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Although Briton Iain Percy has two Olympic gold medals tucked away at home and plans an assault on a third, he would dearly like to put his talents to good use again in the heat of an America's Cup battle.

The 33-year-old Englishman, who sits alongside triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie as the best British male sailor of his generation, has watched the protracted legal dispute that has rocked the beleaguered America's Cup with growing frustration.

Sailing rivals BMW Oracle from the United States and America's Cup holders Alinghi have been locked in a legal fight lasting more than two years over the terms of the race, now scheduled to take place in February 2010 in the United Arab Emirate of Al-Khaimah.

Percy is a tactician for Team Origin, which was launched in January 2007, but the British syndicate have been thwarted in their challenge for sport's oldest international trophy as the lawyers battle it out in the New York law courts.

"It's been very frustrating, certainly not good for the sport," said Percy, who was helmsman for Italian boat +39 Challenge in their unsuccessful America's Cup assault in 2007.

"People need to take stock of that a little more rather than solely looking after their own interests because it's a great competition and you just cannot take all those things for granted.

"We need to get on with the racing. The only good thing is I'm sure out of this will come a better competition.

"There is some credence in some of the arguments that are being made, we will have a better competition out of this and hopefully that will then last for another 20-30 years and put sailing and the America's Cup on to a higher level. It's time to get on with seeing that vision and stop the fighting."

Last week Team Origin announced a busy racing programme for next year.

"We don't know when the next (after 2010) America's Cup is going to be...but we are doing a push with Team Origin, we've done it a few times to try and ramp our assault so when we get certainty we are ahead of the game," Percy said.

"It's incredible commitment from (team head) Sir Keith Mills that he keeps funding those charges because it must get frustrating when another little scrap in court means that we get put back again."

Southampton-born Percy, Olympic gold medallist in the Finn boat in 2000, won a second gold last year in Qingdao, partnering friend of many years Andrew Simpson to the Games title in the Star class.

Despite limited racing since that success, the pair showed few signs of rust when they defeated a high-class field to win the Skandia Sail For Gold regatta which ended in Weymouth and Portland Bay, where the 2012 Olympic regatta will be staged, on Saturday.

"We have not trained much this year at all, I guess that's a bit of a hangover from all the training we did pre-Olympics," Percy said.

"We were quite on form, we made a couple of real schoolboy errors that cost us serious points but pretty pleased overall."

The Olympic dream still burns bright for Percy.

"We like to try and make our performances speak for themselves," he said. "The Olympic scene has been a passion for me since I was very young. It's important to keep winning and not let the aura we have built slip."

Reuters