“There’s a moment when you cut off the chasing boat one last time and then you’re alone. There are eight of you left to make it. I love that moment.” One week to go until the first race of the 37th America’s Cup. The opening races of the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in the AC75 start on August 22, 2024.

There is still a lot of work to do for each team and the clock is ticking relentlessly, but after four years of hard work, stress, sweat and anticipation, the first race is tantalizingly close.

I spent a day behind the scenes with the INEOS Britannia British America’s Cup team. What are they most looking forward to at the moment?

“It’s T minus 5,” says cyclist David “Freddie” Carr. “So we have a schedule, from T minus 90 to the entrance and all the way to the start. In those 90 minutes, every minute is scheduled for warming up.”

“And from T minus 25 to T minus 5 we have 20 minutes where the support boats are alongside us. The shore crew will get in and do their final checks. The coaches will come and report to the rear guard what they have seen. The performance team will talk to the trimmers about how they think the line-up is. The cyclo riders will do their final refueling and cooling function.

“And then, at T minus 5, you cut off the chase boat one last time, and then you’re alone.

“This is the moment. This is the moment when there are eight of you left to do it. I love this moment.”

The article continues below…

Good mood in the British camp

The first race is a tantalising prospect – but it’s also the point in the campaign where stress levels rise. Freddie Carr knows better than most how mood can fluctuate within an America’s Cup team. This is his sixth America’s Cup campaign and he has worked with the following teams: GBR Challenge; Swedish Victory Challenge; Team Origin; Luna Rossa; Ben Ainslie Racing; INEOS TEAM UK. What does he think of the mood in the British camp?

“The mood in the team is actually good. It’s really good. It’s not comfortable. And I think that’s a really good thing. You don’t want to feel comfortable.

“I wouldn’t be happy if I sat here now and said, ‘Oh yeah, the boat is really fast. We’ve maximized everything and we think we’re at a good point.’ Because you know when you’re at this point in the America’s Cup and you’re happy with everything, you’re going to get overtaken pretty quickly.

13 August 2024. Training in Barcelona before the pre-regatta. INEOS BRITANNIA

“And we’re not there yet. We’re in a position where we’re – I’m afraid to use the word happy because you’re never happy – but we’re in a position where we’re happy with what we’re achieving.”

“Pleasantly uncomfortable,” I suggest?

“Pleasantly uncomfortable,” he agrees. “And there are some potential performance improvements on the agenda that I’m sure all the other teams have as well.”

“And excited. I think that’s the most important thing. I’m not going to lie – the last two America’s Cups with this syndicate, we were in that situation and I was a little bit worried because I knew we weren’t hitting the performance marks that would have put us on track to achieve what we wanted to achieve.

“That’s not to say I expect us to clean up this summer, but we’re comfortable and uncomfortable. Let’s leave it at that.”

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