Country: USA
Skipper: Paul Cayard
Navigator: Jules Salter
Designer: Bruce Farr
Builder: Green Marine
Launch Date: September 2005

Back in the summer Paul Cayard (below) was hesitant to take on what he feared might be a poisoned chalice: a late entry into a new class in a race where others would have sailed more than halfway around the world prior to the start. But Cayard was persuaded to take control of the team and in August the worst kept secret in sailing was revealed as the 1997/98 Whitbread Round the World Race winner was announced as skipper.

The team benefited from the fact that Team Pirate was the second Bruce Farr Volvo 70 design to be built by Green Marine (Neal McDonald's Ericsson being the first), and Cayard and his crew will be hoping they have stepped up the teething problem curve thanks to the early experiences with Ericsson.

Cayard's crew boasts a total of 20 America's Cup campaigns, six Olympic campaigns and 12 Whitbread/Volvo campaigns amongst them. Some, like Dirk de Ridder, have left the America's Cup. Others, Rodney Ardern and Curtis Blewett, are on leave from Alinghi for the winter to sail as far as Brazil.

Team Pirate has Briton Jules Salter, the former GBR Challenge navigator and a quiet but respected technician, in the nav station. Freddy Loof - Finn Bronze medallist in Sydney and currently number one ranked in the Star class - who Cayard sailed with on Nautor Challenge in the last Volvo Race, is one Watch Captain, Rodney Ardern, who began his round the world career with Chris Dickson on Tokio and continued with Gunnar Krantz on Swedish Match and SEB, is the other watch captain as far as Brazil when he returns to Alinghi. Australian Nick Moloney is on the team as backup navigator and coach to a team that lacks experience in swing-keel Open 60-style boats.

In a race where holding the whole act together and not losing time to breakdowns will almost certainly be the key to winning over raw boat speed, Team Pirate must surely be up against it. However, the leap in reliability that could have been gained thanks to the Ericsson experience combined with Cayard's track record as a Whitbread Race winner and the massive experience of his crew in round the world sailing, will surely put this team in the frame.