Our hero

The Daily Sail tackles a cappucino with GBR Challenge's new starting helm Andy Beadsworth

On board Wight Lightning Beadsworth says Ian Walker likes a lot of information and part of their training has been in trying to ensure that he doesn't have information overload but gets the right information at the right time. Aside from Adrian Stead, Jules Salter supplies information from the instrumentation and keeps an eye on the opposition with the aid of a James Bond-style Laser range and bearing finder. "He'll talk about percentages port and starboard left on the beat and he's another set of eyes looking at the win and he does a little bit of strategy".

Then there is the communication with wind spotter Chris Main, who if it is light will spend most of the race lurking in the top spreaders look for the shifts as he did for most of the race yesterday against Stars & Stripes. "You can't have him screaming down from the top of the mast as everytime you turn a winch you won't hear anything. So we've got a communications loop up the top of the rig. And yet you can't have the tactician sitting there on the telephone all the time when he needs to be talking to the helmsman about laylines. The whole communication thing is huge and it's all about the right information at the right time - keeping the noise level down but getting the information across."

Refining this down the blunt end of Wight Lightning has come about through trial and error. "Generally the boat has been quite quiet and comfortable all the time. The most anxious moments are the first five minutes when you come off the line - 'are we going to be ahead, are we going to be behind, are we going to be faster, are we going to be slower, is the first shift going to our way or is it going to go against us? Once that's established everyone just knuckles down and gets into it and works hard."

To date Beadsworth says the start against Mascalzone Latino has been the toughest. "To some extent they are an unguided missile. They haven't got a lot to lose by throwing whatever they've got at us. Paolo [Cian] is a friend of mine, I've sailed against him a lot in Solings and he's a very good sailor and given half a bite at the cherry he won't let go. He's good enough to hang on to that advantage. He's proven he can taken anyone on, but making it stick has proved hard for them. I was just nervous of him throwing a curved ball and catching us off guard."

In part two of this interview on Monday Andy B talks about the stress of being involved with an AC campaign and, personally how lining up agains the world's top sailors can be a little intimidating.