Around 150 spectator boats turned out on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf today to watch the first of the America's Cup challenger races.

The weather was picture perfect off Auckland's East Coast Bays.

Around 20 official patrol boats, police craft and two coastguard vessels ensured spectators obeyed the rules and kept away from the match races.

Seven countries set sail with eleven teams to the start line and today's Round Robin One will see the offshore battles continue over the next four months in the Louis Vuitton Cup elimination series.

The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will compete against Team New Zealand for the ultimate race in a best-of-nine series for the hallowed Americas Cup. Those races will begin February next year.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>