Team New Zealand delighted with progress after practice racing in Bermuda

Team New Zealand on the water against Team Japan (Supplied)
Team New Zealand on the water against Team Japan (Supplied)

Team New Zealand have had their first taste of competition in Bermuda, taking part in a practice session with the other syndicates just a month out from the start of the regatta proper.

All six America's Cup teams, including defenders, Oracle Team USA, raced each other on the course that the event will take place on from May 26.

Team New Zealand chief operations officer, Kevin Shoebridge, said the racing was a real eye opener at how competitive an event the 35th running will be.

"We gained a huge amount," Shoebridge told Newshub.

We are really happy with how it went but also we know now that we are up against a really competitive fleet, and if you make one mistake you will pay for and cost yourself a race.

"We have always thought the quality of the field would be very strong. We learnt some very good lessons but we are also really happy with how we went as well. With a month to go before the start of the series there is still a fair bit of runway there for development."

The crews will have two weeks of development before another practice regatta on May 15, and the Kiwis are planning on making a few small adjustments as a result of what the learned on the water.

"We have come away with a good list of things that we need to work on and with another practice session in a few weeks, so we will be able to check in and see how we are going."

Shoebridge admitted that the team is playing a little catch-up on their competitors in regards to the local conditions, but he is confident they have enough time to figure things out.

"It's quite changeable. There are little nuances of the course that we need to learn, like what the favoured sides are which we are bit behind on compared to the other teams but that is one of the things we are looking at pretty closely."

Team New Zealand had two wins from three races and used Saturday's [NZT] trials as a dry run for the business time of the regatta in June.

"We made changes for every race - you have to have a sailing squad that is capable of doing that. When we get to the semi-finals and final of the competition we could be sailing up to three times a day, so you need to be able to move guys through and seamlessly swap people out."

Shoebridge was also quick to downplay the talk around Bermuda that other teams, particularly Oracle, are looking at implementing the unique cycle-grinding system developed by the New Zealand team.

Oracle have the option of building another boat but the America's Cup veteran believes it is too late in the game to be making major changes to the sailing programme.

"I have no idea but there has been talk about that, but I doubt it at this stage, it would be very late to change the system with only four weeks to go."

The Kiwi boat matched up against Artemis, Team France and the Dean Barker led Team Japan, whom the suffered their sole loss too.

Newshub.