After his crew returned from their previous Swedish Match event, the ACI Cup in Croatia, with some major scalps, GBR Challenge chairman Peter Harrison has once again sent his boys into the lions’ den. With the Swedish Match title already decided (Magnus Holmberg of Team Stora Enso and the Swedish Victory America’s Cup campaign won with two events to go) this event is about sizing up the America’s Cup opposition.

The crew is the same one that did so well in Split: Andy Green takes the helm with Julian Salter trimming main, Richard Sydenham genoa, Jim Turner working the pit and James Stagg running the foredeck. Ian Walker, GBR Challenge’s sailing manager, was on hand to explain the selection.

“Our overall philosophy on the match racing circuit is to give as many guys as possible experience of international match racing events. However for this, probably the toughest of the events, we’ve kept the same team to give the crew the chance to build on their performance in Croatia.”

Green himself is pleased with Walker’s selection and mustard-keen to get on. “We’ve improved at each Swedish Match event so far this year, but this regatta will be the toughest test to date. We’re looking forward to it, and hope that we can continue to improve as a unit.”

Among those bidding to destroy the budding British confidence will be series winner Magnus Holmberg, last year’s series winner Bertrand Pacé, his protegé Dean Barker, James Spithill, Peter Gilmour, Jochen Schumann, Jesper Bank, Gavin Brady, Chris Dickson, and for the first time this year, Russell Coutts.