America's Cup teams begin to emerge from five-week lockdowns

America's Cup teams are returning to the water in varying degrees nearly two months after the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of what would have been an impressive global road show.

After a mandatory five-week lockdown was lifted recently, defending champion Emirates Team New Zealand returned to training on Auckland's Waitemata Harbor with its half-size test boat, Te Kahu (The Hawk). The Kiwis don't have access to their 75-foot race boat, Te Aihe (The Dolphin), because it's still being shipped back from Italy after a preliminary regatta scheduled for late April was canceled.

By Monday or Tuesday, the New York Yacht Club's yacht Defiant and the accompanying containers and chase boats will be headed from Pensacola, Florida, to Auckland on a 500-foot ship. American Magic will be the first of the three challengers to arrive in Auckland, sometime in early to mid-June. The other two challengers, INEOS Team UK, headed by Sir Ben Ainslie, and Italy's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team, are expected to train at their home bases through the summer, operating within safety protocols. If not for the pandemic, the four teams already would have seen their fantastical-looking new boats in action, flying across the waves on hydrofoils at heart-stopping speeds.

But in mid-March, with Italy already a hot spot for the new coronavirus, officials canceled the America's Cup World Series opener that had been scheduled for late April in Cagliari on Sardinia. About 10 days later, officials scrubbed an ACWS stop set for early June in Portsmouth, England.

The final ACWS regatta is scheduled for Dec. 17-20 in Auckland. The Prada Cup for challengers is set for Jan. 15-Feb. 22, with the winner advancing to face Emirates Team New Zealand in the 36th America's Cup March 6-21.

“This is one of those situations none of the teams planned for,” American Magic skipper and executive director Terry Hutchinson said in a phone interview. “It's a pivotal time for all the programs. We have to maintain a certain level of focus on what we're doing. A lot of the team is still working hard. The only thing that's pulled back now is the sailing operation. It's hard.”