The King of Fun

Ed Gorman talks to John Caulcutt, High Voltage skipper/owner and one of the America's Cup's most enthusiast supporters

It would be hard to imagine the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta without the King of Fun himself, John Caulcutt, a man who loves his sailing with a passion and someone who is steeped in the traditions and history of the sport.

A collector of fine marine paintings featuring some of the incredible classics which have come to Cowes for the event, it would be no surprise to find Caulcutt at the wheel of a vast varnished beauty himself. But that is still in the future.

Instead Caulcutt, the chief executive of the marketing services company Watermark who once competed in the Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh, has been having probably more fun than usual over the last 12 months racing his own America's Cup Class, High Voltage, the former Il Moro IV from 1992.

Caulcutt bought it and originally named it About Time, as part of an initiative by himself and others to help kick-start a British return to the America's Cup (which is now up and running in the form of Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge which is campaigning two boats this week). The decison to buy the ACC boat had the incidental advantage of providing Caulcutt with the perfect vehicle on which to enjoy the Jubilee.

Caulcutt has sailed everything over a long career. He started in dinghies, went on to Solings and Stars - he did an Olympic campaign in Stars with David Howlett, though they never quite made it to the Games - then small keelboats and Admiral's Cup boats, before moving into maxis which occupied him for the eight years prior to the purchase of High Voltage.

But nothing comes close to the thrill of racing the ACC boat. "I love it," he told madforsailing after a practice sail on the eve of the Jubilee. "It really is the thoroughbred of sailing and as a racing yacht it really is fantastic - it's a finely-tuned piece of ultimate sailing machinery and an absolute delight," he added.

Caulcutt and his loyal band, many of whom have been racing with him for years and who have enjoyed some serious post-racing entertainment during that time, will be competing in the Modern America's Cup Class at the regatta off Bembridge. The decision to stage racing in this class so far away from Cowes is one Caulcutt wishes had been re-thought.

The designated course area is more than nine miles from Cowes and some of the boats in the class which include Bill Koch's America3 and its competitor from the 1992 Cup Il Moro V(also now owned by Koch), NZL 32 (aka Black Magic), the two GBR Challenge yachts and one of the Prada Luna Rossa veterans of the last Cup, are being operated out of Portsmouth because Cowes is just not practical.