"This is pure glamour!" With these delighted words, tactician Ray Davies described what he saw during his team's outing on the Great Sound. The most experienced sailor in Emirates Team New Zealand at the age of 45 said: "The conditions are perfect with winds between twelve and 14 knots. Crystal clear smooth water and no clouds in the sky. It's as perfect as it can be." The final spurt of the New Zealanders, who have been preparing for the 35th America's Cup in their home waters off Auckland and were the last team to land in Bermuda just a few days ago, got off to a pleasing start.
Just 40 days before the start of the challenger qualification, Emirates Team New Zealand is considered a big unknown in the Cup equation. While the other teams have already met in test races of varying intensity, nobody can yet categorise the performance of the Kiwis with their "pedal grinders". Team boss Grant Dalton and his rejuvenated crew around helmsman and Olympic champion Peter Burling, 26, have not yet decided whether they will take part in the final training round at the end of April. The New Zealanders are enjoying the role of the "lone wolf".
While New Zealand's former skipper Dean Barker, who is leading the new SoftBank Team Japan as CEO and helmsman in this Cup cycle after an unhappy split from Emirates Team New Zealand, celebrated his 45th birthday yesterday, the Kiwis hoisted their flag and celebrated their successful move to the new Cup capital Hamilton in Bermuda. Soon they will meet as opponents on the water. The first of two round robin rounds begins on 26 May. In these initial Louis Vuitton America's Cup qualifying rounds, each of the six teams (including defencemen) will face each other twice before the four highest scoring challengers advance to the semi-final round of the playoffs.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
