Emirates Team New Zealand is back in the water at its home base in Auckland after a successful 2004 European campaign. Having won this year’s Louis Vuitton season trophy for the pre-regattas held in Marseille and Valencia earlier this year, the team has re-grouped and is ready for an intense training period in the waters of New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf ahead of next year’s races which start in June back in Valencia.
Emirates Team New Zealand will take full advantage of the summer in New Zealand to test its new boat, NZL68. For 2005 there will be a new version of the America’s Cup racing yachts – known as version five. These version five boats should prove lighter and faster – and thus make for some even more dramatic and exciting racing in Europe next summer.It’s been only six months since the team announced its challenge for the 2007 America’s Cup, and in that time Emirates Team New Zealand has experienced some dramatic highs and lows. The destruction of the team’s boat on shore, during a freak storm in Marseilles, was followed by an all-out scramble to organise a replacement boat for the Valencia races and then, ultimately, overall victory in the 2004 pre-regattas. The efforts to overcome the challenge and produce credible results tested the entire team and helped in cementing the bond among its members. The nearly 100-strong team is now approaching the 2005 racing season with confidence and belief in itself and its ability to conquer any new challenges.
Grant Dalton, Managing Director of Emirates Team New Zealand, in Dubai for a review of the team’s plans with its title sponsor, said: “The team numbers 95 people and it was not possible until now to get everybody working together full time in one place.
“There were moments before Emirates’ and Team New Zealand’s joint announcement last June when I wondered if this time would ever come. We have a demanding regatta programme in Europe starting in Valencia in June, northern Europe in August and southern Europe in September/October and of course our aim is to do at least as well in 2005 with our new boat as we did this year, and stay in the lead.”
In addition to its America’s Cup activity, the team achieved great success in the New Zealand National Match Racing Championship regatta at the end of November. Emirates Team New Zealand crews skippered by Dean Barker and Ben Ainslie dominated the regatta. Dean Barker was first and Ben Ainslie second ahead of crews from the BMW Oracle team.