Emirates Team New Zealand beginning the challenge with a Moth

Putting together a challenge for the America's Cup requires dedication, long hours and a willingness to try anything.

Emirates Team New Zealand's sailing team recently spent an intensive week immersing themselves in sailing foiling Moths and also planning for the 35th America's Cup.

The Moth camp was held in the rather wonderful Bay of Islands, home waters of Blair Tuke who grew up at Kerikeri.

The short-term goal was to get the team up to speed in preparation for the Moth Worlds to be held in Australia in January.

Dean Barker: "It's an opportunity to kick start the campaign with all the sailing team together."

The medium-term goal for the week was get the team back into the smaller faster boats to improve the understanding of how things work on fast foiling boats.

Wing trimmer Glenn Ashby explains: "The whole foiling side of things – the balance, the helm loading, the foil loading is definitely applicable with the big cats. That's why a lot of the teams are encouraging this type of sailing for their sailing teams."

The longer-term goal was to take the first step in planning for the 35th America's Cup campaign. Jeremy Lomas: "It's the early part of the campaign – the first step on the way."

That's a sentiment echoed by Ray Davies: "It's really good just to get everyone together and get that energy about learning and training together. It's a long road, a tough Cup to win and you have to commit to it."

etnzblog.com