KEY POINTS:
Times have changed, says Grant Dalton - "In Valencia [at the America's Cup 2007], if I'd got within half a kilometre of a BMW Oracle boat, I'd have had 300,000 volts passed through me."
Emirates Team New Zealand saw Oracle as their biggest threat in that challenger series and the American syndicate returned the favour. Relations were prickly; secrecy high; rivalry off the scale.
Dalton's joke about being electrocuted if he got too close to an Oracle boat is better understood when he goes on to say: "I walked down to the water yesterday with Russell Coutts [BMW Oracle's CEO and controversial former Team New Zealand skipper] and there was no animosity there at all.
"We damaged one of their boats the other day [a spinnaker pole cracked after a mistake] and they didn't swarm all over us, saying: 'you buggers'.
"As we have been training here to get ready for the Louis Vuitton and as we have been getting the two Team NZ boats and the two Oracle boats ready for racing, there has been almost complete integration between the two camps - and it feels surprisingly natural.
" I had one of those moments when, during a dial-up, I looked across and thought, 'Fantastic - how did all these guys get here and how did they get us where they've got us?'
That's the key element of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series which begins in Auckland this week - crack America's Cup racing syndicates, some of whom are deadly legal and political enemies, going head-to-head in yachts stripped down of most America's Cup-style technology; a proper, ding-dong sailors' battle with the lawyers, for once, nowhere to be seen.
"I think most of these guys will have a moment like that during this racing," says Dalton, "but will it make any difference to what is happening in New York [Oracle's legal challenge to holders Alinghi], probably not...
"It's a shame and you'd have to say that the term 'hatred' could probably be used for some of what has gone on and it just shows what happens in sport when money controls everything.
"In rugby, for example, money controls matters but it isn't controlled by the people with the money - that's the big difference."
Meanwhile, Team NZ skipper Dean Barker says he does not think any small differences in the boats will be a factor in the regatta and that the way the boats are sailed will determine the winners. He says his team have work to do yet to cope with some determined and well-honed opponents.
"There is a sense of frustration around because we have all been apart and doing different things and we have not been back together long," he says. "If you go back to Valencia in July 2007, we were sailing at a very high level across the board and working together smoothly - so there is some frustration because we are not yet at the level we know we can be.
"We are getting better and better but a lot of these other teams have been working out in Valencia and they will be right on the money. By the time we get around to racing we will be up there too but we have a lot of work to do in the meantime to be competitive and we have to eliminate our mistakes."
The two courses, shorter than an America's Cup course and closer to shore than in previous regattas, will also be a factor as they will bring local knowedge and Auckland factors like tides, currents, wind shifts into play.
Ask Barker who Team NZ's hottest competition is and he responds with Alinghi's name first - "they are in good form" - and Oracle's Russell Coutts, unbeaten in these waters from 1995-2003 and who hasn't raced here since, along with Luna Rossa, Team Origin and K-Challenge.
A LOOK AT THE LOUIS
Louis Vuitton Pacific Series racing starts on Friday.
* 10 syndicates are competing, split into two groups of five.
* Six races held every day.
* The winners of each group go through to the challengers' final.
* The winner meets Emirates Team NZ in the final.
* Team NZ will compete in the challengers' rounds but will not score points.
* Syndicates are: Team NZ (skipper Dean Barker) NZ, Alinghi (Brad Butterworth) Switzerland, BMW Oracle (Russell Coutts) USA, Luna Rossa (Peter Holmberg) Italy, K-Challenge (Sebastien Col) France, TeamOrigin (Ben Ainslie) UK, Team China (Ian Williams) China, Shosholoza (Paolo Cian) South Africa, Damiani Italia (Vasco Vascotto) Italy, Greek Challenge (Panagiotis Mantis), Greece.
