Owen Siese believes Team BDA have no reason to fear any of their rivals and insists they are capable of winning the Red Bull Youth America's Cup.

The wing trimmer admits that inconsistency has been the team's greatest enemy in training, but feels they are more than equipped to advance to the finals and challenge for honours.

Siese and his team-mates have spent the past two years preparing to face the world's best young sailors at the event, which features 12 teams with competitors aged between 18 and 24.

The qualifiers start today on the Great Sound, with Bermuda in pool B along with NZL Sailing team, Land Rover BAR Academy, Spanish Impulse team, Next Generation USA and Austria's Candidate Sailing team.

The top four teams from each group will advance to the final, where they will compete for the Youth America's Cup.

“We'd like to win and we think we have a chance,” Siese said.

“If we can sail well and pull off all of our manoeuvres, we have a real shot of going to the finals and winning.

“It's not a question of whether we can compete; it's about whether we can do it consistently enough to win.”

Siese's claims may seem slightly ambitious given that Team BDA finished tenth out of 11 entries in the GC32 Riva Cup Regatta on Lake Garda last month.

The best scores for Bermuda came when they finished seventh in races eight and nine, although Siese said the team learnt some valuable lessons in northern Italy.

“It was a very different experience racing against ten other boats compared to racing against three other boats,” Siese said.

“We learnt a lot about how the other boats move around you and where best to place yourselves to try and be consistent and minimise mistakes.

“With how fast these boats go, you can have closing speeds of around 60mph and you can't really freeze up and think, 'What do I do here?”

Team Tilt won in Lake Garda, with Siese tipping the Swiss to be among the contenders along with NZL Sailing team and Land Rover BAR Academy.

“The Swiss are going to be strong competitors, but they're not in our group,” the 22-year-old said. “The Kiwis have looked very strong, as have the British.

“That's not to say the other teams have looked weak by any stretch.”

Initially, Seise hoped to be helmsman, but when it came clear he would not be considered, he set his sights on becoming the wing trimmer.

It is a role that requires him to adjust the AC45F's wing to keep the boat supplied with the right amount of power to keep Team BDA flying.

“None of my previous sailing before has really prepared me for wing trimmer,” said Siese, who finished sixth in the Byte CII at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

“It's very different to sailing with a soft sail. If I mess my job up, then it doesn't matter how good everyone else on the boat is doing.

“It's the same for everyone's role, though. We all need to really work together.”

Working together as a cohesive unit has been arguably the biggest challenge for Team BDA.

Most of the sailors on the team, such as Siese, Mackenzie Cooper, the skipper, and Dimitre Stevens, the helm, are used to single-handed sailing.

“We've all had to make adjustments to how we operate,” said Seise, who is studying mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

“None of us have really been on this type of high-intensity team before. I've never in a situation when I can mess things up for the whole team.

“I've had to change a fair bit. You have to make yourself a team-orientated person.”

Although Siese does not believe there are any “secrets to the Great Sound”, he thinks home advantage will boost Team BDA's chances.

“It is an advantage for us, more so being the home-town team and having the crowd out to support us,” he said.

“We do recognise a few bit and pieces that other teams may have not in their short time training here.”