KEY POINTS:
Team Origin skipper Ben Ainslie could be forgiven for thinking there's nothing to America's Cup class racing after a successful opening week in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
In their first major regatta, the newly formed British team swept all before them in the first round robin stage
of the series.
Perhaps most impressive of all, Origin numbered America's Cup holders Alinghi among their victims, as well as challengers from Italy, South Africa and Greece.
But Ainslie, a triple Olympic gold medallist, is not being fooled in to thinking his team know all there is to know about the America's Cup game.
"It is tough, we're up against Team New Zealand and Alinghi - these are incredibly well thought-out teams with a lot of history. In the case of Team New Zealand they go all the way back to 1987, so we've got a lot of catching up to do," he said.
Alinghi evened the score against Ainslie and his crew in the first match of the second round robin yesterday, pipping Team Origin by 15s in one of the more enthralling races of the regatta.
Still, the events over the opening week of the regatta appear to suggest Britain may finally have a genuine America's Cup challenge.
Team Origin was established by English businessman Sir Keith Mills in 2007 - just in time to be hit by the on-going delays caused by the legal battle between Alinghi and BMW Oracle.
The Louis Vuitton series is the first opportunity for the British team to test their mettle against some of the best in the business, and they have certainly proved equal to the task.
While daunting to lead a syndicate that has been started from scratch, Ainslie said he didn't hesitate to join the British challenge.
"Sir Keith Mills put this team together and he only ever had very strong goals of eventually winning the America's Cup, whether it takes one effort or two efforts. And everyone on this team has a common goal of wanting to win, we want to be successful - that's the sort of people we've got on this team."
Ainslie said the Louis Vuitton series has confirmed that his team are on the right track.
"The promising thing from my perspective is the level of improvement we've been able to make, so if we can keep that rate of improvement going it should hopefully get us to good places."
Along with Ainslie, who was a back up helmsman to Dean Barker at Team New Zealand, there are a number of other sailors in the Origin crew that were part of the Kiwi syndicate's last cup campaign.
This experience has served the Origin team well for the series, with the crew very familiar with the Team New Zealand boats they are racing in.
Many British scribes will tell you Ainslie should have been steering the black boat in Valencia rather than Barker, but the Olympic Finn champion insists he was not held back. He said he learnt a great deal from his time with the Kiwi team.
"I certainly felt like I'd done my time as backup to Dean, it was a great opportunity to race against Dean and learn from him, but it was time for me to move on and it was perfect timing that Sir Keith put together Team Origin," he said. "But Team New Zealand are a great team, great people and it will be interesting when we finally go up and race against them in a few days time."
Interesting is an understatement. The assertions of the British media sets up an intriguing showdown between Ainslie and Barker when their respective teams meet in the second round robin on Monday.
Along with the pair's history, Team New Zealand and Team Origin were the form teams during the first round robin stage of the competition.
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton recognises the attention that clash will attract, but is predictably giving the edge to Barker.
"Ben's the best dingy sailor possibly ever on the world scene, now his aim is to be possibly the best America's Cup helmsman in the world. I'm biased, I think Dean is, and we'll just see how it ends up."
