The Australian skipper, James Spithill, who helmed BMW Oracle's giant trimaran to victory against Alinghi in Valencia in February, will compete against Ben Ainslie and his crew in a series of races over the next four days, including a clockwise round-the-island race on Thursday.

They will compete in America's Cup boats used in Valencia in 2007, a far cry from Spithill's explosive adventures in the Extreme Sailing Series in 2008. "I spent most of that regatta upside down so have a good idea what the temperatures are like," said Spithill. "I have not done much monohull sailing in the past few years and our last event in Sardinia was a shocker but we're really looking forward to it. Team Origin are the favourites – we have done nothing but big trimarans over the past few years while they have done a lot of events in monohulls. But we are slowly getting up to speed and hopefully by the end of the week, we will have figured it out."

For Team Origin, the four days of America's Cup racing are more about raising the profile of racing than about winning though both Ainslie and team principal Sir Keith Mills are known to be bad losers. "The main challenges are going to be the weather, the strong tides and the competition," said the three-times Olympic gold medallist.

"If we were doing this race in multihulls it would probably be harder for us but they are a really strong team so it is going to be tough anyway. Knowing these waters well is an advantage but the BMW Oracle navigator, Ian Moore, lives on the Isle of Wight so he knows these waters as well as we do.

Read the full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/sailing/7923224/Cowes-Week-2010-...