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Deadline near for yachting's elite

Le Defi Areva will aim to take the Louis Vuitton Cup from Prada

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- After three years of preparation, the time is nearing for yachting's elite to test their skill in the sport's oldest competition.

The Louis Vuitton Cup kicks off on October 1 in Auckland with nine teams hoping their closely-guarded yacht designs and experienced sailors will get them through to the America's Cup in February.

This is the period of the campaign when there seems to be never enough time, with each team wishing they had another week to work on boat speed, crew training and sail development.

All but one of the teams have built two new boats, the maximum allowed.

Two-boat training is an integral part of maximising boat speed, and all the teams are putting in as many hours as possible on Hauraki Gulf, braving the early spring winds, to find that extra fraction of speed that might be enough to give them an edge.

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The last team to set up camp in Auckland was the New York Yacht Club's Team Dennis Conner who have the added distraction of replacing the bow on their newest boat, USA-77, after it sank off Long Beach, California at the end of July.

Most days until the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup there are informal races between teams so that they all can make sure their designs are up to scratch and the crews get some match racing practice.

The agreement between the challengers is that teams are not allowed to practice with the America's Cup defender, Team New Zealand, although the Swedish Victory Challenge did break rank in February this year.

Although the teams agree that no official scoring or press announcements will be made, rumours tend to circulate on the dockside and in the bars in the evenings after the informal races.

So far these rumours suggest that the highly rated Swiss Alinghi Challenge, led by former Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts, have been proving themselves in encounters with Oracle BMW, OneWorld and Victory.

In a world where both money and experience count, it is likely that the first team to be eliminated will come from one of the four weaker teams; the French Defi Areva, British GBR Challenge, Swedish Victory Challenge or Mascalzone Latino from Italy.

From these four, the Italian team are on the tightest budget with just one new boat and the French team seem to be having the most problems with their new boats.

At this stage nobody really knows which of the new generation of America's Cup Class yachts is the fastest. The suspense will be broken on October 1.

A couple of days beforehand, the event will kick off with a team parade along Auckland's main street. The skippers will then participate in a draw to determine their opponents for the first round robin.

The big question in October will be who will be eliminated first.