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Louis Vuitton Trophy boats compete - Source: Bob Grie/Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice Côte d'Azur -
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After winning the lead-up regatta, Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker and his crew turn their attention to the main event of the Auckland Festival of Sailing.
The Louis Vuitton Trophy world circuit's Auckland stop, which features eight teams boasting plenty of America's Cup experience, begins on Tuesday and runs through to the final on March 21.
Many of the sailors taking part also competed in the four-day Auckland Match Racing Regatta, which concluded on Saturday with Barker making the most of a weather-assisted reprieve to claim the title.
The Team NZ crew had been in danger of missing out on the semifinals after lying sixth with two rounds of the round-robin to go.
However, lack of wind on Saturday morning prevented the remaining races from going ahead, and officials were forced into a recalculation of the points table, which lifted Barker into the top four.
When the breeze picked up in the afternoon, Barker downed compatriot Adam Minoprio, the world match racing champion, 2-0 in one semifinal.
He then repeated the scoreline in the final against Briton Ben Ainslie, who had been the runaway leader in the round-robin phase.
"I guess you just try to sail your best at the end and fortunately for us we did just enough to scrape in," Barker said.
He said Ainslie, a three-time Olympic champion who was formerly Team NZ's back-up helmsman, had definitely been
the benchmark over the course of the regatta.
"It's a funny thing --sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't," he said.
"We were lucky that, when we needed to have a bit of momentum, we got it together."
Like Barker, Ainslie, now with British America's Cup syndicate Team Origin, will also be fighting out the Louis Vuitton Trophy.
Barker said the standard of competition over the past week had provided good preparation for the upcoming regatta.
"Any match-racing experience is invaluable," he said.
"You always learn something and it's good for the team to be out racing. Obviously, it's a different challenge with the bigger boats and a bit further out in the harbour next week."
The Trophy races will be in yachts that Team NZ used for the 2007 America's Cup campaign in Valencia.
At 25m in length, they are about 2-1/2 times the size of the MRX boats used for the Auckland Match Racing Regatta.
"The complexities change a little when you get into the bigger boats with 17 guys as opposed to six," Barker said.
"Pulling all that crew work together is a big factor in being able to perform well, but we're fortunate with the guys we've got."
The establishment of the world circuit followed the success of the one-off Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland a year ago.
That event was won by Team NZ, who beat then America's Cup holder Alinghi of Switzerland in the final. .
The circuit's first regatta was in the south of France in November and ended with Team NZ suffering a surprise 2-0 loss to Italians Azzurra in the final off Nice.
Azzurra will be part of the fleet in Auckland, as will All4One (France), Artemis (Sweden) Aleph (France), Mascalzone Latino (Italy) and Synergy (Russia).
The Festival of Sailing ends with the BMW Sailing Cup Final from March 22 to 25.
