Editorial: Let the great race begin

We should marvel again at our good fortune this morning. We have, beginning on our doorstep, the most splendid sailing carnival in the world. The America's Cup has a heritage and an aura that eclipses any other event in yachting and has precious few peers among the world's great sporting trophies. And now, thanks in no small part to New Zealand's tenure, it is better than ever.

It has never had a better purpose-built base than the Viaduct Harbour, nor a lovelier setting than the Hauraki Gulf. And the races have never been more accessible to spectators than in the gulf's sheltered expanse. Best of all, Television New Zealand has managed to turn the intricacies of yacht racing into a graphic, dramatic spectacle. This morning many thousands of non-sailors will renew their acquaintance with starting manoeuvres, lay lines, wind shifts and other terms that will come back like old friends to the conversation around the small screen.

The event may also be improved by the knockout format adopted by the challengers for their Louis Vuitton series. After a month of round robins, the last placed boat will be eliminated and the remaining eight will split into two divisions for an elimination tournament during November. The top four will duel and the two losers will get a second chance, a "repechage", against the winners from the bottom four.

By December there will be just four boats remaining. The two winners from the top four will race and, again, the loser will get a second life against the winner from the lower division. The unbeaten boat and the winner of the repechage will contest the Louis Vuitton final in January to find the challenger for the America's Cup.

By New Year just two visiting syndicates will be still alive. Quite probably the rest will have departed. Defending skipper Dean Barker says that will be a "huge shame". Syndicate row, he suggests, will be a ghost town by the year end. The America's Cup defender could not be expected to welcome the challengers' new arrangement. It means the boat that wins the round robins and keeps winning, need not race nearly as often as the others and will have weeks when it can concentrate on development. Team New Zealand has already attested that time is better spent tuning up a fast boat than winning too many easy races.

The festival should lose none of its public appeal in the new format. With each boat racing 16 times over 20 days this month, we are going to see plenty of all entries and be ready by the end of the month for a change of routine. Once the boats pair off for the November elimination rounds, each pair will race seven times, and at least a couple of those series are likely to be close duels.

Just four challengers will remain for December but by that time, even under the round-robin system, the contest had usually come down to three or four superior contenders. Nothing should be lost from the likely departure this time of those who have faded out of contention.

Nor need the spectacle suffer for an interval of three weeks between the Louis Vuitton final and the start of the America's Cup series. It was rather unfair previously that the challenger had only 10 days to recover from the final and prepare to meet the defender. Now there will be time for the challenger to consider adaptations to its boat for the February meeting with Team New Zealand. That should add an extra dimension of interest as we await the ultimate contest. If there is a challenge it will be for organisers to keep the public entertained off the water.

It promises to be another scintillating summer. There may have been a certain weariness at the approach of another America's Cup defence just three years since the last, but that is likely to lift at the starting gun today. It is a magnificent event and it is still a joy to see it.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup