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

Obviously at present mood in the British camp is at an all time high. But Beadsworth puts this into context. "The highs are never really as high as they might be. Because everybody's quite tired and it's just one race and everyone knows that the next day could be very tough. So the lows are generally lower than the highs are high."

One of the great reliefs is that Wight Lightning although not excessively quick, is certainly on the pace. "We came in from Stars & Stripes [in the first Round Robin] feeling pretty pleased because we felt we were in a yacht race, we were in the ball park and the boat was not a complete dog and the sail program is okay and our crew work is pretty good." He will not be drawn about GBR78, which is believed to have the same hull as GBR70, but with a tandem-type keel.

"Obviously we are looking for a boat that is going to win the America's Cup and it would be very tempting to do something quite radical to do that, but as a team we wanted to be conservatively smart," says Beadsworth. "We wanted a boat that was going to go better than NZL60, the quickest boat last time. We thought that would put us in the ball park and we didn't want something that was going to be horrendously slow. We wanted a boat that was going to be reliable and that we could race.

"I think we've got that and we looked pretty hard for ways of increasing the gains over NZL60 as best we could, but you've got to remember we've been on limited time. We've had 18 months you might say, but they started building the boat nearly a year ago, so there was effectively not a lot of design time. To build and test one model takes a serious amount of time."

In contrast Prada, it might be said, seem have done the complete reserve and perhaps have spent too much time and money on their R&D and design.

Towards the end of this round robin Beadsworth believes the competition will hot up when the points become significant to get from the round robins, a kind of seeding process, before the quarter finals.

"We've got to race Oracle last and we might need that point to make the top four. If that is the case we're likely to be trying quite hard," says Beadsworth understatedly. "I think the same for the Swedes. They're going to have some difficult matches at the end of the Round Robin. They're likely to get into a position we're they're going to need to beat people they're going to struggle to beat."

And as to their prospects? "There are no reason the wheels should fall off the wagon. I never thought at the beginning of this series that we'd have more wins than losses. Everyone said if we'd be even we'd be happy.

"As it stands a place in the top four is certainly possible - at the moment we are lying equal third in the round robins. Our stated public goal is to try and make the semi-finals and at the moment my belief in that goal is quite strong, but it is still going to be a monumental achievement if we do."

Fingers crossed.