Launch of Team New Zealand's first custom-designed development boat, blessed by representatives of Ngati Whatua and christened by Lady Tindall, wife of Team NZ director Sir Stephen Tindall.

Team New Zealand are playing a high-stakes game of "catch-up" as they start the serious phase of their on-water testing programme ahead of next year's America's Cup in Bermuda.

The Kiwi syndicate launched their first custom-designed development catamaran last Tuesday and hope to have it fully operational any day now as they look to take their campaign up several gears.

This is the first and last "development" boat off the production line before they roll out their race yacht which is not allowed to be launched until December 27, at the earliest.

LAWRENCE SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ Team NZ skipper Glenn Ashby says the next few months are vital as the sailors get to add their touch to the design process.

Team NZ, which went so close to wresting the Auld Mug off Oracle in San Francisco in 2013, have been doing their testing up till now on a boat bought from sidelined Italian syndicate Luna Rossa.

READ MORE:

* Development boat launched

* Last boats will be 'dinosaurs'

* Team NZ idle in New York

* Kiwis sail in for NYC racing

But now they have their own purpose-built craft on the water they can begin accumulating the knowledge, experience and expertise they will need to close the gap on rivals whom they're the first to concede have a hefty start on them.

"It's really an ongoing development programme now where this boat will morph into the race boat eventually," said Team NZ chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge. "Everything we learn on this boat will be passed on to the actual race boat."

Though the new development boat is not quite at the America's Cup specs − it sits at 45 feet, whereas the actual race boats will be just shy of 50ft − top design official Dan Bernasconi says it's "extremely close" to what they will eventually take to Bermuda.

"Other than five feet of hull length we're pretty much looking at the race boat. The beams are race spec, the centre pod, wing, daggerboards and rudder are all race spec."

And Shoebridge confirms there is plenty of Kiwi ingenuity that has gone in to this first development boat, given it has had more than 35,000 man hours poured into its design and construction.

"The thing with these boats really is the success is in a lot of the parts you can't see," the COO said. "We can all see the wing and hulls and rudders, but it's the technology behind what operates the dagger foils, rudders, hydraulics, electronics and that kind of thing."

The reality is Team NZ need their boat to be advanced, to be cutting edge, to be somewhere close to what they want to race in Bermuda, because they start at the back of the pack. Most of their rivals have testing boats already on the water, some with more than one.

"There's no question we're later than we want to be but we've never been slow on the design side," said Shoebridge who rates the competition at a much higher level than it's been for the last few America's Cup regattas.

Skipper and sailing team director Glenn Ashby said the next few months are now vital as the sailors get to add their touch to the design process of these F1-style race yachts. "We've only got a short window to utilise this boat to its fullest potential, to learn the systems, hydraulics, electronics and appendages, and to design those components onto our actual race boat.

"We've got a great sailing team who won't have any trouble learning how to tack and jibe the thing. It's more working with the designers and engineers to get the setup of the boat right so we can execute what we need to."

Bermuda 2017 is so far away. Yet so close.