En route to the AC (both of them)

The Daily Sail speaks to Bear of Britain skipper Mark Campbell-James

It's going to be a busy year for Mark Campbell-James. The former World Youth Match Racing Champion has had to put his match racing to one side this summer now that he is a) married, b) has got a full time job working for a bank in the City and c) is steering the big boat, Bear of Britain, in the Royal Thames' Admiral's Cup team next month.

On Sunday Campbell-James steering the youth team to victory in RORC's Morgan Cup race from Cowes, east out of the Solent, round the Nab Tower and then west to Brixham in Devon.

"It was really good for us," Campbell-James told The Daily Sail. "On the Bear we are generally a young crew, but we had all the youngsters and none of the older people who come with us. There was one 30 year old and everyone else was under 25. So it was nice to sail with no grown ups and show we can do it ourselves." Bear's co-owner Kit Hobday is unfortunately sick and is not expected to be able to sail on board this year.

After the mid-evening start on Saturday Bear made her biggest gains in the Solent. "We managed to get out of the Solent when most people couldn’t," explained Campbell-James. "Off the start we had our plan which was to go to the mainland shore, while everyone else went for the island shore. We defended the left coming down the Solent and then suddenly all the wind shut off under the island."

On the mainland side there was only 3-4 knots, but this was enough to allow the black Farr 52 to scuttle away into the distance.

"We got down to Gilkicker when the wind really shut off, but we were miles ahead by then," continued Campbell-James. "Then eventually the gradient from the northeast came in and we got going in 10 knots of wind and got out to the Nab and then put the kite up and we couldn’t see anyone."

By this time it was dark. Campbell-James reckons they were about 30 minutes ahead of the next boat. "We had a Volvo 60 quite close behind and we had the IC45 Bounder and Roxy the J/145 reasonably close. Tonic and the other 50 were right under the island so they were really parked. We weren’t sure who was who. But when it started to come light we were a long way ahead."

After passing St Catherine's they headed offshore. "We wanted to have some wind," Campbell-James explains. "To start with we had good tide, but then we had bad tide for a bit because we were offshore but we thought we should take the wind rather than the tide."

Into the next day Team Tonic-Volvo For Life had caught up. At Portland Nick Newson and his team led by Jeremy Robinson went inside and then proceeded to sail along the Chesil Beach to avoid the tide, while Bear stuck to her offshore route.

"For a while we were parallel but a long way apart, so it was a bit touch and go," said Campbell-James. "We always wanted to keep off the shore, because as soon as any sea breeze came the northeasterly gradient was going to shut off the southerly sea breeze."

Approaching Brixham Bear still held a reasonable led but then there was near disaster. "There was 2 knots of wind and just on the place where we went into the bay - sometimes when there’s no wind and the tide goes funny and makes the water all choppy – we got into one of those and stopped basically. And Tonic were coming up behind us but they sailed into it worse than we did."

Fortunately Bear were able to free themselves and made it to the finish line while Team Tonic-Volvo For Life were still stuck going nowhere 1 mile from the finish line. "They almost got swept round the headland to Cornwall! We had a few worrying moments when they were storming up behind us, but they tried to sail round us and went the wrong side of us."

Campbell-James says they have now beaten their arch-rivals on Team Tonic-Volvo For Life in all the offshore races this year.

From here Bear will be taking part in the Round the Island Race this weekend, which will be used for corporate hospitality primarily. Recently the team have annouced Palmer Capital and JP Morgan as primary sponsors, while the company of Robert Condon, the owner of the Swan 70 Serano, is sponsoring the whole Royal Thames Admiral's Cup team.

The Admiral's Cup is the main focus but Campbell-James says he hopes to resume his match racing career after that and Scandia Life Cowes Week. Ian Williams' recent success has certainly set the tone for him. "I think he’s said ‘right I’m going to nail down and do the events' and he’s proved he can do it," says Campbell-James of his match racing rival. "I think if we spent some time doing some practise rather than just rocking up at the events like we have done I think we could move up. But the Admirals’ Cup is going to be pretty high profile, so if we can do well in that then concentrate on the match racing for a bit we'll see what happens."

And what of the Peter de Savary America's Cup plans that were announced in a vague sort of way last August? "At the time de Savary was definitely interested," says Campbell-James. "It was very much dependent upon where it went. To be honest it still is dependent upon where it goes. He has been talking to some big people in terms of sponsorship. He won’t do it without a major sponsor. I think if he did manage to get someone then he’d do it and if he doesn’t then he won’t do it."

Although touted as de Savary's America's Cup campaign helmsman last year, Campbell-James seems unsure of what his role would be if it were to go ahead. "When it came out last year I went 'oh wow, that’s really great'. I wasn’t expecting to be the skipper of an America’s Cup team straight away. If I can get involved then great. I’m only going to do it if it is right."

It comes as little surprise when Campbell-James says that the America's Cup is his ultimate sailing ambition and it seems that he and Ian Williams are Britain's great white hopes for the future in this arena.