GBR team head back to work

Wight Lightning is shipped to Auckland

GBR Challenge's sailors will soon have to get over their holiday blues and head back to work as skipper Ian Walker lines up for the next round of the Swedish Match Grand Prix Tour.

Walker has entered his crew for some regatta practice in the German leg of the elite match-racing series sailed in identical sportsboats on Lake Constance from 15-20 May.

The British America's Cup team entered two crews for the Steinlager/Line 7 Cup, the season's fourth Swedish Match event, in Auckland in March.

Walker finished 11th and Andy Green and his crew finished last of 12 entries.

The British sailors have been on a three-week break since the launch of their new America's Cup Class boat by HRH Princess Anne in Cowes last month.

The new boat, named Wight Lightning, will be shipped to Auckland in June to begin final preparations for the Louis Vuitton challengers' series which starts in October.

We are pushing the boats harder than ever

Team NZ skipper Dean Barker

Meanwhile, defending America's Cup champions Team New Zealand are pushing their equipment to the limit - and beyond - in two-boat testing on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

Skipper Dean Barker's mast on NZL57 snapped during training in fresh 18-25 knot winds.

This is the second time Team NZ have broken their rig in the last six months.

"It's obviously very disappointing. It has a big impact on our programme," Barker told New Zealand's Radio Sport.

"We are pushing the boats harder than ever before."

Several other America's Cup teams have suffered broken rigs including OneWorld last October and Team Dennis Conner in December.

The high-tech masts used in modern racing yachts have to be light but able to withstand enormous loads placed on them as crews try to maximise every available knot of boat speed.

Oracle Racing went one further when they lost their keel while sailing on Hauraki Gulf in November.

The America's Cup will begin in Auckland in February 2003.