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Team New Zealand -
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Frontrunners Team New Zealand and Britain's Team Origin agree: improvement in crew performance will be key to winning the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series yachting regatta.
After a rest day on Wednesday, racing resumes off Auckland on Thursday with the start of the second round robin, the field having been split into a six-strong gold fleet and a four-strong silver fleet.
Team NZ and Origin, unbeaten in the first round robin, are joined in the top tier by Americans Oracle Racing, America's Cup holders Alinghi of Switzerland and the Italian syndicates of Italia Challenge and Luna Rossa.
For Team NZ managing director Grant Dalton, the next five days are about continuing along the road to regaining the fluency his crew had at the 2007 America's Cup in Spain.
"It's a long time since we've raced competitively and we're still a bit bumpy around the course," he said.
"It just doesn't feel smooth like it did when we finished in Valencia."
At the same time, Dalton was happy with how Team NZ went during the first round robin, when they were unbeaten in four races.
He said the new combination in the afterguard was gelling well and personnel on other parts of the boat were putting their hands up as well.
Dalton also gave skipper Dean Barker plenty of praise for his work at the helm.
"He's confident and he's starting well -- he's won every start," he said.
"I'm biased, I'm a huge Dean fan. He's sailing really well and he's combining really well with these guys. As the guys mature in this team, he's starting to get a lot more help and input."
Dalton added that it was way too early to predict that Team NZ, who have direct entry into the final of February 13-14, would meet Origin there.
The likes of Oracle, Alinghi and Luna Rossa definitely remained in the mix.
Origin, a new syndicate, have been one of the surprises of the regatta so far, matching Team NZ's four-from-four record.
They are skippered by former Team NZ back-up helmsman Ben Ainslie, Britain most successful Olympic sailor with four medals, three of them gold.
Ainslie said his crew had done "a brilliant job" so far after having had little preparation time.
"We're very happy, but the secret is going to be how the teams develop moving into the second part of the event," he said.
"Winning races becomes more important so there's a long way to go."
Ainslie said the evenness of the boats provided by Team NZ and Oracle put a premium on crew work and the quality of the opposing teams meant one mistake could prove fatal.
"We're delighted with the way this first week has gone but we have to build on that momentum now and keep improving," he said.
"That's the key to this event. The team that improves the most will be the team that wins."
After the second round robin, Team NZ will sit on the sidelines until the final.
The other crews in the gold fleet, seeded according to results, will go into a sailoff to determine who will join them there.
The top two crews from the silver fleet will also take part in the sailoff.
