Team New Zealand cast a lonely figure in Bermuda as their hurried game of catchup continues.

They were the only one of six syndicates out on the Great Sound on Wednesday (NZ time), eager to get to grips with the lighter airs that are expected to dominate America's Cup racing once it starts later this month.

The Kiwis were understood to be testing their new light air foils in ideal conditions of 5-8 knots with the occasional puff of 10 knots.

Videos showed they were coping well in terms of speed and stability in the trying conditions.

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Team New Zealand have only had one day of official practice racing because of their late arrival in Bermuda.

With a little over three weeks until the first of the round-robin America's Cup qualifiers, there is the need to maximise every minute, especially for the Kiwis.

They have five days of practice racing looming on May 15 and then another block of three days before the real thing starts.

Team New Zealand remain something of an unknown quantity as the other five teams start to get increasing analysis given the amount of "racing" they have already done over the four sessions to date.

While time is ticking away, it's still early days in terms of real performance given the cloak and dagger nature of the America's Cup and what teams will or won't be revealing in this leadup period.

But Swedish challengers Artemis Racing have emerged as the surprise form team after their nightmare in San Francisco four years ago.

They have won 24 of their 29 races, dropping one to Team New Zealand at the weekend, although they didn't engage in any pre-start manoeuvres, effectively giving the Kiwis a 29-seconds start.

America's Cup boss Sir Russell Coutts has talked up Artemis, saying: "They are definitely the form team. I think if we were racing the A Cup today they would have to be the favourite."

Coutts felt the fleet was evening out and talked up gains from early strugglers Team France and Ben Ainslie Racing (Great Britain). But Coutts, a master of getting his timing right in this complicated equation of development and performance, felt there was still plenty to play out.

"We have seen some interesting new developments with light wind boards," Coutts said.

"There's still a long way to go in terms of reliability. A lot is still changing and it's still too early to predict who is going to be strong. But the performance of the boats is incredibly impressive."