Percy's predicament

We speak to Iain Percy about the ailing +39 America's Cup campaign and his plans in the Star

The last months have been difficult ones for Iain Percy as he has juggled his role as skipper of the cashed-strapped, Italian-run America's Cup campaign +39 alongside a Star campaign with Steve Mitchell. The going has proved tough on both fronts for the Sydney Finn Gold medallist.

Of the 12 America's Cup teams lining up to do battle this spring and summer, +39 has been looking the most shakey for some months now. Luca Devoti's team have gone from one financial crisis to the next despite being one of the first teams to raise their head above the parapet with the announcement of their challenge back in March 1994. Italy may be one of the most America's Cup enraptured nations, but even so +39 is struggling being the third and weakest of three Italian campaigns setting their sights on this year's competition.

On the one hand +39 were able to take delivery of their new Cup boat ITA 85 back in October, but on the other the crew don't appear to have been paid for several months and hence the new boat has only been sailed a couple of times. "We haven’t been sailing it because of our financial difficulties," admits Percy who says he is now taking a back seat in terms of trying to sort the team's cash crisis. "So hopefully the powers that be that are above me, they sort it out and we get on and do the event. We are going to be compromised hugely along the way, which is frustrating in the extreme especially as when you sign up for something you expect that not to be the case. But it is still going to be great fun to do it."

Percy won't be drawn on exactly when he was last paid, other than saying it has been some time, adding stoically. "It is not about the money. It is about doing well and the fact that the performance has been compromised a lot more than my wage has been."

However oddly he doesn't seem to thing there is a prospect of +39 not competing in the Louis Vuitton Cup. "I’d be surprised if that was the case, but I am not in the loop enough at the moment."

Equally he is fairly confident that +39 won't start losing people either. "There is very strong loyalty within the group and it is difficult times to hold people together. People are doing different things. Fortunately we have a lot of top Olympic performers who are in the same mode as me. We can do the Olympic stuff so we are getting on with our sailing. There is no sign up at the moment for a TP campaign because you wouldn’t have to at this time of year. So it is lucky that it is January. If it was April-May…"



+39 being on hold at present is allowing Percy some much needed time to refocus on his Star sailing with Steve Mitchell that has recently led to some internal wobbles between the duo, now thankfully resolved. Percy admits they have been off the pace for the last year. They only competed in two events in 2006 with a lacklustre 16th at the Rolex Miami OCR followed by an even worse 24th the Worlds in San Francisco, a distinct down turn in form compared to their European Championship win and a 3rd at the Worlds in Argentina - the two events they competed in during 2005.

While they've been off the pace for the last year, Percy also admits "we've been off the pace in light winds for five years" and this doesn't bode well for an Olympics being held in light wind, tidal, foggy Qingdao. "There need to some changes made," says Percy of their light wind performance. "It is about skills in specific areas. The class is incredibly hard, there is no doubt, but I still feel it is possible to dominate it and I am sick of coming second and third so many times."

Percy and Mitchell are heading off to Miami imminently for a training camp there before taking part in Rolex Miami OCR on 21-27 January. With America's Cup class racing resuming in April with the Act 13 fleet racing going more or less straight into the Louis Vuitton Challenger series, their chances of staying on for the Star class' Bacardi Cup in early March is unlikely.

In terms of his Olympic program, the main focus is of course on ISAF's multiple class World Championship in Cascais in July but Percy says that he and Mitchell may be able to shoehorn some more regattas in, such as Holland Regatta, depending upon when +39 gets knocked out of the challenger selection series. In theory, and (given +39's present situation) in all likelihood, this could be as early as 8 May. With the Cascais event under their belts it will then be a case of going from a moderate to strong regatta in the open Atlantic to the fickle conditions of Qingdao for the Olympic test event in August.

Obviously last week's announcement by Sir Keith Mills of Origin, the new British challenge for the next America's Cup, could prove to be significant for Percy.

"It is fantastic that it is happening," he says of the new Origin challenge. "And Sir Keith has done great things before and he comes with a fantastic reputation and I think that is more important than people realise. The America’s Cup is often a chicken and an egg problem - you want to get involved but you need the money to do it. Suddenly with someone of the kudos of Keith and his reputation you are able to nail to two birds with one stone: firstly he is personally wealthy, but secondly he comes in the same way that perhaps Team New Zealand used to - they didn’t have money but everyone knew they would be there and would be a real challenger. Keith is someone who can do that such is the size of the reputation he has: He comes in and everyone knows that that team will do what they say they are going to do. They are not a team of people hoping that a big launch will result in a knock on the door. Everyone believes that this team will be one of the major challengers for the next couple of Cups. And that is the power of him."

Percy also believes that the core of the crew should be British: "It is an international sport for sure, but I believe a core from a nation is quite important in the same way as you see Manchester United having a core of local guys or British guys. It makes quite a big difference because you do need that extra fire in your belly to go that bit further, which maybe I lack a bit sailing a bit for a team that isn’t from my own country. So I think a British core is important but then of course everyone has to be open to the fact that you have to recruit the absolute very best from around the world."

The question is where Percy will fit in to this? With the next America's Cup potentially due to take place in 2009, his priority is the Olympic Games in 2008 and it is unlikely that Origin will be as sympathetic to the dual goals in his sailing as +39 have been. "The Olympics are very very important to me and I don’t want to compromise that. In the Star, where a lot of the world’s best sailors are, you can’t compromise. So I am going to have to talk to Keith to see if we can work something out," he says.

Much talked for years now is the prospect of a Percy-Ainslie supreme team in the afterguard of a new British America's Cup challenger. "I would be very happy to sail with Ben and I think his strength is helming the boat," continues Percy of his old friend. "He’s ruthless in the pre-start. I’ve raced against him. We’re both learning quite a lot about match racing and we’re both coming along quite well, but that’s where his skills mostly lie. Mine are more on the on board management side and shore side."

So if Ainslie helms, perhaps we can expect to see Percy as skipper? "I have liked it with +39," he says of this role. "I feel I have a good manner with the guys on board and on the shore. I have managed to pull together a great group but in a difficult situation and maybe I have got skills in that area and Ben is the best sailor in the world. So I think we combine that with a few others like Andrew Simpson who is the strategist with us who has an uncanny view for the wind. There are the beginnings of a core of a few people who have been friends for a long time which is also very important that you can back everyone else up and you can take the highs and the lows. That is absolutely vital because I have seen it first hand how in our case it can be. With the simplest decisions and the simplest moving on, it is not the difficulty of the decision - it is arriving at the right place to make the decision and talk about it in a constructive manner in such a big group. If you have got people who back each other up and who are friends and trust each other you have jumped a lot of those steps already."

Percy's predicament seems to be indicative of the way Cup campaigns are heading. Previously you could happily squeeze an Olympic campaign or a Volvo Ocean Race in between Cups. Now, it seems that thanks to the Acts and the shorter span of Cup cycles, once you are with a Cup team, that is all you have the opportunity to do.

Since going to press Percy has announced a split from long term sailing partner, Mitchell. In a full statement, here , he explains the decision and introduces his new sailing partner.