Peter Harrison has confirmed he will be continuing his bid to bring the America's Cup back to Britain despite the disappointing end to the GBR Challenge campaign in Auckland earlier this week.

In the quarter-finals against the American crew Team Dennis Connor, the British were soundly beaten 4-1 but the campaign, which over the past 18 months has cost Harrison more than £22m, will carry over to the next Cup.

"I'm planning on continuity, definitely," he said following GBR Challenge's exit.

"I've taken lots of decisions within the team, which will enable that to happen. The key thing I wanted to do was kick-start Britain back into what I call the World Cup of sailing.

"The key to continuity is hopefully we have shown to major global companies and British companies, that there is value in supporting and backing us. Given that, I am prepared to put certain additional monies and carry the campaign on. But I do need partners and sponsors to join me."

He will also be spending the next few weeks scouting around the larger syndicates in Auckland in the hunt for technicians who can boost his design team. During the Louis Vuitton series, Wight Lightning, the first GBR boat to come off the drawing board, proved slower than her rivals and the second, Wight Magic, a more radical design with a twin-fin keel, required more hours of testing before she could be let loose on the race course.

The team is set to remain in Auckland until the new year to give them time to work on the boats and gain extra knowledge.

"We've not been able to bring GBR78 Wight Magic fully into our considerations, and there's further work we can do on 70," Harrison said.

"I want the continuity to start from here and so our team will be continuing to work as if we're already starting on the next one. We really need to know what we've actually put together and whether there's any real benefits of the particular 78 versus 70 so we will be carrying on while we continue here. All the infrastructure's here and we want to continue sharing the excitement of it as well."

Skipper Ian Walker paid tribute to his crew.

"They never let the team down," he said.

"I think our boat handling was exceptional. We always knew if we could keep it close then we'd be able to put a lot of pressure on the other teams. Whenever the races were close, the guys did a great job.

As Peter says, with more time, work on the design stuff, all the things that we need to think about we can do better, then I'm sure we can put more pressure on the other teams and we look forward to doing a better job in the future."