In America’s Cup racing, every team has a mountain to climb, but few have further to climb than China Team and United Internet Team Germany. Both teams have sailors in their crew who have never raced at this level before, never competed in the America’s Cup. The Louis Vuitton Acts are a harsh and public environment in which to learn by your mistakes, but there is no doubt that these regattas are helping them scale the lower slopes of the learning curve more rapidly.

 

Where the teams appear to differ is in their ambitions for 2007. China Team’s skipper Pierre Mas makes no secret of the fact that the 2007 campaign is the first step in what promises to be an ongoing commitment by China to the Cup.

 

“We have the feeling from our Chinese partners that we are doing this for the long-term,” he says. “The aim for 2007 is not to win the Cup but to initiate the process to develop a strong team for the next time.”

 

With Jesper Bank, on the other hand, you get the sense that he wants results, and he wants them pretty quickly. He couldn’t disguise his disappointment after losing to K-Challenge on Saturday: “It was three-quarters of the way around the course before we started matching them for speed, and that’s too late. We’ve got some homework to do, and the boat they sailed in is older than ours, so there’s no excuse there.”

 

On the other hand, in the previous day’s match against the Kiwis, he could draw heart from the team’s performance despite the defeat. “We were quite pleased that we could sail the boat in a co-ordinated way, in a way that was acceptable. We’re not quite as strong as the big teams but the handling is good, and it is a pleasure to be able to run a smooth pre-start against Emirates Team New Zealand in 20 knots or more. We’ve come a long way in the time we’ve had, which is a sign to me that we have a strong chance of getting a long way with this team in a year’s time.”

 

Thierry Barot, who does runners for China Team, reminds us there can be reasons for competing other than winning. “Of course, when you go out on the water you go there with the aim of winning. But at the same time it’s important to be realistic. At the top level of any sport there are only a few who can have serious thoughts of victory. That doesn’t mean others shouldn’t take part, with different goals. This is a human adventure that we have embarked on, an adventure where for the first time we are bringing Chinese sailors into the America’s Cup.”

 

- Andy Rice