Over five weeks of one-on-one racing, three teams guided by experienced skippers will vie to emerge from the America's Cup Challenger Selection Series victorious.
American Magic Photo: Studio Borlenghi
But regatta organiser, Prada ceo Patrizio Bertelli, had hoped to have more boats on the start line.
The complexities of the racing a new design of boat - the AC75s - limited the number of entries for the event in Auckland, though Bertelli, who is watching the racing from Italy, still backed the use of the foiling monohulls for future America's Cups.
Bertelli is also a financial backer of the challenger of record, Luna Rossa, which is skippered by the experienced Max Sirena.
Sirena is into his seventh America's Cup challenge and he said the AC75s are a challenge for sailors and engineers.
"I think every team has spent hour and hour in the water to find the best playbook to handle this boat and we are completely happy with that and we are going to push even further in the next few weeks," Sirena said.
Luna Rossa Photo: Studio Borlenghi
Team UK skipper Sir Ben Ainslie has won a swag of Olympic sailing medals for Great Britain but he now has a greater challenge on his hands - getting the British in a position to win the America's Cup for the first time in more than 150 years.
After a poor showing in last month's World Series racing, Ainslie said significant modifications were made to their boat Britannia.
"Since the World Series we've got a new rudder, a new elevator, a new mast, a new mainsail, new headsails, put aero modifications to the hull and we've changed the systems to the hull - so we've been quite busy," Ainslie said.
After such a long list of changes Ainslie said the crew remained the same.
"Yeah it's improved and it needed to."
Team UK Photo: Studio Borlenghi
While the British struggled, American Magic were the only entry to beat defenders Team New Zealand during the earlier racing.
Skipper Terry Hutchinson has been chasing the Auld Mug for 22 years and he said from Friday he would know if all the internal pressure the team has put on themselves will translate into winning results.
"I'm confident in the process that we've used to get to this point, as any great team or family we've argued and debated all the way through it and that's always healthy from a team perspective because you continue to push each other internally to get better but time will tell if it's enough," Hutchinson said.
"I think Patriot's a great boat and it's supported by a really great group of people so all we can do is go out and start racing."
Winning a race is worth one point and the team which earns the most points over the four round robins gets an automatic place in the Challenger Selection Series final.
The other two teams will compete against each other in a semifinal to gain access to the final.
Veteran sailor Tom Ehman, who has been around the cup in various roles since the early 1980s, picked American Magic as his favourite to eventually take on Team New Zealand in the America's Cup.
"They look the fastest, they look like they have the best maneuvering, but for me it's the team that is the quickest across the range, that has the best performance in light air and medium air and heavy air, they have no weaknesses."
