Team NZ will be in need of a tow

By JULIE ASH

Emirates Team New Zealand's race boat NZL82 left Auckland yesterday bound for Europe and the first of the America's Cup pre-regattas in Marseille.

NZL82, along with a chase boat, several containers and NZL57, which has been sold to K-Challenge, will arrive in Italy on about August 18. The chase boat, carrying two masts, will then tow NZL82 320km to Marseille for the first of the pre-regattas on September 5. The boat will then be towed on to Valencia for the two regattas in October.

"It sort of looks like the Beverly Hillbillies a bit," Team New Zealand's managing director Grant Dalton said.

"But we don't land in the right port. We could have changed ship, which takes time and there's potential of damage, or we could drop it in the water and tow it. So we made the decision to attempt it and see how it works."

During the past month, NZL82, which broke down twice during the last cup, has been tested in a variety of conditions.

"I haven't even heard a creak," Dalton said.

"I would say potentially it is a lot quicker. Now it is in the state it probably should have been where they can wind everything up."

However, Dalton is quick to point out that it is unrealistic to expect too much from the new-look team in their first hit-out against big guns Oracle and Alinghi.

"If we do really well that's good. If we do really bad then that is not bad. Oracle and Alinghi should have, in theory, jumped out quite a bit by now.

"It will be interesting ... I am nervous because in my heart of hearts I think that probably we are going to have a bit of a speed problem. We have got a lot of work to do but we have got plenty of time too."

Team New Zealand hope to have about 45 people in France for the first regatta. The team will not be at full strength until the Valencia regattas because some sailors have commitments after the Olympics.


Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup