#VOR - Team New Zealand is giving this year's Volvo Ocean Race a miss, instead fixing their sights on the America's Cup.

As the New Zealand Herald reports, the team that finished second in overall points in the last edition of the VOR - and claimed victory in the final leg to Galway - was planning to mount another challenge at the round-the-world yachting title.

They would have joined a field filled with newcomers to the race, including the first all-woman squad for a decade and one of the youngest ever teams to compete.

But "in the end, time was against us," said team CEO Grant Dalton.

"Every passing day magnified the impact that preparations for a round-the-world race would have on Emirates Team New Zealand's other operations."

Those operations, more specifically, are the team's preparations for the 35th America's Cup, the defence of which is scheduled to take place in 2017.

Dalton added: "The team exists to win the America's Cup."