Pitch represent Team Origin the latest British entry in the coveted America's Cup, Jeremy Taylor of the Times met the team - read his account below.

Britain has never won the most famous trophy in sailing, but now we have some Olympic help.
Despite winning four sailing gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, not to mention the battle of Trafalgar, our great seafaring nation has yet to win yacht racing’s ultimate prize.

The America’s Cup was invented by the British in 1851 and won by an American team in its inaugural year, hence the name. It has been contested on 32 occasions since, but Britain’s list of heroic failures reads more like the exploits of Captain Pugwash than Lord Nelson, with 19 attempts and still no silverware.

This time around things should be different. Team Origin, the latest British entry, is dripping with enough gold medals to shiver the timbers of any rival. Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson have six Olympic gold medals between them, while Mike Sanderson, the team director, helmed the winning boat in the 2005-6 Volvo Ocean Race.

They are backed to the tune of £30m a year by Sir Keith Mills, the founder of Air Miles International and the man behind London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics. “If you look at the amount of sailing talent on board we’ve never had a better chance of bringing the America’s Cup home,” says Ainslie, who will be at the helm.

In short, this is a crack team of sailors, and to prove the point, The Sunday Times was invited to see them in action at the Club Nautico Español de Vela regatta in Valencia earlier this month. It was their first race against three of their America’s Cup rivals. Although just a warm-up, it marks the beginning of many months of preparation before the Cup races get under way in earnest in 2010.
Joining them on the start line were Luna Rossa of Italy, Desafio Español of Spain, and Alinghi, the Swiss team that won the Cup in 2007, and the boat Team Origin are out to beat. “Alinghi has won the America’s Cup twice, so there is no better way of seeing where we stand at the moment,” says Ainslie.

With their own training yacht in dock in Portsmouth, the Brits borrowed one from the Spanish team. These America’s Cup class boats have a 75ft hull and are like a giant hollowed-out canoe, with only a small deck area at the bow. The similarities end there, though, because these £1m craft are the waterborne equivalent of Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One racing car (minus the engine), cutting through the water like 25-ton torpedoes.

A mainsail costs about £30,000 and it takes five men to lift one onto a boat. Ropes — or sheets and halyards to give them their technical names — used to trim and hoist the sails, pour into the enormous cockpit from every angle. It could take a non-sailor hours to figure out which one to pull to trim (roughly, to adjust) the mainsheet.

There wasn’t a breath of wind when the race was due to start at 1.30pm on November 6, but an hour later a breeze had picked up and the four boats jostled for position, waiting for the starting horn to sound. I took up a seat at the back of the boat that is reserved for an 18th man, who can be a sponsor, guest, or someone who has paid for the privilege, and who is not allowed to help the crew, or even speak to them during the race.

As we crossed the start of the four-mile course, with Alinghi on our starboard side, I was told to crouch on the floor to reduce wind drag. I pressed my feet against the side of the hull to try to keep still as the waves repeatedly rolled me from side to side.

I soon realised that sailing with Team Origin is a strangely quiet affair. Voices are rarely raised, every man knows his position and woe betide anybody who argues with Ainslie, whose word is law. Everybody squats down below deck height to reduce drag and it’s like watching the inside of an engine, everyone is so well drilled.

As the boat built up pace, the double-sided winches became a blur of flailing arms as the grinders — the team’s musclemen — work to trim the sails. Among them is Pawel Bielecki, a Polish shot-putter, and a giant of a man, who speaks few words and was signed up to add some grunt.
A stack of digital displays was lined up at the bottom of the mast, constantly updating Ainslie and Percy, the team tactician, with detailed information on boat speed, position and angle to the wind. Stan Honey, the navigator, had his eyes fixed on his laptop, which is linked to sensors dotted around the boat.

I was still crouched at the back, by now surrounded by discarded water bottles, along with someone’s half-eaten sandwich. As Ainslie turned his boat into the wind, the Kevlar sails were cranked in tight and Team Origin began to fly, sailing as close to the wind as possible for maximum speed. The only sound was of the hull creaking under the tons of pressure. As the sound echoed down the hollow shell of the boat, I began to wonder how much strain it could take. In one of the 1995 races, an Australian boat snapped in half and sank in less than two minutes off the coast of San Diego.

Team Origin and Alinghi were neck and neck for most of the race. But when Alinghi tore two spinnaker sails (each worth £18,000), the British team pulled ahead. Team Origin were on a borrowed boat and in unfamiliar waters but their sailing prowess shone through.

The racing continued for two more days after that and in the end Britain had to settle for third place while Alinghi turned things around to emerge victorious. Yet, despite their success, there is a feeling among some teams that Alinghi’s ageing squad are past their best. “They put together a great team,” says Mills, a keen amateur yachtsman. “\ I wouldn’t put my money into a venture like the British team if I didn’t think we could win it.

“People thought I was mad to get involved in 2012 too because we had failed three times before. Britain now has a wonderful array of sailing stars and I honestly believe we have put together a squad that will be able to beat anyone.

“After America won the first Cup in 1851, Queen Victoria asked who had come second. She was told, ‘Your Majesty, there is no second.’ That still rings very much true to this day.”

157 years of hurt
The America’s Cup is the oldest active trophy in international sport, predating the modern Olympics by 45 years.

The British Empire was in its heyday when Queen Victoria suggested a race around the Isle of Wight, sailing for a silver cup containing 100 sovereigns.

The gauntlet was thrown down by the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes to other sailing clubs and on August 22, 1851, 15 boats from the squadron lined up against a lone American schooner, sailed across the Atlantic by the New York Yacht Club to take up the challenge. The America, as the US boat was known, trounced the British entrants and the trophy became known as the America’s Cup. The cup remained in American hands until 1983 when Australia II ended the longest winning streak in the history of sport. The British have yet to win it but came closest in 1934.

The race has grown increasingly complex in the 157 years since its inception. The Cup is held roughly once every four years but on several occasions it has been held after a gap of just two years and once 21 years went by. Things are complicated further by the decision to allow each winner to come up with the rules for the following Cup. In recent years, teams — usually of 17 per boat — have tended to compete in 75ft monohull boats but that could change for the forthcoming race, which will be the 33rd and is due to start in 2010, most likely in Valencia.

The who's who of the British challenge - the team and their duties onboard

1 Stan Honey, navigator: in charge of electronic instruments, which provide information on conditions, boat performance and meteorological data
2 Iain Percy, tactician: advises the helmsman on race tactics, taking information from the navigator, strategists and crew
3 Chris Brittle, port grinder: works on the left-hand side of the boat, supplying power to the winch to trim (change the shape of) the mainsail
4 Ben Ainslie, helmsman: steers the boat and leads the team during races
5 Andrew Simpson, strategist: works on pre-race strategy then monitors wind conditions and helps to trim the mainsail
6 Mike Sanderson, team director and aft grinder: off the boat Sanderson is the team leader; on board he is at the back of the boat advising and powering one of the winches to trim the mainsail as well as handling the runners (wires that hold up the mast)
7 Pawel Bielecki, starboard grinder: works on the right-hand side of the boat to power the winch to trim sails and pull the sails up the mast
8 Anthony Nossiter, pit/runner: helps to pack the spinnaker away below deck when the boat is sailing upwind, assists at the front of the boat with hoisting and controlling sails
9 Chris Salthouse, mainsail trimmer: controls the ropes (sheets) that trim the mainsail to maximise performance
10 George Skuodas, mastman: helps to hoist and drop sails; when sailing upwind he helps to trim the headsail
11 Christian Kamp, spinnaker trimmer: trims the spinnaker sail, the large sail used when sailing downwind
12 Robert Greenhalgh, strategist/wind spotter: works on pre-race strategy, goes up the mast during lighter weather to monitor wind patterns on the surface of the water
13 Mike Mottle, mid grinder: supplies power to the winch to trim the mainsail in response to the instructions of the trimmer
14 Robbie Naismith, headsail trimmer: trims the headsail, the smaller sail at the front
15 Julien Cressant, mid bowman/sewer: organises sails in the small below-deck area dubbed the “sewer” because it is hot and sweaty, also helps to drop and hoist sails
16 Nick Bice, pitman: controls the halyards (lines or ropes), which hoist and drop sails, provides the link between the aft guard and the front of the boat
17 Matt Cornwell, bowman: involved in controlling the headsail, often hoisted up the mast to organise ropes and halyards
18 Guest: there is space for one guest (usually a sponsor or someone who has paid for the privilege) who must not speak to the crew or do anything during a race