Percy power

We speak to GBR Challenge's newest recruit Iain Percy about his role within the British America's Cup team

Peter Harrison's next America's Cup campaign took a distinctly upward turn recently with the news that Finn Gold medallist and Star World Champion Iain Percy has been signed up to the fledgling team.

Percy says that the first meetings to discuss his coming on board GBR Challenge took place a couple of months ago. "I've been keen from the beginning to get involved with a British America's Cup challenge. It's been in the back of my mind for ages." He says, canny bloke, that he wanted to make the annoucement now to quash any rumours and speculation that might detract from his Olympic campaign, which is still very much his priority in the short term.

Within the new look GBR Challenge Percy sees himself having at least two roles - on the water and off it.

The make-up of the afterguard for GBR Challenge v2 is still far from finalised, but the scenario many are seeing is Percy as part of the tactical team with Ben Ainslie behind the wheel. "We've been talking a lot to Ben," says Percy. "It is all very positive - it is just a matter of timing when he comes on board." Like Percy, the most pressing matter at present for Ainslie is his Finn campaign for Athens.

Percy believes that this combination will work well - he and Ben have been priming themselves for the helm/tactical roles for some time, although apart from a couple of occasions when they have sailed on big boats together for sponsors such as Volvo and Skandia, they have being developing these roles independently.

Percy feels it is significant that he and Ben have been friends for a long time. "Look at Alinghi - they work because the group has stayed together. I think Ben and I can do that, which will be good for the British sailing group."

Obviously the team would like to emulate the success of the Swiss. "All the teams look to Alinghi as the example - their professionalism is incredible. They are the role model," he says, adding that since he has come into GBR Challenge as an outsider he has been very impressed by what's he seen. "The people involved have the same ethos and want to be team players."

All important to Alinghi's success on the water was not just Butterworth and Coutts (and of course Ernesto Bertarelli) but also the likes of Murray Jones and trimmers Simon Daubney and Warwick Fleury, who have been through successive Cups together.

With this in mind Percy says that his and Ben's involvement in the America's Cup will not be a flash-in-the-pan affair. "I see this as a 10-12 year project. That's how long it can take to win. In this game, you have to be in it for the long term. And as it gets longer it becomes more about the people. At this stage it is about the individuals who are signed up now. You have to be together and be prepared to learn for a long time."

Hence another early recruit to the new GBR Challenge sailing team has been Andy Hemmings. Aside from being a former Olympian and part of Chris Law's match race team, Hemmings was a trimmer for the Prada team in the last Cup. Also signed up so far on the sailing team are James Stagg, Jules Salter, Mark Sheffield, Jeremy Elliott, Simon Shaw and Craig Nutter, although they all have secondary roles: Stagg concentrating on hardware, Salter on the legal side, Sheffield on electronics, Elliott and Shaw in the design team and Nutter on the shore side.

Interestingly Percy admits that he hasn't had much experience match racing, so at some point "we might need a little bit of practise first." It seems likely that the core crew will take to the match racing scene once the Olympics are out of the way. Prior to Athens Percy says he doesn't see GBR Challenge taking up too much of his time - and he can't afford it to lest he lose focus on his Star campaign.

Aside from his role on the boat, Percy sees himself also playing a key role in the team off the water, working on the campaign 'package'. "The ability to see the big picture, having a feel for where the priorities are, being multi-skilled, team work, dealing with sponsors - those are my skills." Percy says he has signed on now to be part of the early decision-making process within the team. Aside from this he is likely to step into some sort of marketing role, maybe waving his gong and being the 'face of GBR Challenge', when Leslie Ryan is pounding the boardrooms in her quest for those elusive sponsors.

Percy says that the management structure of GBR Challenge will have a very different complexion this time round, although some key appointments have still to be made. "There's going to be more of a group-type set up. It needs more transparency internally."

While the reappointment of David Barnes as General Manager seems unlikely someone is needed in this role and a name which has cropped up is Rod Carr, who has the managerial expertise and was one of the architects of Britain's sailing success in the Olympics, but equally is rather heavily tied up at present in his role as Secretary General of the RYA.

Also at present it is unclear how Ian Walker will fit into the new structure. Clearly it would be foolish not to make use of Walker's considerable sailing talent as well his hard-earned experience at the sharp end of the British challenge in Auckland. "We would love Ian to be involved," says Percy. "He'll be talked to along with a lot of other people, but they would be silly not to take him on and use his experience."

Even the role of GBR Challenge founder and chairman Peter Harrison looks set to change. Harrison has said repeatedly that he will finance the 2007 campaign to the tune of 50%, with the balance coming from sponsorship. While this is highly generous, it is not what is currently considered the 'ideal' America's Cup finance package, where a wealthy benefactor guarantees the entire budget up front, expecting to recoup a percentage of the investment through sponsorship over the course of the campaign - as was the case with for example Alinghi and Oracle this last time (see our interview with Paul Cayard where he talks about this).

"There is a slight change of emphasis for the team," says Percy. "Peter is taking more of a back seat. His team has turned into a separate unit as he has so much on in his life with things like his big boat." Anyone who ventured up the Medina River during Skandia Cowes Week would have seen Peter Harrison's fabulous new Farr-design ketch outside of the GBR Challenge base.

At present in addition to the sailing team mentioned, Peter Harrison and the design team of Rob Humphries, Phil Morrison and Akihiro Kanai, it is still Derek Clark who is running the GBR Challenge show at present as Head of Operations and Design in conjunction with Leslie Ryan, who is head of Sponsorship and Marketing.

So does the move into the America's Cup arena represent the end of Percy's Olympic career? "It's not necessarily my last Olympics. It's more a change of focus, a 10 year period blocked out making this happen. You never know - you might you have a mid-life crisis, but hopefully not."

Back in the real world and Percy and his Star crewman Steve Mitchell were waving the Skandia flag in a big way recently at Cowes Week and have otherwise been busy training down in Cadiz, ready for the mega-World Championships taking place there in September. "We just keep trying to improve every day. We are making steps all the time. There is so much quality in the Stars and the boats go the same speed - we've learned that. So Paul Cayard - if you get a bad start you're not going to get past him."

Prior to the Worlds the Stars also have their Europeans in Cascais on 2-9 September.