The Tall Guy

James Boyd speaks to GBR Challenge's mastman George Skuodas

They say that the most stressful time in your life is buying a house or changing jobs. George Skuodas is disproving this theory. At 0950 on Saturday he became the proud owner of a new son - yet to be named - whilst at the same time trying to maintain his position as mastman on Wight Lightning during these early races of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

"I got to miss the French race, which of course was our only win so far. So I might have to hold that on the little blighter for years to come…!" confides the towering Scot, whose partner Emily didn't feel she could hang on until after the first Round Robin before she produced.

Skuodas was also watching from the sidelines today - part of the crew rotation process GBR Challenge are using - as Peter Harrison's team were narrowly beaten by the Italian Prada team.

"I took a step off today to give Mo [Gray] a go. I watched it on television," says Skuodas. "Anything which isn’t a W is disappointing. I haven’t spoken to the guys or got the mood from the yard, but I would have thought that they’d be disappointed having taken it to them on the first beat and then being unable to get into them afterwards.

"It all looked pretty similar – it was one of those days where once you were ahead you stretched it. There was a big split [on the first beat], the overlap coming into the weather mark and then Prada just rolled them around the mark and stretched off down the run. The first run was pretty close, but Prada just managaed to hold an edge round the leeward mark and just legged it from there unfortunately."

He says that it being so early in the competition it feels like the points scored are more significant. "It feels like every game is a two pointer right now. If you don’t win, then you’re losing a couple of points on the people close to you. A lot of the boys are Southampton footie supporters so they known all about the 6 point relegation games! That’s how a few of them feel.

"Prada was one we felt we could win. They haven’t lived up to their pre-match billing yet. To us they feel beatable and they’ve had their own turmoils. They don’t look like a happy campaign at the minute."

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