Ken Read interview

madforsailing spoke to Kenny Read, the man on the helm of Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes

Mr America's Cup - Dennis Conner

Read says that although Conner sailed a couple of times during the last Louis Vuitton Cup he thinks he may not during this Louis Vuitton Cup.

One of the few major changes this time round to the team is that following the departure of Peter Holmberg to the helmsman's spot on Larry Ellison's Oracle, Read's old J/24 sparring partner Terry Hutchinson has come on board to join the afterguard. "My theory has always been that whoever is your toughest competitor, why not get them to sail with you?" says Read. "So we got Terry involved in this programme early on and he's been nothing but awesome. He is a great team player and he's a great sailor."

Alongside Read, who does all the helming, Hutchinson joins at the blunt end the two formidable figures of Cup veterans Peter Isler and North Sails President Tom Whidden, who, like Trenkle, has also been involved with Conner's AC campaigns since 1980.

Read says that one of the unusual aspects to the way the afterguard works is that don't have clearly defined roles. "We don't do the classic tactician, strategist roles. Everyone plays a different role at different times during the race. And Pedro [Peter Isler] and Terry and Tom perform a variety of roles. They all grab specialities. Tom has a little bit of navigator, a little bit of strategist and a little bit of tactician. We should almost come up with new names for these roles. There's no real definitions for how we have it set up, but it's very similar to last time."

Equally, unlike say the French and British AC campaigns, Team Dennis Conner have clearly defined separate teams to sail the race boat and the training boat. "We're not one of the programmes where we're in competition for our jobs. We hired groups for our starting team and back-up team. Everyone knew their roles beforehand. That's really helped the chemistry in the team. So there's no in-fighting or bickering. Everyone works their butt off. All the people in the B boat know they are one injury away from having to jump on the A boat."

The only exception to this is the grinding department where they run a pool system.

Read says this approach has made for better harmony within the team. "It makes it a more friendly compound. We are a lot better friends than we were on February 1 so there's something to be said for it."

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