Northland workers, schoolchildren and sailors are in the grip of America's Cup fever, a yacht club commodore says.
"It seems to have captured a lot of imaginations," said Marsden Yacht and Boat Club commodore Steve O'Brien.
Although Marsden had not held any race events, club members were "keen as mustard and everybody's watching it".
More than 500,000 Kiwis tuned in to watch Team New Zealand beat Oracle in the first America's Cup races on Sunday last, topping the number who watched the All Blacks overcome Argentina the night before.
The audience for this year's sailing event has already beaten the highest rated race in the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, which attracted 270,300 viewers. However, those races were held about 2am NZ time.