This is an England team with a stand-in coach, a skipper under intense pressure and a recent record which suggests that a life-raft might come in rather handy.
Grace Firogenis, a spokeswoman at the Greek National Tourist Organization in New York, and a skipper herself, says that spring and fall are the best times for sailing, with May and September the best months of all.
There are meaty bones to pick over in coach Warren Gatland's squad: the decision to take just two fly-halves, the shortage of genuine inside-centres, selecting in Welshman Sam Warburton a skipper who so recently lost the honour of leading his own country.
Look, here he is as a wee snip of a skipper in 2002, getting his marching orders.
To be 23 and a skipper in yacht racing's oldest and most storied competition is unheard of.
Mr. Bitici, a tall, dapper man of 55 with a silver mane, presides over this 66-seat restaurant with the commanding but slightly fretful air of a skipper in harbor traffic.
The Australian batting line up is all over the place, lacking an established opening partnership, no fixed abode for Shane Watson and a skipper in Michael Clarke who is peerless at five but frequently exposed at four.
"It's normal seaman problem," the captain, a courtly 63-year-old in spotless whites and a skipper's hat, said on Wednesday as he stood on the deck in Baltimore.
Union Bancaire Prive is sponsoring a skipper in the Vende Globe Challenge 2000, a round-the-world race.
Perhaps it is nit-picking, expecting a team in partial transition and a skipper only 11 matches into his reign to be as bold and beautiful as grizzled veterans.
