It's about the course as much as the boat for Team New Zealand as they play catchup in Bermuda ahead of next week's start to the America's Cup.

There's a flip side to the Kiwi syndicate's decision to delay their arrival at the regatta headquarters.

While they kept their five rivals guessing over intricacies of the black and red boat with its radical pedal-power, their prolonged absence from the Great Sound has left them little time to get up to speed with the variances of the race course.

EMIRATES TEAM NZ Team New Zealand have to quickly get up to speed with learning the local conditions on the Great Sound in Bermuda.

With no previous experience in Bermuda other than a world series regatta in mid-2015, Glenn Ashby's crew have had less than two weeks of actual sailing time on the waters that provide their own peculiarities.

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The currents that played such a big hand in course management in San Francisco four years ago aren't quite as prevalent in Bermuda, but Ashby said there is still plenty to learn.

"Arriving here later than other teams we are on a pretty steep learning curve on the different conditions and the different breezes on different days. But we are doing our very best to make up for that time," Ashby told Stuff from Bermuda.

"It's a very very different venue ... it is remarkably shifty and quite cloud-affected for a small island.

America's Cup An America's Cup promotional video exploring the history of competition for the 'Auld Mug' - sport's oldest trophy.

"There are a few idiosyncrasies that we are learning every day ... different wind directions for different parts of the course as there was in San Francisco."

Ashby said surface conditions were "normally very flat compared to San Francisco" but certain wind directions did alter that with short chop. The water had also been churned up during training sessions by the high volume of team chase boats and power boats.

He expected that to be eliminated when the Louis Vuitton Qualifying Series started on May 27. The course would be hemmed by a spectator fleet and just the competing teams would have their chase boats operating along with umpires.

Emirates Team New Zealand Team NZ's shredded rudder dangles off the back of the boat as it's lifted out of the water for repairs.

Defenders Oracle Team USA and challengers Team Japan have had the most experience of the Bermuda conditions followed by Sweden's Artemis Racing.

The latest block of official practice racing, a five-day affair, opened on Tuesday and Team New Zealand made a costly start as they destroyed their port rudder ahead of the action.

The team confirmed the damage was to an "old up-range rudder" and not some of the new hardware they are waiting to install.

The winglets at the bottom of the rudder were lost with the base to the crucial steering device split and shredded.

Team New Zealand returned to base to replace the rudder and then went back out on the water to train without getting involved in racing.

There is no limit to the number of rudders teams can use though there are restrictions on foil repairs and replacements.

Team New Zealand haven't revealed whether the damage was caused by a structural fault or by impact.

There have been growing concerns about debris and sea turtles on the race course. Several teams have had damage to the expensive appendages caused by impact incidents.

It was a missed opportunity for the Kiwis to practice their match-racing skills.

The start of the latest practice racing saw just four of the six teams involved with Artemis Racing also sitting it out as they tested new developments on their boat in private training.

Oracle recorded wins against Team Japan and Ben Ainslie Racing.

Team Japan had a win against Team France and also beat the struggling Brits.