Ben Ainslie diary

Our Laser gold medallist tells us what he's been up to and reflects on the latest goings on at One World

It seems that most teams are setting up their bases and will start training in Auckland at some time during October or November. We were one of the first teams along with Oracle, Prada and Team New Zealand to start training down in Auckland nearly a year ago. Back then there were, on average, only two or three teams out sailing each day, now the Hauraki Gulf will be comparatively packed. I'm not sure if there will be enough water but it will certainly add a bit more excitement to the day's testing.

Having most of the teams in Auckland also provides an opportunity to see how each team has been progressing. While there are rules against observing the opposition it is still possible to see a little of how a team is operating.

The most immediate challenge which faces sailors heading for New Zealand appears to be finding somewhere to live. The New Zealand Herald has been making much of the fact that residential property near the bases is running at 98% capacity. With the influx of America's Cup sailors it's going to be a fight to find a bed.

Once settled in Auckland, my nomadic lifestyle on the regatta circuit will be temporarily curtailed as we focus on racing and testing the Cup boats. But I managed to fit in the One Ton Cup, helming David McLean's Babballas. Only six boats came to Pwlhelli but they were all top teams and the racing was extremely close. On the first day it soon became apparent that the favourite for the title was the Greek team of George Andreadis on Atalanti.

And after three days of great racing in fresh offshore winds, Atalanti had sailed herself to overall victory with two races remaining. Gavin Brady and Robbie Haines who were respectively helmsman and tactician on board Atalanti realised their speed edge upwind and used it to full effect. Setting up to leeward on every start they were able to edge ahead and then wait for their opportunity to take a gain on the fleet.

Atalanti quickly identified Babballas as their closest opposition and so used some aggressive tactics to hold us back in the fleet. It would be unjust of me (!) to say that this was unfair but considering it was only the second day of a four-day series, it was quite extreme.

With two races left it came down to Babballas and Nigel Bramwell's Hawk for second overall. Kelvin Harrap (also with OneWorld) did a great job for us as tactician, controlling Hawk at the start and picking the shifts nicely to put us in the lead at the first mark, which we held to the finish. Hawk came back well, but a collision at the end pushed them to last in the race and gave us second overall. In the end we had to be satisfied with second. Atalanti sailed near faultlessly and deserved victory.

Meanwhile, the Farr 40s have just finished their World and European Championships. Iain Percy has been very successful doing tactics on GBR25 and I get the feeling from him that it is great racing and a real challenge. It's also pretty impressive to see Russell Coutts and the Alinghi team winning - again. I only hope that they are not so dominant in the IACC class.

Ben Ainslie