Tauranga sailor Peter Burling and crew Blair Tuke will be going into the Olympics in Rio knowing their next ride, a 50ft (15.2m) Americas Cup foiling catamaran is under construction in Auckland.

Specialist carbon mast fabricators Southern Spars announced today it has been appointed to build Emirates Team New Zealand's boat for the 35th America's Cup.

New Americas Cup boats will be 22ft (6.7m) shorter than the AC72s of the San Francisco campaign. Supplied Photo.

The company has provided masts for a range of different teams in every America's Cup for the past 25 years, including the victorious Black Magic campaign in 1995.

The boat will be launched early next year ahead of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and America's Cup to be held in Bermuda from the beginning of May 2017.

ETNZ, which launched its first custom-designed development boat last month that Southern Spars is also producing the wing-sails for, says it will be its most technically-advanced yacht ever.

Chief executive Grant Dalton says Southern Spars is an obvious choice when it came to finding a manufacturer with the pedigree to deliver a yacht capable of winning the next America's Cup.

'Our relationship with Southern Spars goes back a long way and this will be our sixth campaign together. We are delighted Southern Spars will be drawing on their broad and deep international experience to build the entire boat, with the exception of the beams.”

Southern Spars director Mark Hauser says the company's 25 years involvement in the America's Cup and long relationship with Emirates Team New Zealand provides a wealth of expertise and experience to the campaign.

'We are delighted to have been appointed. We will be bringing all of our people, processes, design and technology to bear in building a winning boat for Emirates Team New Zealand – backed by our comprehensive production facility in Auckland.

'Increasing the scope of our prior Emirates Team New Zealand work from masts and rigging to the overwhelming share of the boat is a great honour for us as we continue to diversity as a business.

'The boat will take at least 13,000 hours for our team to build and so we are delighted but at this stage there is little time to celebrate.”

Glen Ashby is skippering ETNZ in Peter Burling's absence. In Portsmouth, with next to no training time allowed as a new line up, Glenn on the helm for the first time, and two entirely new faces on the world series boat, ETNZ missed a podium finish on Sunday (UK time) by a few points to finish fourth.

TNZ was third place behind Ben Ainslie Racing and Oracle Team USA at the end of the day's first race. Tactician Ray Davies called the perfect entry into the final turning mark before the line.

'We knew we were in it, sliding inside SoftBank Team Japan and Artemis Racing with momentum to get us a third, and that was a great way to start the day," says Glenn.

Race two was more of a challenge, after a strong start hitting the line as windward boat, the team secured a fifth place, a tough one for the crew as the fleet spread wide and found strong passing lanes as the breeze increased.

In the final race of the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series event, a strong performance by the team setting up for another third place was marred by a submerged mooring buoy positioned on the race course close to the last turning mark.

Foiling at over 17 knots, ETNZ snagged the line on their starboard daggerboard coming to a complete stop as they passed the Japanese team, subsequently giving the Softbank Team Japan a clear run to secure the final podium spot.

Specialist carbon mast fabricators Southern Spars has been appointed to build Emirates Team New Zealand's boat for the 35th America's Cup. Supplied Photo.