By JULIE ASH
A year before the America's Cup match, it was Sweden's Victory Challenge who fired the first shot in the International Regatta in Auckland yesterday.
Victory Challenge, in their new boat Orn, beat OneWorld Challenge, Team New Zealand and GBR Challenge to win the fleet race, delayed two hours
by choppy seas.
The Swedes then came close to upsetting Team New Zealand in their first match race, losing by 33 seconds after leading for much of the race.
OneWorld Challenge beat the GBR Challenge by 38s in the other match race.
Victory Challenge are the only team in the regatta sailing their new America's Cup boat.
Britain are using GBR52, one of the old Nippon boats, OneWorld have USA55, an old Stars and Stripes boat, and Team New Zealand are sailing NZL60, the winning boat in 2000.
Before the regatta start, Victory Challenge's helmsman Jesper Bank was quick to downplay his team's chances. He said there was not a lot of difference between the new boat and their training boat NZL38, which Team New Zealand used to win the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1995.
"The new boat is not a disaster. It is not a whole lot slower than the old one," he joked.
He said they chose to race Orn (SWE63) to see how it would fare against the opposition.
"It is important that we get a chance to see how far we need to go to beat a team like Team New Zealand."
Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said the regatta was a good opportunity to test the boat and rotate the crew.
"From the defenders point of view, it is a great opportunity to get exposure for us. It is the first serious race, it is for keeps and will help us get ready for next year."
The international regatta replaces the Road to the Cup regatta. Today, Thursday, Friday and Saturday there is match racing and on Sunday the event winds up with a fleet race along East Coast Bays to the Harbour Bridge.
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