GBR Challenge's latest signing

madforsailing talks to the new edition to the team, 49er sailor Mo Gray

Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge has been continuing its role as an employment agency to the Olympic sailing team. Its most recent signing is 49er sailor Mo Gray.
Mo's first signs of sailing success came in 1997 and 1998 when he crewed for Charles Stanley in the International 14s. During that period they proved themselves a force to reckoned with by winning the National, European and World Championships.

After his success in the 14s, Mo was approached by Paul Brotherton in early 1999 as a possible crew for his bid to compete at the Sydney Olympics in the 49er. Despite a hard training programme and dedicated time out on the water, Mo and Paul came second at the Olympic trials, just one point behind Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks.

Having grown up in Antigua, Mo left the UK immediately after the trials to return to the Caribbean island with the aim of competing in the Antigua Week sailing regatta. A few weeks after he returned he was offered the chance to be part of the delivery team taking Mike Slade's Leopard across to the Caribbean. Arriving in Antigua he then spent four months working and racing on W76s doing mainsheet and tactics.

"The offer from the America's Cup team came just before Christmas," explains Mo. " Ian Walker got in touch with me and basically asked me what my plans were for the future. He then asked if I would like to go and join them for an extended trial - and we'd take it from there."

Mo has been working with the GBR Challenge for six weeks now and was officially signed on 15 June with a contract until the end of the training in New Zealand in March 2002. This is a similar contract to that of most of the sailors who have taken part in a trial period.

We asked Mo what his trial period had entailed. "Nothing more than fitting in with the day-to-day lifestyle really. It's not just about sailing the boat, it's getting involved in the areas where we need to do work, like winches and rigging and sails and all that sort of stuff. I've joined the winch team, there are about three or four of us, and when we're not sailing we're basically servicing and checking and fitting new parts to the winches. So that was all part of the trial. For the sailing side, I got moved around to quite a few different positions on the boat, but I think ultimately Ian had me tipped for either doing mast or mid-bow."

The America's Cup campaigns are notorious for their dedicated fitness regimes. Mo commented: "Now that Greg Searle has got a bit of time, he's basically working out a full fitness program for all of us. We've all had tests with Pete Cunningham the same as we did for the Olympics, and all of us are going to the gym and doing weights, we've all got to try and get bigger and stronger. Next week our physical training starts a little more formerly, we will have times assigned each day for all of us to go training and weight training."

Finally, we asked Mo how it feels to be a part of the America's Cup Team, and if it has made him feel patriotic. "It's more like feeling really excited," he said, adding: "To be honest it hasn't really sunk in yet, we're learning so quickly how to sail the boat, it's excellent and I can't wait to get to New Zealand."