“I came to the team on the technical side, straight from the University down the road in Southampton,” the speaker is Bleddyn Mon, Welsh native and now four-time British America’s Cup team member, with GB1 announcing today that he has re-signed.
Across all four of those campaigns, Bleddyn has occupied an almost unique position as a member of both the Sailing and Design Teams. “As that first campaign evolved, I actually ended up grinding on board, which was quite the step from where we are now,” he explained.
After AC35 in Bermuda, Mon completed a lap of the planet in the Volvo Ocean Race, before returning to the British team for the America's Cup in Auckland. This time he started off as a grinder, with responsibilities as a reserve mainsail trimmer. “As that Cup evolved, the role did as well, and I ended up trimming for the America's Cup in Auckland… The transition from grinder to the primary mainsail trimmer was a huge learning curve for me, and there was a lot of information to be taken in and a lot of responsibility.”
In the most recent America’s Cup in Barcelona, the team won the Louis Vuitton Cup. It was the first appearance of a British team in the America’s Cup Match since 1964. Bleddyn was a trimmer and pilot all the way through. “I think there had just been so much effort through all the Cups leading up to it – and also the intensity of that Cup towards the end as well – all the work that the team had put in. It was the accumulation of all of that which felt so super special.”
The Cup has seen a lot of change in those three iterations, from the catamarans in 2017 to the monohulls for 2021 and 2024. The roles onboard have significantly changed. “Initially, the trimmer was crossing sides every tack. Looking back at it, the idea of doing that in the last America's Cup was quite bizarre. But it's the beauty of the America's Cup. It's always evolving. You're always trying to get the next step, the next edge in performance. And that's why I love it and keep going back.
“One of the biggest things is an appreciation of the people you work with. You pick up a lot of knowledge along the way from working with incredible designers and engineers in all areas of the yacht. And that's really something that interests me with the kind of technical background that I have, and you bring that knowledge with you from campaign to campaign.”
The technical background comes from ‘A*’ grades in Maths, Physics and Design Technology at A-level, followed by a degree from Southampton University, studying Mechanical Engineering with aerospace as a specialty. Mon followed that up with an aerodynamics internship at the Red Bull Racing F1 team.
“Where the boats are going now, in terms of the control systems, is increasingly becoming a real performance driver. So that'll be an area that I'll be focusing on, along with the rig, sails and sailing system design… My technical background has always been super helpful for me throughout my America's Cup career so far. And I hope that's something that I'm able to bring in to the team this time around. But I think it's fair to say as well that all the sailors that have been involved in the recent past do have quite a strong technical skill set. I think it's an important thing for any America's Cup sailor in these boats, given how technical they are.”
The landscape around the Cup event has changed significantly in the months since Barcelona, with the instigation of the America’s Cup Partnership. “I think it'll allow development to continue. It was always quite frustrating that you ended up closing a campaign. The tools would go down, knowledge would be lost, people would move teams, whereas now I feel like there's an element of continuity which is super exciting to be part of, it's nice to be rejoining the team at the start of that journey… That's what excites me about this next America's Cup… the continuity element is super exciting, the fact that teams will be able to continue to progress their designs, from one Cup to the next.”
And that’s only possible because of what hasn’t changed; the boats. “We're in the third iteration [with the AC75]. Things are going to start getting closer. The racing will get closer. We saw some close racing in Barcelona, but I think that's going to be another step on in Naples. And I think that's what everybody wants, some close racing between all the challenging teams and a battle for the America’s Cup.
“It's a dream of mine to win the America's Cup, and to be able to win the America's Cup for Great Britain as well would be super, super special. That's my driver for putting the hard work in and getting out there and hopefully giving it a good stab.”