The Gorman report

Ed Gorman reports from Auckland on the forthcoming quarter final matches between GBR70 and USA77

Stars & Stripes, USA77, the boat that sank, the one with the new bow from forward of the chainplates; the one that is supposed to be the quicker of the two and especially to windward - is this the weapon that will despatch Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge from its first Louis Vuitton Cup?

So far Team Dennis Conner has performed disappointingly, given its unrivalled experience in this competition but, to judge by skipper Ken Read's mood on the eve of his Louis Vuitton quarter-final clash with the GBR Challenge, things are about to change for the better and at the expense of Harrison's outfit.

Read's case is that USA77 was always the better of the two Reichel-Pugh thoroughbreds in the Stars & Stripes locker and for the past two months the team has had to soldier on with its tune-up boat which has proved slow to windward in anything other than light winds. Now he believes the New York Yacht Club outfit has turned the corner and will enjoy a new lease of life with USA77 back in racing trim.

After such a massive re-build, it has taken the team some time, almost 20 days of on-the-water testing in fact, to satisfy itself that the new version of 77 is structurally sound and capable of withstanding the stresses of real competition. But that process is complete and Team Dennis Conner has switched from the disappointing USA66. "We feel confident - the team feels confident - it's just the fact that we've got our raceboat now rather than our training boat - that's a huge boost to the team's morale," Read said after the pre-race skipper's briefing.

Team Dennis Conner is in bullish mood. On the dock generally in Auckland's America's Cup village, especially among those with no axe to grind, the view is that the Americans will indeed show the British new boys the door over the next 10 days. Nobody is saying it's going to be 4-nil but there is a general feeling that Conner's long experience at this game will prove too much, despite Stars & Stripes's lower seeding going into the match.

This of course couldn't be better for the British skipper, Ian Walker, who is never more dangerous than when in the underdog role. On the eve of one of the biggest weeks in his life, Walker seems relaxed, reasonably confident and eager to get on with it. "This is what we signed up for," he said. "The best-of-seven races against the best sailors in the world in probably the hardest boats to sail in the world in a great sailing area - what a fantastic opportunity."

The British yacht Wight Lightning, GBR70, has undergone a few tweaks of its own in the gap while the sailing team have studied Stars & Stripes in detail and reckon they know how to beat them. Walker believes Conner's outfit will be heavily geared to fast upwind speed and will be aiming to get to the weather mark sufficiently ahead to prevent the British crew threatening them downwind with better boatspeed and boathandling.

As far as crew goes, there are not expected to be any surprises on Lightning. However there are rumours that considerable thought was given during the break to the starting helm/race driver set-up with suggestions both that Andy Green might have been given another chance at the expense of Andy Beadsworth, or that Walker himself might have taken over both driving roles. But "no-change" is the official line and, like the choice of boat by the British, this is the safest option.

Speaking of which, the British decision to press on with Lightning at the expense of Wight Magic, GBR78, in this round, now makes it unlikely we will see the second boat used in anger in this competition. If the GBR Challenge gets past Conner, there are only two days off for further two-boat testing before the quarter-final repechage begins on 23 November and it is hard to see how a switch could be made at that stage.

It seems the big gamble of flying 78 out late in the day and then trying to sort out the considerable technical problems associated with its twin keel arrangement, is destined not to pay off. Despite extensive modifications, the boat has yet to prove itself and the sailing team remains to be convinced that it can be fluently manoeuvred in the pre-start and in close, boat-on-boat situations.

David Barnes, the team general manager who championed 78 from the beginning, was sounding a little defensive about it on Monday, emphasising how much improvement had been made on the boat and underlining that time and the vagaries of the Auckland weather have been 78's enemy as much as anything else.

Harrison is clear on the matter and has no regrets. He argues that 78 was an ambitious move and a risky one and that, in this game, not every gambit can pay off. He is adamant, however, that should his team be knocked out in the coming weeks, the process of developing and validating 78 will continue through two-boat testing in December. Harrison's 'long view' approach on this issue, as in many others, underlining that all his thinking is geared to continuing with a second challenge once this one is over.

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