America's Cup: Team New Zealand denied any 'play dates'

Team New Zealand will be prevented from lining up any play-dates with other challengers to help them tune up for the America's Cup match.

Now the challenger series is all wrapped up, teams are no longer permitted to train alongside other syndicates under the protocol.

The Kiwi syndicate today booked a re-match with Oracle Team USA in the Cup final, after overcoming the classy Artemis Racing team 5-2 in the challenger final.

Barely five minutes after Team NZ had crossed the finish line to take out the Louis Vuitton trophy for the third straight event, the black wing sail of Oracle peeked out from the harbour entrance. The Cup defender, who are chasing a "three-peat" in Bermuda, were joined by stable mates Team Japan, for one last training run.

Since Dean Barker's Team Japan exited the challenger semifinals, they have been out on the water each morning with Oracle, helping them prepare for their Cup defence.

Under the event rules, Oracle were granted an exclusive two-hour slot on the racecourse while the challenger finals played out, and were free to invite whoever they wished to join them on the water during the defender access period. But from tomorrow the teams will no longer be able to sail together in an organised fashion.

Oracle have been talking up the gains they have made during their practice sessions against Team Japan over the past week, but Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling said the talk doesn't bother him.

"We've had a great training partner for the last three days in Artemis Racing. There was obviously a lot of pressure and a lot on the line, and whoever came out of that series ahead was definitely going to be in pretty good shape for the next round," he said.

Team NZ have just four days to prepare for the opening races of the Cup match and skipper Glenn Ashby said a significant chunk of that time will be spent in the boat shed getting their race yacht, which has been put through a lot in this regatta, in top nick.

"We've only got a few days to get ourselves prepared, so we're just going to focus on the things that we need to do performance-wise," said Ashby.

"We'll sit down as a group over the next couple of days and work out our best plan of attack for those days we have up our sleeve."

Ashby said the team are not done with their development yet, and there are still new pieces of hardware to be kitted out on the Kiwi boat.

"We've got a whole host of componentry that is still arriving and coming on tap all the time. You never know if you're going to make it through or not, but if you do it's nice to know you've got a few things up your sleeve to put on the boat moving forward."