Yachting: Team NZ complete first stage of round-the-world campaign

Team New Zealand will have to wait until they get off the start line to know exactly fast their boat is, but say they are "in a good spot" in their build-up to the Volvo Ocean Race.

Their yacht, Camper, has been loaded on a ship for its journey from Auckland to Europe.

Skipper Chris Nicholson said today that packing the boat up for shipment marked the end of phase one of the project.

"We've achieved everything goal we've set along the way and we've done the best we could in the time we've had available," he said.

"Right at this moment, we're probably in a good spot."

The round-the-world race, once known as the Whitbread, begins at the Spanish city of Alicante on October 29, or in 100 days from tomorrow.

The first leg starts in earnest on November 5.

The seven-strong fleet of 21.5-metre Volvo Open 70s will make eight stops, including in Auckland, before reaching the finish line at Galway, in Ireland, next July.

Camper was launched in April and since then has done more than 8000 nautical miles of testing from the tropics to the edge of the Southern Ocean.

While Nicholson was happy with progress, he said the Camper crew wouldn't know how their boat measured up against their rivals until competition began.

"We're not going to know until we get going just how fast we are," he said.

"In the meantime, all we can do is have what I think are the best designers, best sailing team, best shore crew, and mould that together to achieve the fastest boat we can put on the water."

He paid credit to the shore crew and the sailors for that the fact that "we haven't missed one single hour of sailing" so far.

An Australian Olympian, 42-year-old Nicholson will be competing in his fourth round-the-world race.

His first was 10 years ago, when he was watch captain on Amer Sports 1, skippered now by Team NZ managing director Grant Dalton.

He and the rest of the 11-strong Camper crew, seven of them New Zealanders, were farewelled at a function at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron today.

They will regroup in Europe in early September and conduct further sail testing during the delivery voyage from Britain to Spain.

At the farewell, organisers of the Auckland stopover released details about planning for the period when the fleet will be in the city in March.

The race village and race headquarters would be at the downtown Viaduct Harbour area.

There would large screens and live music, and visitors to "pit lane" would be able to get a close-up look at the VO70s.

Auckland marks the end of the fourth leg from Sanya, in China, and the first boat is expected in port on March 8.

The fleet is scheduled to depart for Itajai, in Brazil, on March 18.