As the defending club, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron plays proud host to the upcoming Cup challenge. The serious stuff kicks off in mid October, with the Louis Vuitton Cup series - a round robin style competition. Races take place on 18 October, 6 November and 2 December, with semi finals on 02 January, and the finals race on 25 January.

The winner of the most points in the Cup Challenger Series then earns the right to compete against Team New Zealand in a best of 9 match race series starting on 19 February, with races on 20, 22, 24, 26 February, and if needed, 27 & 29 Feb as well as the 2nd and 4th of March.

Teams from around the world, including France, Switzerland, Italy, UK, USA, Hong Kong and Australia will be competing with the number of confirmed entries still hovering a little. It is expected that between 12 and 18 teams will contest the Challenger Series. The Italian team, Prada Challenge recently unveiled their 2000 series yacht (most teams are still using 1995 designs) and look very fast indeed. Given their sponsor they probably look good out of the water too! They have been training off Auckland since 1997, and won the right to challenge Team NZ in the 1998 Road to the Cup Regatta (NZ won).