OneWorld diary

Navigator Mark Chisnell gives his view on the latest goings on in Viaduct Basin

It's getting closer, that first race, exactly three weeks at the time of writing, less by the time you read this. There is finally a strong sense of spring in the air (even as I write that, I realise it's probably a mistake I will pay for heavily later this week). Still, right now, the doors to the apartment are wide open, birds are singing, and I can hear the sound of multiple lawn mower activity outside. This past week I sailed with something less than boots, full foulies and thermals for the first time in what must be almost four months.

And with that sense of a Cup summer just around the corner, comes a switch in emphasis. For our navigation team it's a time to decide which instrument and software projects have paid off, which might still have some hope and can be further developed on the tune-up boat during the early rounds, and which must be consigned to the tray for next time (should there be one).

Then there're the new jobs on the list, meetings to go to at the Challenger of Record Management (CORM) about the media broadcast equipment that must be installed before we start racing. There are measurement checks to be made. Breakdown systems to be designed, built and tested. New systems worked out for the role of the tune-up boat on a race day - how best to prepare everyone in the sailing time before the five-minute gun?

Then there's that usually notorious day in the life of any two-boat America's Cup team - crew selection. Peter Gilmour's done this a few times before, and he's been adamant all along that everyone on the sailing team is an 'A team' sailor - otherwise once you think you're just a support player, it's easy to lose focus and drag the others down. So our rallying cry as a sailing team is that we must all be ready to race every day that we're competing. The Louis Vuitton is an endurance event, and everyone can be expected to be out there at some stage, as we rotate the tired, ill, injured and off-colour for fresher, fitter faces.

So our crew selection day wasn't such a big deal compared to those teams that run the full A and B team mode. But you still have to pick a crew to be on the boat for the first race. And for the record, I'm not on that team, and will be sailing the tune-up boat on October 1st - so it's our job not to feel like the B team, and to keep pushing those other guys hard, in as helpful a way as possible. Kevin Hall will be navigating on the race boat, and he's way too good for me to need to wish him luck! As for the rest of the crew, you'll have to ask them...

And all the time this new stuff is going on, it's important to remember that October 1st will be just another day in the office. Because if you think that it's going to be different, special, or exciting, you probably won't be turning your little cog in the whole big machine properly, and the result will be either embarrassing or bloody.

But while you're doing that, everything up and down Halsey Street is trying to persuade you differently. For the first time since the end of the third round of the last Cup, we have a full complement of teams in town; everyone's been sailing to some degree or other, since I last wrote. The luminous Areva, Prada's two battleship grey boats and the classic blue of Stars and Stripes have all flown in from the north to join the Gulf's long-term winter residents out on the water.

It must have been even more difficult for the Swedish team to stay focused on the competition, after the tragic death of syndicate head, Jan Stenbeck, last month. We had a minute's silence at the team meeting the morning after we got the news, and the Swedes held a memorial ceremony at their base.

The flags along syndicate row were at half mast again last week, as we all remember the first, and rawest, anniversary of September 11th - while Bush and Blair rattle war sabres over Iraq. Salutary reminders that however wrapped up we may become in what we're doing - there's more to life than winning and losing the America's Cup. So let's hope that we all try and enjoy the next few months, up and down syndicate row, and not take ourselves too seriously...