NZL-84 & 92 settle in for some serious summer sailing

by Emirates Team New Zealand on 24 Oct 2006 Emirates Team NZ gives their view of the 2007 America's Cup campaign:

NZL 92 has been launched and the team can now settle in to a couple of months of solid work. The team worked hard to get the new yacht ready for its big day.

They are really keen to get the boat out on the water but the weather forecast over the next five days is not good.

It looks like they’ll be having a few days off and do some small finishing jobs before getting down to serious sea trials and testing with NZL 84 in the middle of next week.

We were honoured to have the Prime Minister Helen Clark at the Auckland base to name the yacht New Zealand.

We had more than 800 guests and every single one of the people present supports the team in some way. We have a very broad base of support and this is one of Emirates Team New Zealand’s greatest strengths.

The old Team New Zealand used to speak of the family of five – a sponsorship model with five major sponsors which worked well for New Zealand for many years. There were, of course, a large number of team suppliers.

For 2007 Emirates Team New Zealand has a family of 104 companies and organisations without whom we would not be a credible challenger for the America’s Cup.

Every one of them has put their money, their products, their services and their credibility on the line with this team. For many of the smaller companies their involvement is a major investment. It is humbling that their owners and executives have such great faith in the team.

The involvement of our naming sponsor Emirates, Toyota New Zealand
(now with it’s fifth America’s Cup), Estrella Damm (the Spanish brewery)
and the New Zealand Government through Tourism and Trade and Enterprise, is on display every time the yachts sail. And companies like Fisher and Paykel,
Maersk Line, Vodafone, Omega, Line 7 and Murphy and Nye, are now well
identified with the team.

That’s only 10 of the 104-strong family. The reason for their
involvement is varied… a marketing benefit of being associated with the
team, patriotism, a love of sailing, just about every member of the family
has a different reason.

We can assure our family that we are not taking their support for granted. We may have won the 2006 America’s Cup season championship but we should never be satisfied. We have a lot of work to do in Auckland this summer before
returning to Valencia for the Louis Vuitton Cup and, we hope, the America’s Cup.

When people look back on the 2007 America’s Cup, successes in 2004, 2005 and 2006 will not be remembered. Next year’s regattas are the only ones that matter.

The launch of the new yacht sets the course for the rest of the campaign.

The hardware is in place … now it is up to the team to put together a regatta-winning performance. To achieve that we are now racing against the clock.
We have until April 16 next year to pull together all the strands that will make it possible to win the America’s Cup.

At 2pm New Zealand time Friday October 20, the Omega countdown clock said that was exactly 177 days from now.

In NZL 92 we think we have a potentially competitive yacht, just as NZL 84 proved to be in tough racing this year. Now, the yachtsmen, designers and shore crew have to extract that potential.

We thank our sponsors and suppliers who have given the team such great support. We thank also the people of New Zealand who are still with us.
We thank you all for your trust. We value it. And we are working very hard to justify the tremendous support this team has had from New Zealanders through good times and bad.

Sponsors: Emirates Airline ▪ Toyota ▪ Estrella Damm Partners: New Zealand Trade & Enterprise ▪ Tourism New Zealand

Exclusive Suppliers: Fisher & Paykel ▪ Line 7 ▪ Murphy & Nye ▪ Maersk Line ▪ Omega ▪ Vodafone

Official Suppliers: :ANSYS ▪ ASB ▪ Ernst & Young ▪ Fuji Xerox ▪ High Modulus ▪ Intercad (NZ) Ltd ▪ Pavilion Technologies Inc ▪ PlaceMakers ▪ Rayglass Boats ▪ The Loaded Hog Group ▪ Tignum ▪ Titan Cranes Ltd ▪ Waipara Hills Wine Estate ▪ Yamaha Motor NZ

Team Suppliers: A Foster & Co Ltd ▪ AB Equipment Ltd ▪ Accent Tools Ltd ▪ Adhesive Technologies ▪ ADT/Wormald ▪ Architectus ▪ Ash Air ▪ Beca Group Ltd ▪ Bishman Ltd ▪ Bondor NZ ▪ BP Oil NZ Ltd ▪ Burns & Ferrall ▪ Capital Racking Systems ▪ Capital Travel ▪ Carrier Air Conditioning (NZ) Ltd ▪ Carter Holt Harvey ▪ CRC Industries (NZ) Ltd ▪ DehuTech AB ▪ Dick Smith Electronics ▪ D-Link ▪ Donaghys Industries Ltd ▪ Dulux NZ ▪ ENOC LLC ▪ Exchequer Software NZ Ltd ▪ Feltex Carpets ▪ Genesis Energy ▪ Hawkins Construction ▪ HCB echnologies Ltd ▪ Hirequip Ltd ▪ Hydraulink Fluid Connectors ▪ Infinity Solutions ▪ International Dynamometers ▪ Jackson Electrical Industries Ltd ▪ K Simpson Ltd ▪ Karcher Ltd ▪ Les Mills World of Fitness ▪ Lucas Machinery ▪ Lundia Shelving ▪ Lusty & Blundell/Raymarine ▪ Marine Travel Lift ▪ Marsh Ltd ▪ Matrix Applied Computing ▪ Musashi Pty Ltd ▪ New World Victoria Park ▪ Panasonic ▪ Peters & May (NZ) Ltd ▪ Phonak NZ Ltd ▪ Pilkington Glass ▪ Portacom NZ Ltd ▪ Ports of Auckland ▪ Regency Duty Free ▪ RFD ▪ Rocket Signtists ▪ Saint-Gobain Abrasives Ltd ▪ Sealord Group ▪ Snorkel Elevated Work Platforms Ltd ▪ Sulco Tools ▪ Syntech Distributors ▪ Tait Electronics Ltd ▪ Tait Mobile Radio (Akl) ▪ Trans Tasman Properties ▪ Ullrich Aluminium ▪ Vero ▪ Waiwera Infinity Water ▪ Watties ▪ Wedderburn Scales Ltd ▪ Weetbix ▪ Weldwell Contributors: AC Technologies ▪ Boat Haulage ▪ Caffe L’affare ▪ Co-SYS ▪ Douglas B Foote ▪ ERS NZ Ltd ▪ Heat Treatments ▪ Neville Newcomb ▪ Olex NZ Ltd ▪ Rinnai NZ Ltd ▪ Simple Green ▪ Sun-Blaster ▪ Surabaya