Pictured here is Sir Keith Mills (centre) with Royal Thames Yacht Club Vice Commodore John Stork (right) and Rear Commodore Gwynne Lawrence. Sir Keith heads the TeamOrigin challenge for the 33rd and 34th America’s Cups with the declared intention to bring the Auld Mug home – and with his credentials in helping to bring the 2012 Olympics to London no one should take this lightly. The Royal Thames Yacht Club will be TeamOrigin’s challenging Club.

I was his guest on board MV Smooth Operations for the fifth race for the 32nd America’s Cup, won by Alinghi after a series of spinnaker problems for Emirates Team New Zealand (see Matt Sheahan’s full report). Also on board was the RYA’s Rod Carr.

Sir Keith outlined some of his plans for TeamOrigin who have already purchased SUI75 from Alinghi and are in advanced discuussions over the purchase of a second boat. They are currently recruiting both sailors and support crew and a full announcement about the squad will be made before the Southampton Boat Show in September. More on this and other plans for Team Origin in the August issue of Yachting World.