Remember this over the coming five months: the America's Cup is a technology race every bit as much as a boat race. More so, in fact. So while attention will be focused on the sailors, it is the guys riding in the tenders behind the boats who bear the lion's share of the responsibility for the outcome of any match. Those guys are the designers.

Of the four opening races kicking off the Louis Vuitton Cup's first Round Robin, the two most eyecatching matches will be Prada versus Oracle BMW and GBR Challenge making their début against the brand name in the America's Cup business, Team Dennis Conner.

Conner's designers John Reichel and John Pugh have produced probably the narrowest boats in the competition. Oracle BMW against Prada not only pits Larry Ellison, who will be aboard steering, according to helmsman Peter Holmberg, against Italy's defending Louis Vuitton Cup champion, but also sees a clash of two distinctively different schools of thought in terms of hull design.

Prada's design boss Doug Peterson was involved in two of the three last America's Cup winners with Bill Koch's America3 and NZL 32, so you might imagine his style was the default choice. Except that Prada's Luna Rossa was roundly beaten by Team New Zealand's NZL 60 last time and it is her knuckle-bow (which shortens measured length in upright form but extends effective sailing length in heeled sailing mode) that has become the widely adopted trend.

The exceptions are the new Prada and Oracle boats. Prada has eschewed the knuckle bow while Oracle BMW's Bruce Farr has adopted it - although resolutely sticking with his preference for a lighter displacement than the consensus. This seems to hover around 25 tons and the Oracle boats are probably a ton or more lighter.

The trade-offs of the America's Cup Class rule mean that if you go long and heavy, you can pick up sail area. Farr's preference for a lighter displacement will have come at the cost of sail area. Which solution equates to optimum speed in which wind strengths comes down to the efficiencies of the hull, rig and sails.

Russell Coutts is about as keen a student of yacht design technology as you'll find among the Cup skippers and is as integral to the design effort of the Swiss Alinghi team as he was in Team New Zealand's 1995 and 2000 triumphs. Farr's efforts at Oracle BMW have caught his eye:

"They'll be a strong team and when a team like that comes out with a different concept you've got to take note. The fact that there are different boats all the way down Syndicate Row shows that simplistic assumptions are a mistake; otherwise the boats would all be the same."

Here's another assumption to lay to rest. Sailors often repeat the maxim: 'sheet-on off the start line and you'll know pretty quickly how good the boat is.' GBR designer Jo Richards is a little more sanguine about that.

"I don't think you'll be able to draw too many conclusions from the first leg, but I think after two or three races you'll get a pretty good feel about where you are and where other people sit."

And then we'll know which design solutions will be jostling to win the technology race.

Tim Jeffery, 30 September 2002