America’s Cup teams try to peek under rival skirts

IT used to be the sea breezes on distant tree boughs that gave the first clues of impending drama at the America’s Cup, but now the early excitement comes from the competitors’ efforts to peek under their rivals’ skirts.

The 151-year-old trophy, known as Yachting's Formula One, gets underway in Auckland on October 1 with the holder Team New Zealand (TNZ) and nine challengers having invested at least $430 million in a bid to get their hands on the trophy, a piece of Victorian kitsch.

The Viaduct Basin has come alive. Each morning the inner harbour witnesses a procession akin to a horse racing paddock as the thoroughbred International America's Cup Class yachts are towed out to the Hauraki Gulf.