AC35: Team NZ will have raced in six of the past seven AC Matches – here's how they fared

AUCKLAND, NZL – When the 35th America's Cup match begins on Sunday (NZ time), it will be the seventh time a Kiwi boat has competed in the final contest for the Auld Mug, and the sixth time for Team New Zealand. Team NZ will have been involved in six of the past seven matches - twice as the defender, four times as the challenger - only missing out in 2010, when Alinghi and Oracle faced off in a Deed of Gift match and there was no chance of them being involved. Here's how the Kiwi contenders have fared, starting in 1988. –Andrew Voerman writing in an interesting piece that appears in today's New Zealand Herald.

The "Big Boat" – Team New Zealand's challenger for the 1988 America's Cup, the first time a Kiwi boat raced in the America's Cup Match. The Kiwi's first Cup challenge was the year before, 1987, in Perth, Western Australia, but that effort skippered by Chris Dickson only made it to the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series where they lost to the superior STARS & STRIPES team led by Dennis Conner. Since 1988, NZL have been in six of the past seven Matches, all except 2010 when they had no chance of being involved. Photo: Photosport via the NZH.