Back to school for Ben

Ben Ainslie discusses helming his first match race, while Rod Davis looks at the progress of his new pupil. Anne Hinton and James Boyd report

Having come away from the Athens Olympics with his third medal and second Gold this summer, Ben Ainslie has since joined the afterguard of Emirates Team New Zealand for the two Acts in Valencia while last week saw him reunited with the Kiwi America's Cup team down in Auckland.

“I’ve been here about five days now,” said Ainslie at the weekend. "So far it’s been going really well. I’ve found a really nice place to live in the Viaduct Basin and have been very preoccupied getting ready for this event and doing the feeder series."

In an 11th hour move, Ainslie gave up his spot crewing for skipper Dean Barker at last week's Nippon Cup, to try helming in a match race himself in the qualifiers for the New Zealand National Match Racing Championships. Here he competed under the tutelage of match race veteran Rod Davis. “I was supposed to be sailing with Dean but the opportunity came to do this event," said Ainslie. "The team decided that was a good thing to do. There are a lot of really good people in the afterguard so it wasn’t a problem Dean sailing with anyone else and it’s a great opportunity for me to learn and do this feeder series."

While Ainslie is well known for his formidable talent fleet racing in singlehanders, moving to match racing where they is a very different set of race rules and where he must also lead a crew into battle is tantamount to taking up a new sport.

“The last time I did any match racing was four years ago at the Danish Open," says Ainslie. "That was when I was sailing with One World." Post the Atlanta Olympics, he also had a stint on mainsheet for Chris Law. "So it’s been a while and it’s obviously very different to the fleet racing - getting back into the whole tactics and the rules as well. It’s fantastic sailing with Rod Davis and the other guys. It gave me a lot of confidence that the boat handling was top notch and Rod was good in trying to guide me through the different situations."

Ainslie feels that his performance this weekend improved rapidly. On the second day he scored more wins than any of his nine competitors. Ainslie reviews his progress: “It’s easy looking at it [match racing] until you get on the stick and start trying to do it yourself - going through all the processes - and I think it probably does take some time to have been through every situation and scenario and to have experienced it all. Then you can go out and race and say ‘well, I’ve been here, I’ve done this and this pays or this is going to happen now’. So it will take some time to get up to speed with this."

In terms of leading a team of people on a race boat, Ainslie appreciates the difference from the singlehanded sailing he is used to. “This weekend it worked really well with the team. Rod was obviously great in a coaching role and trying to do the mainsheet role. Yesterday I got us into a few sticky situations but no one said a thing and we just got on with the job of either overtake or stay in front."

Since Ainslie signed up with Emirates Team New Zealand there has been much speculation about him ultimately taking over the helm of the Kiwi Cup boat from skipper Dean Barker, whom he roundly beat in the Finn at the Athens Olympics. While the Emirates Team New Zealand management make no bones about doing 'what is best for the team' and have confirmed that if Ainslie does regularly start showing superior skill to Barker he could end up at the wheel of their race boat, they are also keen to prevent any potential rift taking place within the challenge. In reality seeing the relationship Ainslie and Barker have developed in the Finn and subsequently within the Kiwi Cup team the potential for a rift between these individuals seems slight.

Ainslie is also realistic about his present match racing ability compared to that of his skipper. "I don’t think anyone, including myself, has much idea of what is happening while Dean’s obviously one of the best match racers out there. Right now if we can keep learning, that’s the most important thing for me; that’s the most rewarding thing."

When it comes to Ainslie's learning the man is charge now is Kiwi match race veteran Rod Davis. Few men have more experience in the Cup - Davis' first involvement with it was back in 1977 when he was bowman on the American defender Enterprise and since then he coached the New Zealand AC team in 1988 and 1992 before signing up in a similar role wtih OneAustralia in 1995 and Prada for the last two America's Cups.

“I’ve taken Ben under my wing a little bit to teach him about the match racing”, says Davis. “It’s similar to what I did with Torben Grael when I was with Prada. Obviously he’s a very talented sailor - just has never done match racing, so there’s a big learning curve on that. He sails really well. It’s just a question of getting him used to moves and counter-moves."

This last weekend at the New Zealand Match Racing Championship qualifier Davis confirms his protege showed a marked improvement as the regatta wore on. “Ben’s made a nice step forward in his match racing. If where he needs to be is as good as anyone in the world is 100%, he started this thing at 10% and we’re probably at 30%. So we have a long way to go, but Ben’ll be the first one to tell you that.”

In terms of pre-start work, reactions need to be instinctive, says Davis. “We started the series with me talking to him a lot about it. We ended the series with him taking on more and more responsibility, making his own calls. That’s where we’re going to continue to progress. You have to make your own mistakes. You learn from the mistakes."

Davis is also aware of Ainslie's steep learning curve as he makes the leap from racing singlehanders to sailing a boat with a team. "It's a big learning curve. Singlehanded sailors don’t work with groups, but he’ll be fine. We'll keep him in his place; we knock him around a bit!”

Looking ahead Ainslie's plans to helm his own match race boat remain up in the air, although Emirates Team New Zealand have expressed their desire for him to carry on with this.

Meanwhile Ainslie needs to get to grips with giving New Zealand another go after he resigned from OneWorld early in the last Cup cycle. “I’m missing home a bit - my family and friends, and my girlfriend," said Ainslie of how he is settling back in to life down under. Ainslie is to spend the antepodian summer in Auckland, although he is coming back to the UK briefly for Christmas and returning to Europe for longer in April when Emirates Team New Zealand decamp to the northern hemisphere.