Team New Zealand will have to wait another day to put their flying catamaran under America's Cup racing conditions.

Team New Zealand now have a tough start to the America's Cup facing Team France and defenders Oracle Team USA after high winds postponed the opening day of racing in Bermuda.

Officials have made an early call to wipe out the scheduled start on Saturday (NZ time) with winds forecasted to exceed 30 knots, well above the top safety limit of 24 knots for racing the 50-foot foiling catamarans.

Organisers will now squeeze the postponed four races into the schedules for Sunday and Monday, meaning six races on each of the first two days.

That will see the Kiwis will face an unexpected opening day double-header against the French and Jimmy Spithill's defenders on the Great Sound on Sunday (NZ time).

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Team France were widely considered the weakest of the six syndicates while Oracle have been acknowledged as having a fast boat as they seek a third consecutive America's Cup success.

Oracle have tweaked the rules to allow themselves to sail in the double round-robin series of the Louis Vuitton qualifying series, giving them an early guide on their rivals.

The early clash with Oracle will have some added heat to it after Spithill fired several shots at the Kiwis in the opening press conference on Friday, getting personal with Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, purposely ignoring the Kiwi cycling innovations and dissing Team New Zealand's alignment with sidelined Italian syndicate Luna Rossa.

Team New Zealand will race Team Japan and Great Britain on Monday.

On both days Team New Zealand will have about half an hour between races. That means they may have to shuffle their grinding stocks.

Ironically Oracle have been hit hardest by the forced schedule change - they now face three races on Sunday against Great Britain, Sweden and Japan.

Spithill brushed aside the delay, saying: "I think it's the right decision to make this call early and give everyone enough notice. It's a shame, but the good news is that by Saturday (Sunday NZ time) we have some great weather coming in for the next week or so. We've waited over two years for this. Another day won't hurt."

Cup organisers were disappointed to have to make the postponement but stressed safety was paramount in these temperamental boats.

"We are obviously disappointed that the strong winds mean we have had to postpone day one of the 35th America's Cup," Cup boss Sir Russell Coutts said.

"This is clearly a decision we have not taken lightly and appreciate the inconvenience caused to the sellout crowd. Our primary concern however, is always safety for everyone involved in the America's Cup. We are adding an hour to the race window on both Saturday and Sunday to run extra races with the aim of getting back on schedule."

It will be an early and unwanted test for the organisers.

The compressed schedule now sees organisers trying to get through 30 round-robin races in seven days with just one lay day.

The bottom challenger drops out after the round-robin action is completed with the other four moving through to the semifinals.

The strong winds have already hit Bermuda, forcing the boats off the course as they did some promotional sailing on Friday (NZ time) for TV broadcasters.

REVISED AMERICA'S CUP SCHEDULE (NZT)

SUNDAY (from 5am NZ time) : USA v France, Sweden v Japan, France v NZ, GB v Sweden, NZ v USA, GB v Japan.

MONDAY (from 5am NZ time): Sweden v France, USA v GB, Japan v NZ, USA v Sweden, NZ v GB, Japan v USA.