Ben Ainslie on his America's Cup future

British AC45, joining Oracle Racing, RIBgate and returning to Falmouth

As soon as the Olympics conclude this year, Ben Ainslie is to campaign an AC45 with backing from Oracle Racing, while outside of the America’s Cup World Series he will be part of Larry Ellison’s defending team for the 34th America’s Cup, it was announced yesterday at a grand gathering at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

It should be remembered that Ainslie will be a key feature of the 2012 Olympic Games, not just in sailing or in the UK, but internationally and across the whole Olympiad. For with three Olympic golds and one silver already and the strong prospect of collecting his fourth gold in Weymouth in August, he is lining up to be one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

To put this into perspective: over the course of six Olympic Games Sir Steve Redgrave won five gold medals (plus a bronze in Seoul), one of only four people to achieve this feat in the history of the modern Olympiad. At present Ainslie’s three golds and one silver equals what two other of the greatest ever Olympic sailors, Jochen Schuemann and Valentyn Mankin, achieved in their careers, but it is one gold short of Paul Elvstrom’s four gold tally and one medal short of Torben Grael’s impressive two golds, two bronzes and a silver.

So if the British Olympic living legend can transfer this profile on to the America’s Cup then it will be to everyone’s benefit – Ainslie, Oracle, sailing, sailing in the UK, a future British America’s Cup challenge...etc

According to Ainslie, discussions began with Oracle Racing CEO Russell Coutts last summer. “I got in touch with Russell because I was interested in starting my own team for the 45s and trying to build that up to something. And then Russell said ‘funny you should say that, because I have been trying to get in touch with you as we want you to come and sail with us’. So I said ‘well, that’s not really why I called...’ So we discussed different options and this was the perfect fit.”

Already Oracle is fielding two teams on the America’s Cup World Series – Oracle Racing Spithill and Oracle Racing Coutts. So in theory, Ben’s AC45 team could have been called Oracle Racing Ainslie, but his goal firmly remains to front a British America’s Cup team and for this reason his AC45 is being funded by Oracle but is currently in the colours of Ben Ainslie Racing, which amusingly abbreviates to BAR.

“This gives me the chance to build up this brand for the future and it also gives me a fantastic opportunity to sail with Oracle and for them they are looking to have as much strength as they can possibly have,” says Ainslie.

Ben Ainslie Racing, our man acknowledges is “a bit egotistical” but is only the name of the boat for launch purposes up until such time as his ex-Alinghi/TeamOrigin sponsor hunter Nick Masson strikes gold, securing a sponsor who’s colours they can rebrand the AC45 in. The hope is for this to take place in time for the team’s first America’s Cup World Series regatta. Ambitiously this will take place in San Francisco, starting on 11 August, just one week after the Finn medal race.

Ainslie says they are looking for two main partners and a couple of others, but to date they have only had preliminary conversations. Nick Masson believes that the sponsorship environment in the UK will perk up after the Olympic Games is over.

“The costs of the campaign are covered, but we need the commercial support to build the team for the future in terms of retaining the right people and building up the project long term and obviously servicing the sponsorship as well,” Ainslie explains. “So it is really important that we make that work. We can’t just rely on the project being covered and sit back. We have to push hard to make it a success commercially if we want it to go the whole way.”

But clearly with the level the America’s Cup is currently at, Ainslie will also need to find himself a private backer if he is to mount a full blown campaign for the 35th America’s Cup. He says he did speak to Sir Keith Mills about his plans. “He was really supportive. It was obviously a really disappointing way to leave everything with TeamOrigin. So either through this, or with own team, there is the potential for him to get involved in the future, but I have no idea what his plans are.” If not Sir Keith Mills – then who? Charles Dunstone, Tony Buckingham, Sir Richard Branson?

Ainslie at Oracle

In terms of his part within Oracle Racing’s defence of the 34th America’s Cup, his role is yet to be defined. While Oracle will be lining up against the other challengers in AC45s during the America’s Cup World Series, they won’t have this opportunity in the AC72s and so they are doing their utmost to ensure that their own internal racing will be at the highest level. For this reason they are amassing a pool of the world’s most talented sailors – in addition to Jimmy Spithill and Coutts himself, they have cat expertise in the form of Darren Bundock, plus  Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby and now Ainslie, the latest to join their stable. Obviously in signing up these individuals there is the secondary benefit to Oracle that they can’t then go and sail for the challengers.

In terms of Ainslie’s role on board, this remains something yet to be defined. “I would like to do some helming in the 72, which would obviously help with regard to the future, but it is not necessary,” he says. “I would like to be on the boat and most importantly be part of the winning team.”

In the AC72s, presumably he might end up steering the ‘B boat’ in which case there is the potential for him to end up in a similar situation to where he was with Emirates Team New Zealand prior to the 32nd America’s Cup when the price of getting experience at the helm on the Version 5 boats was not getting to compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup/America’s Cup itself alongside Dean Barker and the boys on the Kiwi A boat.

“I don’t see that being the same this time around,” says Ainslie. “Ultimately I just want to do whatever I can to help make the team be successful in whatever role that is. If that ends up being someone who pushes Jimmy, helming the other boat – that’s fine. If it is a role on the boat in a different position – that’s fine. The Team New Zealand situation was always a little bit awkward and certainly I don’t see that in this situation. It can often be the way with A and B boat teams it ends up getting like that. With the old Version 5 boats, they were so closely matched it ended up just being this internal battle all the time.”

Ainslie helming the Oracle Racing AC72 as defender in the America’s Cup next year hasn’t been ruled out, but seems a very very remote possibility. “I think James [Spithill] is doing a fantastic job, so unless I somehow end up being a knot quicker - which is highly unlikely given I’ve got to focus on the Olympics and all the rest of it... But you never know with these situations quite what is going to happen. I’m certainly not going in there saying ‘I want to beat Jimmy Spithill and knock his block off and take his job.’ Absolutely not. I want to go there and help the team be successful in whatever way I can.”

Perth/RIBgate

A cloud remains hanging over Ainslie following the unfortunate incident at Perth 2011 when an over enthusiastic TV boat driver nearly swamped his Finn as he was approaching the finish line in one race, causing an incensed Ainslie to leap out of his Finn into the RIB, remonstrate his displeasure at the driver, before leaping over the side and returning to his own boat.

At present the procedure for a Rule 69 protest is underway with an RYA tribunal due to sit to access the incident and decide on a suitable penalty.

“I haven’t spoken about it because I haven’t been able to because it is now in the hands of RYA and then it goes back to ISAF once the RYA have made a decision about what they want to do,” says Ainslie, who now seems to be more embarrassed than riled about the incident.

In addition to creating wash as he powered towards the finish line (so that the cameraman on board could film Pieter Jan Postma winning the race), the RIB driver then made the mistake of stopping on the finish line directly in front of Ainslie. “I think if they’d just motored off it would have been fine, but the fact that they stopped right in front of me was probably the worst thing that could have happened...ever. I obviously regret what happened immensely but there were pretty severe mitigating factors involved.”

Ainslie is unwilling to go into detail about the incident but this was not the first time that the RIB driver in question had impaired the racing and he had been previously warned. While media boats in recent Olympic class regattas have been free to roam the course during medal races, at Perth 2011 under article 15.2 of the Sailing Instructions: ‘Actions by official boats or helicopters shall not be grounds for requesting redress by a boat.’ Going forwards media boats shouldn’t be prevented from being on the race course, but it is clearly vital that their drivers are experienced and understand the paramount importance of doing their job while in no way interfering with the racing.

“Obviously we have already had a hearing in Australia and I have been pretty severely punished already, but that is the way it is and I just have to live with it and I hopeful we’ll get to the end of it one day,” says Ainslie.

Lord alone knows how this will pan out. It is not hard to imagine the RYA tribunal deciding that the penalty Ainslie received in Perth that cost him the World Championship title was adequate. However they need to do enough to appease ISAF which we understand is under particular pressure from France and Australia, both gunning for Ainslie to receive a further penalty. However at present there doesn’t even seem to be a time frame for when all of this will take place.

Back on the water

In the meantime, the plan is for Ainslie to get back to focussing on his Finn campaign when the Skandia Team GBR squad resumes training in Palma mid-February. There he will remain until the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in the first week of April. Then he will return to training in Weymouth before heading to Falmouth for more training in the build up to the Finn Gold Cup. This is being held over 10-18 May and will be backed by Ainslie’s sponsor JPMorgan Asset Management.

Falmouth is where Ainslie grew up sailing – so a return to his old stomping ground? “When we were kids we used to train at Restronguet Sailing Club on Carrick Roads. Here we are going to race out on Falmouth Bay and I’ve never actually raced in Falmouth Bay! It sounds ridiculous, so I have probably got as much to learn as anyone else. It will be fantastic to sail back there in that part of the world.”