Yachting: Team NZ heading home for the hard yards

Long monotonous days of testing are in store for Team New Zealand as they return to Auckland for their last full summer of training on the Hauraki Gulf.

The Emirates-sponsored syndicate finished third behind Alinghi and Oracle in the final America's Cup pre-regatta of the year in Trapani, Sicily.

The fleet racing regatta ended in spectacular fashion when Spain's Desafio Espanol edged out BMW Oracle Racing in a photo-finish to win the fifth and final race.

Team New Zealand were over at the start but recovered to finish the race sixth. Alinghi were third, which was enough to clinch them the regatta win.

The defenders were crowned 2005 America's Cup champions, winning an impressive five of the year's six regattas.

The only other team to have claimed a regatta win was Team Luna Rossa in the fleet racing regatta in Valencia.

Team New Zealand ended the year as the top challenger ahead of Oracle. The two syndicates finished with 61 points but because Team New Zealand beat Oracle, even if it was only by 3s in their last match-race, they moved into second place.

The regattas in Trapani mark the end of the America's Cup roadshow. From now on the pre-regattas will take place in Valencia, the boats will be skirted from January and teams will be barricaded in their multi-million dollar bases.

Before that Team New Zealand will return to Auckland where they will train from November until the end of March before relocating to Valencia.

"Grant [Dalton] drove the point home the day that we lost to Alinghi, if you work straight for the next two years every single day and you win, it wouldn't matter," said Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson.

"At this point the world is our oyster and we can completely control our own destiny. I think we have made such great strides as a group of sailors.

"Now we have to really emphasise the hardware for next year and get the boat to a point where it is so blistering fast that it doesn't matter how many shifts I miss or how many starts we are even on. Clearly that is Alinghi's motto ... I think there is a good lesson we can learn there."

NZL82, the boat that was used in the last cup, will go from Trapani to Valencia where it will be stored.

The team will train with its sistership NZL81 and the former illbruck boat GER68 until the launch of their new boat NZL84 early in the new year. The new boat will then be trialled against either GER68 or NZL81.

Team New Zealand will be the second team, behind Team Shosholoza, to launch a 2007generation boat, something skipper Dean Barker is hoping will work to their advantage.

"It takes a long time to learn to sail it at its optimum. I think we saw that with Alinghi in 2003.

"They were the second new boat launched in the last campaign and by the time they had got to the cup they had sailed that thing for maybe 18 months and they knew how to sail it at its optimum performance."

Although there has been much discussion about whether it is wise for teams to sail their new boats in next year's regattas, since it allows their rivals to gauge their performance, Barker said it was an opportunity to "make sure we are going in the right direction".

"We'll see other teams' ideas and I am sure there will be ideas we take back to our team. It is sort of give and take."