Team NZ start catch-up sailing

Team New Zealand are upping their sailing programme as they play a game of catch-up on the way to the next America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017.

With most of their rivals already well under way in working out on the revamped foiling 45-foot catamarans, Team New Zealand will be involved in official testing in England.

Veterans Glenn Ashby, Jeremy Lomas and Richard Meacham will be involved in the Portsmouth exercise which will be a shakedown for the world series opener there in late July.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke will be involved in the leadup closer to that regatta which is the first of three events this year with others to follow in Sweden and Bermuda.

Ashby, Lomas and Meacham will detour to Bermuda on their way back from testing in Portsmouth to give Team New Zealand a first-hand look at the race zone for the cup action that will be sailed in larger 48-foot foiling catamarans.

Ashby, who had limited time helming the massive AC72 at the last regatta in the shadow of regular skipper Dean Barker, is in a battle with Burling for duties on the wheel in the leadup to Bermuda.

‘‘Now we know what we are dealing with in Bermuda, and that it won’t change any more, we can focus and zone in,’’ Dalton told Sail-World.com.

Cup-holder Oracle and challengers Ben Ainslie Racing (Britain) and Artemis Racing (Sweden) have already had extensive experience in the tropical waters of Bermuda.

With a deal confirmed with long-time sponsor Emirates, Team New Zealand are looking to get some momentum from a rocky period off the water that was highlighted by the brutal axing of long-time skipper Barker.

Battles with America’s Cup bosses over hosting the challenger series have also affected their focus.

‘‘It is business as usual, now. We would like to be further ahead than where we are, but it is what it is, and for a commercial team we are probably as good as we could be at the moment,’’ Dalton said.

He acknowledged competitors had got a jump in sailing terms, but believed Team New Zealand were on track with their design work and could bank on their considerable experience compared to some of their rivals.

Part of that would be building momentum from their 2013 campaign where they led the way in foiling.

But the development has been extensive and rapid in terms of design and performance.

‘‘The other teams are sailing surrogate AC45s so they are learning something from that for sure,’’ acknowledged Dalton.

‘‘We have done a lot of work in design, and hopefully we are not behind. Even though the design rule is now reasonably tight there will be fast boats and slow boats because there is enough scope in the rules for that to happen.’’