Our hero - part two

In part two of this interview the GBR starting helm talks about the differences philosophies between the AC and one design racing

A unique aspect of the America's Cup, particularly compared to the Olympics or one design sailing, is that you can never stand still. Progress must always be made, whether it is improving the performance of the sailing crew or developing a new go-faster widget such as the boomerang-shaped top spreader ends used by teams like Alinghi (these act like a batten allowing more area to be put into the headsails).

"The campaign has to keep moving forwards and we have to keep thinking about how to make the boat go quick and what changes do we want to make. And that is probably the hardest thing," says Beadsworth. "As you get into it you tend to focus more tightly on the day, on the race, but in the background you have to have all the design and performance stuff moving forwards.

"In that respect we are lucky in that both David [Barnes] and Derek [Clarke] have a lot of experience of the America's Cup and have their eye firmly on the ball and never cease to remind us that we need to keep moving forwards all the time and we do need to be prepared to take some risks. You can't just have a boat that you sail with. All of us one design guys like to sail things we're comfortable with and that we've used before and have practised with and that is quite obviously not the case with the America's Cup - you do have to take some decisions which have some risk attached to them and you have to manage that risk."

This constant movement makes it very hard for campaigns and press alike to gauge the form of the competition as you can in most other forms of yacht racing. A classic example of this was the Wednesday's race against Stars & Stripes. "The first time we sailed against them in our debrief we felt they were definitely quicker than us downwind and we were quicker than them upwind. So between round robins we appear to have crossed paths. Whether that is because we're going a lot faster downwind or they're going a lot quicker upwind - I don't know. And the conditions were a little bit lighter than they were last time. And if you've got a long narrow boat [like Stars & Stripes] then light air upwind and generally downwind would be your strengths, but the whole thing is obviously a lot more complicated than that."

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