Branded in the new Team New Zealand colors, the first German-built America's Cup yacht felt the water ripple under her hull for the first time yesterday in Auckland's Viaduct Harbor.

Built by the illbruck syndicate for last year's Cup, a lack of finance meant the yacht was never completed, and as a result the lime-colored hull lay in a boatyard in Germany for two years before it was acquired by Team New Zealand.

The yacht's owner, Michael Illbruck, head of his family's international company, illbruck GmbH, which makes automotive and building products, has loaned the yacht to Emirates-sponsored Team New Zealand for as long as they require.

Designed by Michael Richelsen, now with Alinghi, and Friedrich Judel and Torsten Conradi from Judel/Vrolijk, the yacht is similar in shape to Alinghi and Oracle, which makes it an ideal testing boat for the New Zealand syndicate.

The main difference between the illbruck boat, which will now be known as NZL 68, and the black boats used in the last cup NZL 81 and NZL 82, is the width.

NZL 68 is considerably narrower.

"It puts us in that design space and I think it helps energise a team because they have a new boat, new gear, new equipment," Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said. "You can't measure that as such, but it is one of the things that is important culturally."