Ben Ainslie diary

Our Olympic Laser Gold talks of racing Skandia Life Leopard, One World and what he's up to at the moment

Skandia Life Cowes Week was a great opportunity to do some decent racing in the UK and catch up with old friends. My previous experience of the regatta was about five years ago, when I sailed on a mixture of boats from the newly-launched Rogers design Sticky Fingers, to crewing for David Oddie on his X boat.
This year I was sailing aboard the slightly larger Leopard, a Reichel Pugh 92, and the not quite so big IC45 Serano. But I was still amazed by the amount of boats that manage to fit into the Medina river and how well the event is organised.

It is positive for sailing to see Cowes Week getting so much media coverage, although I sometimes wish that our Olympic hopefuls could receive the same support. Not one paper talked about the fact that Paul Goodison finished fourth at the Laser Worlds - a fantastic result considering he didn't finish two races.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the sailing and the strong breeze made life more exciting. We had some good racing on Serano, although it was hard work trying to keep up with the big Swans in the breeze. The IC45s are having their One Ton Cup in Pwllheli next month and with eight entries there should be some tight racing.

Sailing on board Leopard was a great feeling. The owner, Mike Slade, is great at keeping the team happy while still pushing hard to win. Leopard is not quite as powered up as an IACC boat, but it is larger. The main issues of sailing a boat like this were finding space on the start line and dealing with the fact that tacking takes about one minute, due to the shifting of the water ballast.

Although Leopard was in Class 0 it did not take long before she was out on her own at the front of the fleet. On a few days Wild Thing - another huge maxi - ventured out to race, which led to a few close encounters between the two boats. Leopard's problem with racing in the Solent is that due to her draft she can't cheat the tide like her smaller opponents. The result is that she is never able to reach her full potential except for on a few longer legs.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Seattle, it has been a busy period for the One World Challenge. While many OWC teams have been doing the Match Race circuit gaining some decent results, the design team and management have been working extremely hard in their respective areas. The recent announcement that Tech TV is now a major sponsor has come at a vital time for our team and is a great boost. One World Challenge has a great deal of talent on the books, but the key will be what happens between now and next October.

Next up, I'll be racing at the Danish Open Grade 1 Match Race. Sailing with me will be Peter Gilmour's Japanese crew, as well as Ben Durham who has been tactician for James Spithill over the last few years. We make a good team and were able to build a good relationship at a recent training regatta where we finished third. The Danish open will be at another level, but it is sometimes good to be an underdog.

Then it's back to Cowes, where I will be racing on Leopard again during the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta, and I'm looking forward to sailing with Peter Gilmour, who will also be on board some of the time. Peter is my boss at the One World Challenge so it will be a great opportunity to watch how he approaches fleet racing in such huge yachts.

There will be a lot of competition including; Wild Thing, Stealth, Morning Glory and Mari Cha III. It will make a pretty awesome sight when these boats line up off Cowes Green - but just as eye catching will be the J boats, in full sail, blasting along side by side. This is going to be a once in a lifetime event!