We're testing hulls, bulbs, keels, rudders, rigs -- big ticket items -- before we start to fine down, and that won't happen until next year."

Testing would continue off Auckland until the team headed to Europe in June for this year's series of America's Cup lead-up regattas.

- NZPA