Although if the weather intervenes it may be a day or two longer.
Team New Zealand begins its America’s Cup campaign for redemption in Bermuda tomorrow, unless high winds delay the start.
The Team New Zealand boat will race in a round-robin against teams from Sweden, France, Great Britain and Japan for the right to advance to the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals.
Those semifinals will be a first to five series, as will the final.
The winner gets to challenge holder Oracle in a first to seven series for the America’s Cup.
Oracle, which will compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup round-robin, is guaranteed a spot in the main event.
That came as a result of its come-from-behind victory in San Francisco four years ago. It was a story New Zealanders will remember all too clearly.
Up 8-1 — needing nine wins to take the cup — Team New Zealand blew what seemed to be an unassailable lead.
The Oracle boat seemed to find another gear.
The gap began closing and an unthinkable loss became all but inevitable.
Oracle defended the cup it had won off Alinghi in Valencia in 2010 and the Kiwis were left heartbroken.
For Team New Zealand it was a third finals loss, having also been beaten in 2003 and 2007 by Alinghi.
It last won the cup in 2000, when Russell Coutts skippered the team to a 5-0 win in Auckland, defending the title it won in 1995.
Government investment has been scaled back considerably from the $36 million of 2013. The only money coming from the Crown is in the form of a research grant. Its exact value has never been revealed.
