It looks like we should expect some fierce competition on the Great Sound next year.

The three Bermudian-based teams spent some time practice racing on the 35th America’s Cup course earlier this month and the results were fascinating.

All three teams won, and lost, their share of the races. Nobody ran away from the competition.

For America’s Cup fans this is encouraging, as it promises close, intense competition next year. For the teams, it indicates the racing will be hard-fought. Every day of practice is important. No advantage is too small to be a potential difference maker.

“It’s not quite the same conditions as we expect to face next summer, but spending hours on the Great Sound, doing race tracks with the race committee has been very valuable,” Jimmy Spithill, the Oracle Team USA skipper, said.

“It just pushes the team. It puts you under regatta pressure, for the shore and design teams too. You have to make configuration decisions for the boats and that’s exactly what it’s going to be like for the America’s Cup.”

Learning about boat configuration is one of the more valuable lessons the teams can take from the sessions.

Each team are allowed to build just four daggerboards for their new America’s Cup Class boat. These foils, which are the horizontal surfaces the boat “flies” on when it rises out of the water, are a critical component of overall performance. How each team sets up their boat for a given wind condition is likely to be a winning factor.

“In a race format, you’re forced to play inside the race box, the boundaries come into play and it forces you to put the manoeuvres in tight quarters,” Andrew Campbell, the Oracle Team USA tactician, said.

“Anytime you race the boats in anger it’s a good test of the equipment and of the sailors.”

Spending more time than any of the other teams sailing on the racecourse area for the America’s Cup has long been an advantage the defender holds and this time around is no different.

Oracle Team USA have been sailing in Bermuda for 18 months now, including a previous practice session in June, during next year’s race period.

“It’s an advantage for us to be here in Bermuda as long as we have been,” Campbell said. “It’s an advantage to be here racing on the same racecourse as where the America’s Cup will be.”

Both Campbell and Spithill agree that the team will seek every advantage they can in their quest to win the America’s Cup for a third consecutive time. Not least because the competition is going to be tighter than ever before.

“The racing is really close,” Spithill said. “It surprises us every time we do this, just how close it is, how much passing there is. There are more foiling tacks now than there were back in June and that just shows how much the level is rising.”

Campbell added: “Everybody is going to come to the America’s Cup ready to race. We’re going to have to be on our game when we get to the first race next year.”