Yachting: Team NZ test yacht in round-the-world qualifier

Team New Zealand's new boat Camper. Photo / Dean Purcell

They've taken their boat to the people, now Team New Zealand will take their new VO70 yacht into the vast expanse of the South Pacific Ocean.

After completing a five-stop tour down the east coast of New Zealand in their new Camper yacht, Team New Zealand yesterday embarked on their qualifying voyage for the Volvo Ocean Race, setting off from Lyttelton.

The team must complete a non-stop 2000 nautical mile passage in their boat to qualify for the 2011-12 edition of the gruelling round-the-world race.

Chris Nicholson, skipper of the campaign, said the plan was to head in the general direction of north-east, although where exactly they end up will be dependent on the weather.

"It's hard to forecast out six days in advance, so we'll probably modify where we're going to go within those six days. For us to say 'we're going to go to this point on the map', would be silly with the way the weather is changing so quickly," said Nicholson.

"It's a bit of a complicated weather pattern at the moment and we've just got to be careful. It looks like it is brewing up nicely."

Once the team have completed the 2000 miles, they will return home.

The difficult weather conditions will provide a tough test for boat and crew. If either are not up to the rigours of ocean racing they will quickly be found out. But Nicholson said nothing revealed itself in their 10-day voyage down the coast of New Zealand that would make him think that would be the case.

While the main purpose of the trip was to re-engage the New Zealand public with the famous round-the-world event, there were some sea-trial elements of the voyage.

"A good part of the schedule was that it forced us to get from A to B in a reasonably tight timeframe and we couldn't afford to miss a stop, this was an important thing for us to do," he said. "The boat has done really well, we've been in some harsh conditions around the East Cape and the boat got quite a workout. I'm really happy with the way the boat and the team is going."

Nicholson said he was overwhelmed by the local interest they received during their small-town stopovers and enjoyed letting the public get a close look at the unique boat.

"The sailors ... we almost take it for granted because it is our work environment, but when you think about it they're very special boats. There's hardly any of them in the world and they go out and do the toughest ocean race in the world."