Her Royal Flyness! Kate’s mad hair day
SEA breezes produced perfect sailing conditions yesterday but left the Duchess of Cambridge with a bad hair day.
Her locks may have been windswept, but Kate, 34, had the time of her life as she and Prince William watched Olympic hero Sir Ben Ainslie’s team racing to victory in the America’s Cup World Series.
In British team kit, the royals met race officials and technicians before boarding a highspeed catamaran to follow the race boats on the Solent.
She put her hair into a ponytail, and at the end of the final race which secured Sir Ben’s Land Rover BAR team’s victory, the couple sailed alongside their catamaran.
Back on land, Kate presented the winner’s trophy to Sir Ben and his team in front of cheering crowds.
Sir Ben, 39, who has won sailing gold at the past four Olympic games, paid tribute to his team and the support they had received from a 300,000-strong crowd over two days of racing off Portsmouth.
“The guys did an incredible job with the boat handling. To be able to do that in front of you guys, that’s what it’s all about for us. So thank you,” he told the fans.
Land Rover BAR hopes to be the first British team to bring the America’s Cup to the UK in its 165-year-history.
Oracle Team USA are the defending champions. Sir Ben’s team was competing at the weekend for points to take them forward to the finals next year in Bermuda.
Earlier in the day William and Kate visited the crew’s base in Old Portsmouth and were shown state-of-the-art testing boats. The royal couple also met a group of youngsters who had been out with the team ahead of the racing through The 1851 Trust.
The Land Rover BAR affiliated charity, of which Kate is royal patron, is aimed at getting youngsters involved in the maritime industry.
Tiyah Windslade, 17, who presented Kate with flowers, said: “She was lovely, beautiful and friendly. It is great to have them involved. They give us so much support.
“I was chosen to present the bouquet. They told me a couple of moments before and it was so sudden, I was like ‘I didn’t know I was doing that!’
“I just knew I was meeting them and they said ‘Are you OK to take the lead and give them the bouquet?’ “So I said ‘Er, yeah, OK.” Kate also talked to some of the group about the couple’s work to remove the stigma around mental health.
“She spoke a lot about mental health and how we need to stop people from feeling ashamed about it,” added Tiyah. “The Duke was talking about the same priorities as the Duchess. He was really lovely too.”
BEN AINSLIE and Britain’s Land Rover BAR team repeated their 2015 home victory in the America’s Cup World Series regatta in Portsmouth yesterday but it was a close-run thing.
It came down to a nail-biting finish to the final leg of the last race in which skipper Ainslie held his nerve to take second place behind America’s Cup defending champion Jimmy Spithill on Oracle Team USA and secure a one-point regatta win.
It put Ainslie’s crew into the lead in the overall race and brought them closer to challenging for the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017.