By Greg Pearson
Tomorrow's D-day to enter the next America's Cup, with 10 teams registered so far for the San Francisco regatta in 2013.
Team New Zealand is one of the 10, but whether they make the start line is yet to be determined.
They've paid the entry fee, they've got their boat, now Team New Zealand have to work out if they can sail it well enough for a serious America's Cup challenge.
"Like us there's probably a number of teams that are certainly intending to be there, and while we're still not confirmed we're very hopefully we'll be there and I'm sure a number of teams are in the same position," says skipper Dean Barker.
Along with holders Oracle and Swedish challengers Artemis, TNZ got their new AC45 last week, and are making good progress coming to grips with the winged cat.
"The more time we spend in it, even though it takes time to make the complete transition from monohull to multihull, I think a lot of the principals are very much the same and it's just understanding how you translate them across," says Barker.
Not helping their cause is a delay from Oracle confirming the rules for the 45. At this stage, the teams don't even know how many sailors it takes to crew the boat.
"You'd have to say they haven't been true to their word," says Barker. "They said they were going to be open, fair, independent management but even that has been debatable."
While Barker's getting his head around the boat, race management are also figuring out how to stage everything else.
"This is a whole new ball game, and the way in which we're going to operate, how we're going to hold the races, is not being done previously so we're breaking a lot of new ground here," says Harold Bennett.
A practice event in Auckland next month will give the organisers their first chance to see their plans in action, before the first of the new America's Cup world series events in July, expected to be in San Francisco.
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