ANDY Green has been involved in many elements of sailing over the last few years. As a professional sailor he was elected for the last British America’s Cup team. He travels the world competing in races and commentating and has been involved in coaching and working alongside disabled sailors to enable them to achieve a high level in the sport.

His passion for sailing was evident when he was commentating directly from the press boat for the America’s Cup radio during the 32nd edition of the event in Valencia. After a few minutes most other journalists were drawn in by his enthusiasm and depth of knowledge and would crowd around him to hear.

Sir Keith Mills’ TEAMORIGIN became the third officially accepted challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup on July 23rd. Team members’ names haven’t yet been disclosed but Andy Green will be part of the team in some shape or form. I interviewed him recently:

Can you tell me the history of your involvement with the Americas Cup and British sailing?

- I’ve been involved in the last two America’s Cups with Hawaii in 1999/2000 and the British team in 2003.

From your experience how did the 32nd Americas Cup differ from Cups of the past?

- It was an amazing event in New Zealand in 2003. Auckland harbour was completely regenerated; it was a different place when the Cup left. They did struggle to get people there to watch the racing, just because it’s such a long away so the fact that the America’s Cup has moved to Europe has been a huge gain for sailing and particularly the America’s Cup. The venue they have chosen here is fantastic for a couple of reasons. The conditions are very steady so you always get wind and racing which lessens the potential delays due to a lack of wind. Also it’s given Valencia the opportunity to totally regenerate its Port. It’s an incredible sailing stadium.

Why wasn’t there a British team in the 32nd America’s Cup?

- It was a problem of mentality. There’s old money and new money in England. Very old-money people don’t spend their money and new money people aren’t into sailing as it’s quite a traditional sport.

The person who funded it last time was Peter Harrison who, much like Sir Keith Mills, always had a passion for sailing and was a great sailor. It just so happened about six or seven years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom he sold his company for about 300 million and decided to spend 10 per cent of his money on an America’s Cup team. It was fantastic because of the balance between him having a passion for the sport and having disposable money to spend on the America’s Cup team.

Another issue is that in England there are elements of sailing being slightly an old school sport and sometimes companies don’t want to be associated with that image.

What image exactly?

- Well people still have the image of a Royal Yacht Squadron-Blazer-hat perception but the reality is that it’s nothing like that nowadays. It seems strange because there are so many big companies in the America’s Cup. It’s particularly a problem of sponsorship. It was tough for us not having a British syndicate in Valencia and people didn’t understand it because of all the history and tradition surrounding the sport in England. There were very few people involved in GBR Challenge last time who came from middle to upper class families. There’s always the misconception that all sailors are upper class.

Do you think people will regard sailing differently in the UK now we have a British - team?

Well Ellen McCarthy has done a lot to change the face of sailing and to show that it’s not necessarily only a rich people’s sport. With sponsorship and a sustained British campaign over a number of years I think our British team could win the America’s Cup.

Next week: the story of Sir Keith Mills.