Team NZ playing catch-up with cat

Team New Zealand are playing a high-stakes game of ‘‘catch-up’’ as they start the serious phase of their on-water testing programme ahead of next year’s America’s Cup in Bermuda.

The Kiwi syndicate launched its first custom-designed development catamaran last Tuesday and hope to have it fully operational any day now.

This is the first and last ‘‘development’’ boat off the production line before they roll out their race yacht, which is not allowed to be launched until December 27, at the earliest.

Team NZ have been doing their testing up until now on a boat bought from sidelined Italian syndicate Luna Rossa.

But now they have their own purpose-built craft on the water they can begin accumulating the knowledge, experience and expertise they will need to close the gap on rivals whom they’re the first to concede have a hefty start on them.

‘‘It’s really an ongoing development programme now where this boat will morph into the race boat eventually,’’ Team NZ chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge said.

‘‘Everything we learn on this boat will be passed on to the actual race boat.’’

Though the new development boat is not quite at the America’s Cup specs − it sits at 45 feet, whereas the actual race boats will be just shy of 50ft − top design official Dan Bernasconi says it’s ‘‘extremely close’’ to what they will eventually take to Bermuda.

‘‘Other than five feet of hull length we’re pretty much looking at the race boat. The beams are race spec, the centre pod, wing, daggerboards and rudder are all race spec.’’

And Shoebridge confirms there is plenty of Kiwi ingenuity that has gone in to this first development boat, given it has had more than 35,000 man hours poured into its design and construction.

‘‘The thing with these boats really is the success is in a lot of the parts you can’t see,’’ he said. ‘‘We can all see the wing and hulls and rudders, but it’s the technology behind what operates the dagger foils, rudders, hydraulics, electronics and that kind of thing.’’

The reality is Team NZ need their boat to be advanced, to be cutting edge, to be somewhere close to what they want to race in Bermuda, because they start at the back of the pack. Most of their rivals have been testing boats already on the water, some with more than one.