Pratt at the back

James Boyd was 17th man on GBR41 during the British America's Cup team's first competitive outing

The enormous carbon mainsail is hoisted followed by a jib and we are off, the boys on board eager to mix it with some 'real' competition. There is a whirr of action on the grinders as we put in a few practise tacks. Hearing the last few inches of main sheet being pulled in is very scary. Ropes that big are not supposed to make a noise that high. Ed Danby and Craig Nutter are grinding as Neal McDonald who is mainsail trimming looks up with a grin "I LOVE that noise!"

Julia and I discuss the number of employees in some of the America's Cup campaigns. GBR Challenge have 57 on the payroll plus a 20 strong build team and an assortment of consultants. Rumour has it that Oracle have more than 150 and Prada almost twice this number. We talk about sponsorship and Julia points to the boom where there are already several corporate logos. These represent several sponsorships in kind, shipping company P&O Nedlloyd being the major one worth roughly £500,000. She thinks it likely that there will be a "family of three sponsors" rather than the family of five as previously thought. "We only got the boats in in May. So it's only in the last three months that we've had a deliverable product to show to the chairmen of PLCs."

We get into start mode and Andy Beadsworth and Derek Clark time the run in perfectly crossing the line at speed on starboard right by the committee boat. We have got the best start and once we've tacked and gone into our first cross we are ahead of both favourites Prada and our colleagues on GBR52 where Peter Harrison himself is sailing today. Despite the light conditions and the size of GBR41's keel bulb the rig is still generating huge power and there is a reasonable amount of heel on. I am struck by there being no one sitting out.

Gradually we are overhauled by Prada. GBR52 disappears over the right hand side of the course where the conditions are better and after a few moments where they look like they're down the pan, they find the breeze and storm into the lead. Mark Heeley is up to the weather with the binoculars looking for breeze, what the competition is up to and the whereabouts of the mark. But data is flowing back from other crewmembers too and Derek Clark is prodding his B&G Tactician touch screen computer that attaches by a long umbilical to a fitting on the deck. He gives what seems like a running commentry about the conditions. "52 and 51 indicating more breeze coming.....left breeze coming.....etc". Then he stops and steps back. "I'm quite enjoying this," he says with a big grin echoing the thoughts of the other crewmen, who too are releved to be back in competition.

At the top mark GBR52 is way in the lead, followed by Prada. Team New Zealand storm into the mark on port just ahead of us. We round the wingmark, get the long carbon fibre spinnaker pole in place along with the two jockey poles athwartships either side of the mast and pop the kite heading on a course for the Nab Tower. The team have been putting in the hours. The hoist is flawless as are the next few gybes, although it would be interesting to see how they might have got on on Sunday when it was blowing harder.

We think we're catching the Kiwi boat being helmed by Dean Barker and there is a short discussion about how to overtake. Following Clark's advice we bear away and try to take them to leeward. But then the black boat seems to find its stride and by the time we have reached the leeward mark they are beyond our reach. Prada are 40 seconds behind GBR52, the Kiwis 45 seconds astern of Prada and us in fourth 35 seconds behind the black boat.

On the second beat we are hopeful of making up some ground when we get a huge lift, but this doesn't transpire. By the end of the race the order is the same, but the margins between the boats have become greater. We are fourth, the result we predicted, but GBR52 has won its first major competition in the ACC class and for the last 100 yards Peter Harrison was given the wheel, a thank you from the team for having the foresight and courage to fund this exciting campaign.