Teams for Jubilee

Announced by GBR Challenge for the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta

GBR Challenge today announced the crews that will compete against full America's Cup teams for the first time, during the America's Cup Jubilee. The event will be the first time that a British team has ever competed against other syndicates in modern race trim America's Cup Class yachts.

The British America's Cup team will face the two syndicates that competed in the last America's Cup, Team New Zealand and Prada. Prada, winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup, will be racing in Luna Rossa a 2000 generation ACC yacht, whilst Team New Zealand will be competing in Black Magic, the yacht with which they won the 1995 America's Cup.

Harrison's GBR Challenge has entered two of the former Nippon Challenge yachts, GBR 41, a 1995 generation yacht and GBR 52, from the 2000 America's Cup.

Sailing Manager Ian Walker, who will helm GBR52, commented: "This is an important event for us as we'll come up against America's Cup syndicates for the first time ever in ACC yachts. It will provide a benchmark for us to measure how far we've come and should highlight the areas where we need to improve.

"We've selected two strong crews as we want to give ourselves the best chance of both of our yachts reaching the match racing stage of the competition."

Joining the crew of GBR 41 are Guy Barron, who has run some coaching sessions for GBR Challenge, and Mark Heeley. Barron will work in the afterguard of the yacht in which he represented the Nippon Challenge in the 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup.

The crews are as follows:

GBR52
Bow: Peter Thomas
Mid Bow: Mark Sheffield
Mast: George Skuodas
Pit: James Stagg
Runner / Pit: Jonathon Taylor
Grinder: Guy Reid
Grinder: Jim Lyne
Mid Grinder: Chris Main
Trimmer: Simon Fry
Trimmer: Ian Budgen
Wind Caller / traveller: Andy Green
Mainsheet: Chris Mason
Tactics: Adrian Stead
Navigator: Julian Salter
Aft Grinder: Ben Morrison-Jack
Helm: Ian Walker

GBR41
Bow: Nik Pearson
Mid Bow: Will I'Anson
Mast: Mo Gray
Pit: Jim Turner
Runner/Pit: Craig Nutter
Grinder: Greg Searle
Grinder: Ian Weighell
Mid Grind: Mark Covell
Trim: Rich Sydenham
Trim: Mal Parker
Wind Caller / runner: Guy Barron
Mainsheet: Neal Macdonald
Runners: Mark Heeley
Navigator / Tactician: Derek Clark
Aft Grinder: David Carr
Helm: Andy Beadsworth

As five of the crew will be in Denmark for the first day's competition, they will be replaced by the following team members:

Andy Beadsworth - David Barnes
Ian Walker - Andy Green (with Andy Green replaced by Ian Lovering)
Chris Main - David Carr (with David Carr replaced by Matt Richardson)
Richard Sydenham - Toby Iles
Mark Sheffield - Ed Danby

The top four ACC yachts after the fleet racing stages will qualify for the match racing stages of the competition.

Yacht name / Syndicate / America's Cup Generation
GBR 52 / GBR Challenge / 2000
GBR41 / GBR Challenge / 1995
Luna Rossa / Prada / 2000
America 3 USA23 / Bill Koch / 1992
Il Morro ITA 25 / Bill Koch / 1992
France II FRA33 / TBC / 1995
France III FRA37 / Chris Gordon / 1995
High Voltage(Il Moro4) / John Caulcutt / 1992
Black Magic NZL 32 / Team NZ / 1995