KEY POINTS:
James Spithill walks into the plush room on the top floor of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The sun's shining, the Waitemata Harbour is glistening and much to Spithill's delight the wind is blowing.
Spithill has just come in from a couple of hours training for the
Auckland Match Racing Cup.
Decked out in Luna Rossa's red, white and grey kit, the man regarded as heir-apparent to Russell Coutts, slaps his Prada sunglasses down on the solid wooden table and declares how great it is to be back in Auckland, where he has spent a considerable time in chasing the America's Cup.
"It is really hard for me to say this as an Australian but we really like the place. You are always guaranteed some good racing with the weather, we have a lot of friends here, I even got married in Queenstown."
His wife Jennifer is American; they met here during the last cup. "We didn't want to deal with both families politicking for California or Sydney. So we made everyone come here," he laughs.
Although he is Australian and competing in a team which just happens to be one of Team New Zealand's main rivals, you can't help but like Spithill.
Confident but not cocky, determined but not overly intense, the 27 year-old is one of those guys who could probably sit down and have a yarn with anyone.
He grew up just out of Sydney in Pittwater, in a home surrounded by sea. "We had to go to school by boat, get the groceries by boat. I was into sailing early because of that ... it was the only way to get anywhere.
As a result Spithill's younger siblings Katie and Tom are also competitive sailors. Spithill started crewing for a local sailor when he was young but didn't really like it and stopped.
"Then a guy who rented our boatshed had a Hobie Cat so that is how I really learned to sail. I just used to enjoy going out in that and blasting around so I didn't really race until I was about 12."
Despite his initial uncertainty something told him yachting would be his future.
When he was nine he told his Dad he wanted to compete in the America's Cup. Eleven years later he became the youngest sailor to steer a cup yacht when he not only helmed but skippered Young Australia in Auckland in 2000. The syndicate sailed the oldest boat with the youngest crew and had the smallest budget.
His association with Young Australia came through renowned Aussie yachtie Syd Fischer. Spithill worked for Fischer straight out of school, helping him sail and look after his yachts.
Fischer, then 72, was eyeing his fifth cup challenge. The team couldn't raise enough money but had paid the entry fee, had their old boat from 1995 and had the shipping costs covered.
"Syd came to me and said, 'You can do it but you have to pull the team and some money together. There is a boat that can turn up over there if you want'.
"It was a real quick apprenticeship in running a campaign and no one had sailed a boat like that. Everyone that did the campaign went on to do bigger and better things."
Spithill's bigger and better was to sail for American syndicate OneWorld who made it through to the semifinals in the last Cup. And now it's Italians Luna Rossa.
"OneWorld ... was pretty much New Zealanders and Australians. It is good here you get a different way of thinking."
Before arriving in Auckland, Spithill took his team's brand new weapon, ITA94, for a spin. "The boats are so close now I think it will come down to the racing."
In a game where getting a jump on your opponent at the start is often the difference between winning and losing Spithill is the master. "I focus on it because I think the helmsman's role is probably the most important part. You spend millions of dollars chasing these tiny little boat speed gains yet sometimes you can have a huge gain off the startline, be a boat length or so ahead and going the way you want to go.
"I probably learnt from one of the best guys, Peter Gilmour at OneWorld. I wouldn't be surprised to see him against us on the start line in this Cup."
Spithill's natural ability has had people comparing him with Coutts, the cup's most successful helmsman.
"From a young age we tried to set ourselves around what Russell built ... like sailing with the same group of guys ... he was also successful in fleet racing, so we have tried to build that.
"He is the best sailor in the world.
"It would be great to see him in the event. When he and Brad [Butterworth] and those guys are together you have to sail so well to beat them. But the Alinghi team is more than one person."
When asked if he uses any tricks like running his hands across the wheel without actually moving it - a tactic Chris Dickson is believed to employ - Spithill says no. But his smirk makes you wonder if he does but just doesn't want to say.
Spithill's statistics show he is often the first over the line but often trailing at the first mark - the result of poor boat speed or choosing the wrong side of the course.
He believes it is a bit of both. In the early pre-regattas the old Prada boat was slow so, as a result, they pushed extra hard and took a lot of risks in the starts.
"Eight times out of 10 it paid off and a couple of times it didn't."
The team are still settling on their afterguard, in particular a regular tactician. Torben Grael, who returned last year after completing the round-the-world race, and American Charlie McKee are vying for the position.
Asked which challenger he is most wary of, Spithill says: "Obviously [Team New Zealand] are going to be pretty tough - and Oracle. I think the three of us have got a little jump on the rest of the challengers just in terms of resources and the tools we have in front of us. I wouldn't say one of us is stronger ... it is going to be a race the whole way.
"It is such a team sport unless you are in a single-handed dinghy you are relying on all the guys around you. This is the most confident I have ever felt in the guys around me."
After the cup, Spithill is not sure what his future holds. He has bought a Star and isn't ruling out an Olympic campaign.
Despite Australia boasting a number of talented people in the cup, such as Spithill, Alinghi's managing director Grant Simmer and Oracle's design co-ordinator Ian Burns, Spithill can't see his homeland mounting a challenge any time soon.
"It comes down to money. You'd never say never because it could probably be done but not right now. I am not going to go to a team unless it has a realistic chance of winning."
To win the America's Cup in July would mean everything to him. "It has been my dream since a young age. We are going for it."
James Spithill: The CV
Nationality: Australian.
Date of Birth: June 28, 1979.
Status: Married to Jennifer.
Nickname: Jimmy
Position: Helmsman
America's Cup history
2007: Luna Rossa Challenge.
2003: OneWorld Challenge 3rd Louis Vuitton Cup.
2000: Young Australia, Skipper, 10th Louis Vuitton Cup.
Other achievements
2005 Match racing world champion.
2003 Match racing world championship (2nd).
