Ben Ainslie’s sail of the century
The most successful sailor in Olympic history has a new focus
— to lead the first British victory in the America’s Cup for 170 years
It’s fair to say something happens to Ben Ainslie’s personality when he gets in a boat. His friend and fellow Team GB sailor Iain Percy once described him as “the most competitive man in the world”.
It may have been different if his family hadn’t moved to Cornwall when he was a child. There was an adventurous spirit in his parents, both sailors, and his father captained a yacht in the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race.
Perhaps his formative memory is as an eight-year-old, being plonked into a second-hand Optimist dinghy in a duffel coat and wellies — no life jacket — and told by his dad that they were going to the pub which was two miles up the creek and that they’d see him there for lunch.
“I hadn’t really sailed a dinghy on my own before. I turned back to him and said, ‘What happens if I capsize?’ He said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, you’ll be all right’,” Ainslie remembers.
At the local yacht club he capsized more than everyone else, which his coaches soon realised was a good thing — he sailed on the edge. At 19, he won an Olympic silver, missing gold at the hands of world number one Robert Scheidt, but an early lesson was learnt on the art of winning. He picked up gold in the next four consecutive Olympic Games, his last in London.
When it comes to pressure, he puts one factor above all others: preparation. “If you’re going into a high-pressure scenario and you know you’ve done everything you possibly can, that makes a big, big difference.” The other is relishing being in those situations: “That’s why I compete, because the harder it is and the greater the challenge, then the more I enjoy it.”
Next, he skippered Team Oracle USA to what might be the greatest sporting comeback of all-time in the 2013 America’s Cup. “That’s the first time I ever heard of anyone watching sailing in the pub. It was definitely a transformative moment in our sport.”
And now, with the Jim Ratcliffe-backed Team INEOS, he is preparing to fulfill a lifelong dream to win the America’s Cup for Britain in New Zealand in 2021. “These boats are lifting up out of the water on foils and get close to 60mph. That’s a complete transformation in sailing terms.”
The challenge is underway, requiring designers, engineers, boat builders and support staff as well as the sailors themselves to find the right formula. “It’s a massive team effort,” Ainslie says. “We’ve got to really come up with something special.” Well, if anyone can….
Sir Ben Ainslie appeared at Townhouse as a Belstaff ambassador