Ken Read talks to madforsailing

The J24 multiple world champion and big boat star reckons the Brits are 'playing possum'

As Ken Read was preparing to go out to battle on the second day of the Sun Microsystems Australia Cup, his first appearance in the Swedish Match Grand Prix, he stopped to talk with Bob Fisher about this and more particularly about his efforts in the America's Cup with Team Dennis Conner with one America's Cup behind him.
How do you feel about the next America's Cup?
Last time, as a team we weren't rookies, but I was close to it. We could have made a lot of improvements to our programme last time, based on experience and having blokes like Dennis Conner and Billy Trenkle around helps to provide that experience very quickly, but this time I will be better prepared for it, especially the pressure. I tended to put more pressure on myself than outside forces, but that was with very little expectations. We had the opportunity to sail with almost zero expectations, nobody was expecting us to do well. This time, with a little more expectations, there will be more outside pressure so I will be better prepared to deal with that.

This time you have a little more time and a lot more money?
Yes, a little more time and a lot more money, what you could almost call a real programme. Hopefully, it will allow us to gain those two or three minutes around the racecourse, which makes the sailing part a little bit easier. Last time, every race was a struggle. It is almost like sailing out here on the Swan River, we never were able to say: "Oh good, we are sailing so-and-so today," every race was a struggle for us. So every day and every race from halfway through the second round robin was do or die. There was a lot more pressure there than met the eye.

But while you struggled, you came out pretty well. Have you kept most of the same people for this time?
We tried to get as many of the same people as possible; some of the bigger programmes scarfed away four or five of our guys, but for the most part, we are back with a very similar team.

And two boats this time?
Two boats, and when we are going to start is the age-old battle - the sailors want to start soon and the designers want every minute they can. So we are having a little tug-of-war right now.

Are you enjoying this regatta - you are 5-1 up at this stage? That's not a bad scoreline after day one.
Keep in mind that this is all for the big goal. We look at this with an eye to the future. We understand that to take all the potential problems out of our programme we have to cover all of our bases and this is fast becoming another base to touch. The match racing circuit is developing constant interesting scenarios and interesting moves. It keeps you up on the rules, it keeps you sharp, so it's a good place to be for us.

Do you rate match racing highly in your America's Cup campaign?
It's funny, but on a scale of 1-10 for the important things in an AC campaign, Dennis has always rated it at about nine, towards the lowest. It's a fund raising contest and a boat speed contest - those are the top two items for sure. Just where match racing comes after that is debatable, probably the sailors think it's high and the fundraisers think it's low. It comes right behind getting the right tactical team, especially in a place like Auckland, you have to be able to get off the line and let your boat do its thing. I would say somewhere in the middle.

Shall we see you around in more of these Grade 1 events?
Sure, we are doing the Congressional Cup, Knickerbocker Cup and the Bermuda Gold Cup.The problem is, with the summer we have the Admiral's Cup in limbo, which has taken a few of us, we have prior commitments to events like that, and we have to see how that turns out. At least four events this year and maybe a couple more in the summer.

This America's Cup sees the return of an old foe in the Cup but a new one of late in the British team. What do you think about that?
They're playing possum here, I know that. They are going to be a lot tougher. Andy Beadsworth getting up and saying that he has great aspirations of being in the semi-finals. They have shown with their Olympic effort that they have made a strong commitment to sailing as a national body and when we did an informal ranking the other night, Terry Hutchinson ranked them near the top. And I'm not so sure that I don't agree with that. It was a really good move to buy the two Japanese boats, so that they can get time in those boats. They will have a good crew. They will be a lot more ready than they're playing possum. They'll be fine.

I don't expect you will be playing possum with Team Dennis Conner, so I wish you well with it.