Yachting: Team NZ hold their pre-regatta breath

With nothing separating the top three challengers, the final two pre-regattas before the America's Cup could be crucial for Team New Zealand.

The final regatta for 2006 starts in Valencia tonight, a year out from the America's Cup match.

The event is the last match-racing regatta before the challenger series which starts in April. Teams will square off for the last time in a fleet-racing regatta next year before the real competition begins.

Over the next 12 days in Valencia the challengers and defenders Alinghi will compete in a round-robin competition. At the conclusion of that teams will be ranked according to their results and divided into three groups of four.

Each group then races a semifinal and a final (and petit-final) to determine the final standings within that group.

With 22 points, Italians Luna Rossa lead the 2006 championship. One point behind are Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand are a further point back.

The pre-regattas, which are new for the event, count for points in the challenger series.

The challenger rankings after the 2005 and 2006 pre-regattas, plus the single fleet racing regatta in 2007, translate into bonus points that are carried forward into the challenger series. The top ranked team will get four points, the second, third and fourth ranked teams will all receive three points each and so on.

With the level of competition in the challenger fleet so high, a point could be significant. It could mean the difference between finishing first and second in the challenger series round- robin competition, which is important as the team in first place gets to decide whom they will race in the semifinals.

Team New Zealand and Chris Dickson's Oracle are at the top of the challenger rankings with 103 points. Luna Rossa are just three behind.

"After two years Oracle and us are all tied up," said Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton. "A lot of these regattas seemed to be getting settled on tied breaks. One point could mean a lot ... these regattas really matter now."

The team whom many are tipping to join Team New Zealand, Oracle and Luna Rossa in the semifinals next year, Spain's Desafio Espanol, will use their new boat ESP88 in this regatta. However, Alinghi have said they would use SUI75 and, in continuing their crew rotation policy, Peter Holmberg would steer.

"It will be hard," Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth said of the competition, "I think, because you see how the other three big teams have got closer to us. The Spanish have launched their new boat and they are not going too badly either. It's going to be hard to make the final four. Once you do, then it's all on and in any given day you can make the finals or not. We'll be pushing our hardest, but I think it's going to be a tough call."

MATCH RACES

Emirates Team New Zealand schedule and other races of interest:

June 22

Team New Zealand (NZL84) v China (CHN79)
+39 (ITA59 ) v Team New Zealand

June 23
Team New Zealand v Victory Challenge (SWE63)
Desafio Espanol (ESP88) v BMW Oracle Racing (USA87)
Mascalzone Latino (ITA77) v Team New Zealand

June 24

Oracle (USA87) v Alinghi (SUI75)
Luna Rossa (ITA86) v Team New Zealand
Areva Challenge (FRA60) v Team New Zealand

June 25

United Internet Germany (GER72) v Team New Zealand
Desafio Espanol v Team New Zealand

June 26

Reserve day

June 27

Team New Zealand v Shosholoza (RSA83)
Luna Rossa v Oracle
Team New Zealand v Alinghi

June 28

Team New Zealand v Oracle
Luna Rossa v Alinghi

July 29

Reserve day

June 30

Semifinals

July 1

Semifinals

July 2

Finals

July 3

Reserve day