Country: Brazil
Skipper: Torben Grael
Navigator: Adrienne Cahalan
Designer: Bruce Farr
Builder: ML Boatworks
Launch Date: August 2005

Torben Grael (below) is best known for his outstanding Olympic track record that now sees him as the most successful Olympic sailor of all time with two golds, a silver and two bronze medals, his most recent gold having been in the Star class in Athens last year. And Grael became the high profile tactician aboard Prada when the Italian team challenged for the America's Cup in 2000 and again in their less successful 2003 campaign. But Grael had also been quietly serving his round the world race apprenticeship with cameo appearances in the Whitbread/Volvo race.

The Brasil1 team considered design options but in the end opted for the perceived conservative route when they commissioned Bruce Farr. The boat was built in Brasil and then sailed across the Atlantic to Europe to become one of the most travelled Volvo 70s in the fleet. While many of the crew are homegrown, down in the Brasil1 navigation station is the only woman in the race - Adrienne Cahalan, a navigator with one of the most impressive cvs in the fleet. Grael has also recruited his former Whitbread/Volvo skipper Knut Frostad.

This team should have equipped themselves with a benchmark boat and have amassed more miles than most in their journey from Brasil to Europe. And there is no questioning Grael's raw sailing talent and Cahalan's knowledge of the oceans of the world. However, the team lack's heavyweight Whitbread/Volvo-winning experience which could be a telling factor in the battle to hold it all together when the going gets tough.