The skippers are briefed, the course is set and the crews are finishing preparations for their first outing in Valencia at the iShares Cup training session.

Speaking at the skippers’ briefing, Ed Baird, helm of Alinghi White, was looking forward to testing his team against four other Extreme 40s. “The mental activity on the technical side is tough on these boats. You have to think a whole lot faster than an America’s Cup race as things change so quickly; you have to anticipate all the time.

“We have four guys, rather than 17, so there’s no need for the same hierarchy as we would have on an America’s Cup boat, but there is so much constant activity with so much going on.

“The Extreme 40s are new to us and so we find ourselves learning as we do the manoeuvres, which really puts the pressure on to learn even faster.

“And then just when we’ve got used to the conditions here, we’ll be off to Lake Lugano for the first iShares Cup event — the fact we are on a lake and in the mountains is going to make an immense difference. And once we’ve got used to that it’s then off to France to sail back on the sea! It’s going to make it a really challenging season.”

Andreas Hagara, the helm of Holmatro, was also looking forward to the weekend’s training. “It’s a great start to the season to be able to shakedown prior to the first event. It’ll be interesting to see the level Alinghi are sailing at. We know they have put in a lot of hours and for us we have only been able to train on the weekends so it will be good to know where we are.” Hagara, sailing with a talented mix of Austrian and Dutch crew, trained with BMW-Oracle Racing’s Extreme 40 last week and spent two days with Alinghi this week.

The sailors will be contending with a North-Easterly wind which will build around 1300hrs CEST. An 11-14 knot breeze between 1400-1600 will provide the best sailing conditions for the five boats. The courses will be windward-leeward and set to replicate the racecourses the crews will come across over the next five iShares Cup sailing events.