KEY POINTS:
VALENCIA - Team New Zealand are preparing for the next America's Cup yachting regatta in Valencia in 2009, despite the fact that the venue and date might not be confirmed for another six months.
The protocol for the next regatta was released overnight, and a key point was
the introduction of a new class of bigger boats with an overall length of 27.5m compared with the present 24m.
Exactly where and when the cup match will take place depend on negotiations that regatta organisers Americas Cup Management (ACM) are having with Valencia's authorities.
ACM, set up by defenders Alinghi, are reported to be seeking a bigger fee next time around, and if talks break down, they will look at bids by other interested parties in Europe.
If the America's Cup stayed in Spain's third biggest city, it would be staged in 2009. If not, the date would be set back to 2010 or 2011.
Team NZ boss Grant Dalton said his syndicate were preparing to be ready to race in two years, despite the uncertainty.
"I put two and two together and believe that's probably no more than leverage on Valencia -- 'we might go somewhere else,' that sort of thing, and they might," he said.
"But from our point of view, we will be, and we have been for the last two days frankly, working on an '09 environment."
Dalton was comfortable with the innovations unveiled under the protocol, saying Team NZ would have made many of the same changes.
He did not believe Team NZ, being one of the larger syndicates and being up and running, would be adversely affected.
In any case, they had to accept what they got, he said, because they had failed to put themselves in control of the event by winning on the water.
"They've got the cup, they make the rules," he said.
"If you don't like the rules, you don't play. It's up to you."
Besides, change had been a constant in the America's Cup's long history.
"There are many things that aren't the same each time," Dalton said.
"It's the fascination of the America's Cup for 156 years that it changes, and it will continue to change after the next one."
He believed both designers and the sailors were relishing the prospect of a different class of yacht.
"The designers are incredibly excited about the opportunity to work on a new boat," he said.
"It's going to have higher performance than the boats we have now. I'm not sure that makes a lot of difference to TV and the audience. But from the sailors' point of view, they like it."
Under the protocol, the new boats will not be in competitive action until at least 18 months after the publishing of the class rule, for which the deadline is December 31.
Over that interim period, the existing boats will be used.
The protocol envisages three stages of competition before the final showdown between Alinghi and the eventual challenging syndicate.
There will be qualifying regattas to weed out the weaker teams if there are more entries than a venue can cater for.
That will be be followed by "trials" and then a "challenger selection", the latter the equivalent of the present Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, but in which this time Alinghi might also race.
- NZPA
