America's Cup: Rival syndicates circling Team New Zealand's design team

Team New Zealand accepts it is inevitable some of their intellectual property will walk out the door over the next America's Cup cycle.

Team New Zealand's design staff are already being targeted by rival syndicates as the race heats up to secure key talent off the water.

The 35th America's Cup match is approaching crunch time this weekend, when racing resumes on the Great Sound following a five-day break.

The four teams sidelined since the end of the Louis Vuitton challenger series are already looking ahead to the next campaign, with the key first step being assembling the right talent.

The Herald understands Emirates Team New Zealand's technical director Dan Bernasconi has been approached by several syndicates, including British team Ben Ainslie Racing.

Ainslie, who was dispatched from the challenger semifinals by Team NZ, was full of praise for the "aggressive" design approach of the Kiwi team.

"They've really been very aggressive with their design, from the cyclors, through to their daggerboard design, and how they set up the trim of the boat, and hats off to them, they have really gone for it," he said in his final press conference earlier this month.

Bernasconi, who holds a PhD in mathematical modelling and aerodynamics, backed up with a Masters from Cambridge University, has been credited as the key driving force behind Team NZ's radical design and is expected to be high on the wishlist of other teams.

He would not be drawn on whether he had been approached by any other syndicates, but told the Herald he would like to keep his design team together at Team NZ, if indeed there is another campaign for the Kiwi team.

"We're totally focused on this Cup at the moment," Bernasconi said.

"I think other teams that have been knocked out are obviously starting to think about the next America's Cup, but I hope that if we go on to win this, then it would be great if we could stay together as a team.

"We've obviously got a fantastic group of people here, and I think we're all keen to keep that going."

Despite wanting to keep his team together, Bernasconi accepts it is inevitable some of the team's intellectual property will walk out the door over the next America's Cup cycle.

But he said given the rate of technological advancement in the boats, teams are virtually starting from scratch each time.

"There is a lot of IP in the team, although a lot of what we do is quite visible and inevitably from one Cup cycle to the next it is impossible to keep an entire team together - there are always a few people for one reason or another end up going to another team," he said.

"Even if this class of boat stays pretty similar next time, the level of which we would be in three years' time would be so much further on. In a way . . . you're sort of starting again from scratch.

"What is state of the art now would become pretty outdated by the next cup. You look at what the foils looked like in San Francisco and now I look and them and think 'I can't believe we were designing foils that looked like that'."