Plans are under way to welcome Team New Zealand home with a parade through Kerikeri.
Two sailors in the America's Cup-winning crew - Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney - hail from Kerikeri, while several other team members, such as hydraulics whiz Carsten Mueller on on-water operations boss Chris Hornell, live in the wider Bay of Islands.
A date has yet to be set for the Kerikeri event which will have to fit around a busy schedule for the sailors, including parades in Auckland and Tauranga, the hometown of helmsman Peter Burling. Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin are also keen to mark the team's return home.
The Kerikeri welcome will be the town's third for Blair Tuke, with previous parades in August last year after he won gold with Peter Burling at the Rio Olympics, and in 2012 when the pair brought home silver from the London Olympics.
As with the previous Kerikeri parades, which drew thousands of people from as far away as Whangarei and Doubtless Bay, it is being organised by Dave Keen, of Beds R Us, and other local business owners.
Mr Keen has contacted Team NZ and has the backing of Mayor John Carter and the Kerikeri Cruising Club, where Blair Tuke is a life member.
"I think the whole town feels an affiliation with Blair. I'm just so damn proud of what he, and now the whole team, has achieved," Mr Keen said.
Long-time sailing coach Derry Godbert, 83, also deserved an accolade for his part in fostering the town's sailing talent, Mr Keen said.
Mr Carter said the council would do its best to help make a parade happen. Mr Keen had organised the last two "very professionally" and the Mayor was confident he could pull off another.
"Our hearts are bursting with pride. We want to congratulate our boys," Mr Carter said.
"We will also be asking the question, why can't the next America's Cup be held in the Bay of Islands?"
Mr Carter said the Bay offered many excellent vantage points where spectators could watch the races from land, just like Bermuda.
"If it's out on the Hauraki Gulf it's too far away and people don't feel part of it," he said.
However, even if the Cup was held in Auckland, Northland's tourism and boat-building industries would benefit hugely.
The Auckland parade will take place on land and water from noon on July 6.
A civic parade and homecoming for Peter Burling is being organised in his home city of Tauranga by Mayor Greg Brownless.