By Richard Simmonds BBC Sport sailing correspondent in Auckland

It's about eight o'clock on Monday evening at the GBR base in Auckland.

Inside the giant hangar where Wight Lightning lies, the whole GBR Challenge team and their families are enjoying a hastily-arranged barbeque.

Just two hours ago, the team returned from the Hauraki Gulf with their hopes of further progress in the competition extinguished by Team Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes.

Conner's team have looked smart and fast in this quarter-final match, and in the end, beat the British team 4-1.

It was a good move arranging the team evening immediately after the race as many of the sailors and other team members looked numb.

A relentless 18 months, where almost every waking hour was shaped by their routine and performing their best at this event, was finally over.

Tomorrow, that routine is history, and that will be a shock to the system for the team.

Much has been accomplished, although there is disappointment

We learned after racing today, though, that GBR Challenge are not simply packing up and going home.

Some of the team will be staying in Auckland to sail the boat that never raced in anger.

Wight Magic is sitting on the dockside right now, like a fish out of water.

But in the next few weeks, it will be sailing and Peter Harrison will find out if he has created something special that could be the springboard for next time.

Or if he has, like so many before him, invested time and money finding out that tank-testing excitement can be tempered by reality.

Harrison is proud of his team

Peter Harrison has just arrived at the GBR base, and the whole place has erupted.

Walking into the giant hangar, he is still wearing his sailing clothing and looks hugely proud of the reception and warmth extended to him by his team - warmth that has not simply been bought.

I remember being at the crew party just before the challenger series kicked off.

Then, Harrison told the whole team he was proud of what they had achieved in the build-up to the event, whatever happened from then on.

Tonight he is praising his team and Ian Walker's leadership.

Harrison, the man who turned pretty little into �300m in business, has invested about �25m in this campaign and is impressed with what has been achieved.

There is a feeling much has been accomplished, although disappointment the team did not go at least one stage further in the competition.

There are over 100 team members here, many of whom may have wondered on occasions why they have put so much in over the last 18 months.

End of the journey for Wight Lightning

There is no question the hours and the pressures out here have been tougher than almost all of them expected.

But Peter Harrison has just received the loudest applause of the night.

He has intimated he wants to come back to the America's Cup.

There are no cast-iron guarantees, but a commitment that if he can secure the corporate support which means he is not the only substantial backer, he is up for more

And so it seems, at the end of a long disappointing day, are his team.