Sailing: To fly the flag over Stars & Stripes we must ride the wind

The starting helmsman on GBR Challenge, Britain's America's Cup yacht, goes into this week's quarter-final confident of claiming victory

This is a big week for me and the whole team. The risks are high, the rewards enticing. After all, the New York Yacht Club held the America's Cup for 132 years, the name of Dennis Conner is synonymous with it, so to beat the four-times winner in a best-of-seven from a standing start 18 months ago would be – no, will be – a huge achievement.

There is a belief running throughout GBR Challenge that we can overcome Stars & Stripes in the quarter-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the eventual winner of which will compete for the America's Cup proper.

During the round-robin stage, we were even on speed with Conner's boat so victory is likely to come down to the gains made during this break week. We are younger, fitter and believe our crew work will be better on the day. If we can find any edge in speed we will be in great shape.

This has been quite different from the build-up to an Olympic week. For one thing, you don't have the chance to shuffle boats and crew. Nor can different concepts and configurations be compared between our two boats, GBR70 and GBR78.

Over the past eight weeks we have tested both boats and this week made a final decision to run with the conventional boat that we know so well and put the potential of GBR78 on to the back burner for the moment. This event is won by innovation and it was a big learning curve to be at the helm of a boat that was so challenging and interesting to sail.

Of course, the weather can still play a key part when we kick-off tomorrow. Will the breeze be better suited to one boat than another? To date, our performance appears a little more comfortable against Stars & Stripes in more, not less, breeze. Who knows which way the balance will tip after a week in which we have not been able to use all eight days to the full.

A week which has seen my former Olympic squad colleague Stuart Childerley using some strong breeze to roar away in the Etchells World Championship has also limited the amount of testing and training that all the America's Cup syndicates have been able to organise in race conditions. But we have done plenty of work that is not affected by weather.

We have gathered as much information as possible about Stars & Stripes, studied the videos and focused on all the characteristics of Conner's American team. That makes a difference from having to keep an eye on eight other crews.

You think you're learning about the opposition, how they sail their boat, what problems they are trying to solve, hoping you will be better prepared. But because everything is from your own perspective, you paint a picture that may be different from fact. But if we are right, we have every chance of beating them.

If we are wrong, then Great Britain's challenge is going to come to an abrupt end. We are still planning ahead and have a programme that runs beyond this quarter-final match and into the repêchage. So the planning and plotting continues, as does the development work.

One day this week was spent almost entirely on starting manoeuvres. I joined the boat in the first round robin relatively inexperienced with it and the crew. I tended to be conservative in the pre-starts, and put a strong emphasis on not losing and executing the simple things well. With a little more confidence as a team, maybe we can up the ante now.

There appear to have been some late bookings by people coming down from the UK to support us here in Auckland. They, like us, are in for an exciting time. The stage is set, the audience awaits.

Andy Beadsworth was talking to Stuart Alexander