Ainslie weighs up Olympic options

Part 2 of the Ainslie interview reveals his tip for America's Cup glory and his designs on Athens gold

While Ben Ainslie has set his mind on returning to Olympic sailing, he does admit to regrets at quitting the rarefied atmosphere of America's Cup campaigning.

"It was very demanding - a steady grind really, whereas with Olympic sailing it's building up to certain events and peaking and then taking some time off afterwards. But I really enjoyed being in a routine for once, knowing what you were going to do each day, being in the same place and doing more or less similar things."

He has huge affection for Auckland too, but one of the strangest things up the America's Cup set-up is that all the syndicates are stacked right next door to each other in a row down Halsey Street, and yet sailors from different challenges rarely mix. GBR Challenge's Adrian Stead, who sailed very successfully with Ainslie in the early part of 2001 on the Barlo Plastics IC45, said he had met his former team mate just once in the three months he had been there. And yet they have been working just two or three hundred yards apart from each other.

That is typical for the sailors here, who tend to hit the gym at 0600 and rarely get out of the compound after a day's sailing and boat maintenance before 1800. There isn't much time for catching up with friends, and Ainslie admits that was strange.

The America's Cup Protocol means sailors are not allowed to discuss anything about their sailing, and yet there isn't much else to talk about when it's all you've done all week. It doesn't give you much room for bar chat. "It's pretty awkward, all your friends are sailing friends. All you've talked about before is sailing, so suddenly you lose all your conversation. You're scared every minute that you’ll drop something in that you shouldn't say."

Ainslie, like most America's Cup sailors, finds it hard to pick winners from losers as they know so little about the progress of other challenges. But for his money, the Italians are the class act. "I think Prada by an inch from the likes of Oracle, One World and The Swiss Challenge, and of course Team New Zealand.

"Teams like One World and the Swiss are new teams so they're still getting the whole show on the road. Prada have a base to work from. They did pretty well before and now they've got the likes of Gavin Brady on board. When you watch videos last time there was lots of arms flapping around, maybe they were a bit too emotional. But perhaps they'll be stronger on the sailing side this time, plus they've got a solid design base to work from."

Some pundits say that skipper Francesco de Angelis is the weak link in the Prada set-up, but Ainslie does not agree. "I don't know about that. He may not be the best match racer but there are only a couple of moves you can make in the time you've got with these boats. You can argue it both ways, you can say that because he's Italian he's got the team behind him. But then you could argue that Gavin Brady or Rod Davis are the better match racing helmsmen."

Team New Zealand, he believes, are weakened by losing some of their core crew to rival syndicates, not least to One World. "Sure, they're still at the level that everyone else is trying to get to. But I think unlike in 1995 where they held a good boat back, they probably went with all they had last time."

For himself, the strength training regime has stood Ainslie in good stead should he choose to get into Finn sailing. "The boats were harder work than I'd expected. People had warned me they’d be hard but I didn't appreciate how much until I got here. I was in pretty good shape aerobically from the Laser but lacked a lot of upper body strength. My weight's increased a lot during the year, from 82 to 87 kilos."

Click to page 2 for John Derbyshire's view on Ainslie's future...