Back to Valencia

Triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie brings us up to date with progress at Emirates Team New Zealand

Ben Ainslie is on a fleeting visit to the UK for his 30th birthday when we met him yesterday at the City of London office of his main sponsor JPMorgan Asset Management. While Ainslie still has a home in Lymington, he is almost never there, residing, during his time with the Emirates Team New Zealand, either in Auckland or Valencia.

At present Emirates Team New Zealand are in migratory mode, as the team travels back to Valencia from Auckland where over the southern hemisphere summer they have been testing and training. NZL 84 and their new boat, NZL 92, launched in November, were transported back to Spain by Antonov cargo aircraft at the weekend - both boats having been shoehorned into one of the giant Russian planes. They are being assembled this week and Ainslie says they expect to be training once again this coming week.

Ainslie can neither confirm nor deny the rumour that NZL 92 was popped from the same mould at Cooksons as their first boat. In Auckland, they have been training and speed testing as they develop NZL 92. Despite their heavy displacements Cup boats are so tweaky that every component must be optimised to the nth degree. "It is as much to do with what appendages you’ve got and what rig and sails as it is about the hull - it is about the whole package," says Ainslie. Obvious to gain meaningful results from two boat testing it is vital that the trim of the boats as near identical as possible and this is an area the team have been working on a lot.

Thankfully there has been no upset with the new boat - the team still hugely prudent after the catastrophe of their 2003 defence. "92 it is everything what we wanted it to be and everything we expected it to be," says Ainslie. Team boss Grant Dalton and his loyal second in command, Kevin Shoebridge, are largely responsible for making sure their campaign stays on track. "It is all credit to him and Shoeby in terms of the management, logistics and planning, that so far we haven’t had any majors which is good. If we can get through to the racing in good shape like that things will go well. But listening to all the experienced guys in the team it is always a little bit worrying when everything is going well, as that’s when something normally goes wrong. But Dalts is such an experienced player he is always looking out for those things."

While BMW Oracle Racing were also training out of Auckland with their new boats, the two teams never lined up. So, in addition to their speed testing Emirates Team New Zealand also carried out their own in house racing, with a series just before they departed home waters to ensure that their crew work was up to scratch.



During speed testing Ainslie says they rotate crew a lot, but when racing they tend to stick with mostly the same crew, although they swap boats regularly. Ainslie has been sailing with his regular afterguard of Kelvin Harrap on tactics, Ian Moore navigating and the new addition of Laser turned Star sailor, Mark Mendleblatt, who joined the team in November.

As B-boat helmsman, Ainslie has been pushing Dean Barker hard, and he says the racing between them was close. "I’d like to think we’ve given him a hard time. As far as I’m concerned I have certainly come on a long way and improved a lot and I hope I’ve pushed Dean and the rest of the team’s level as well. Certainly the whole team has moved on a lot in the last six months in terms of coming together and people accepting their roles and their responsibilities within the team."

One of the problems with racing Barker all the time is that Ainslie says they both become used to each other's moves and styles. This may not have helped their training. "The more we know each other's styles, the less aggressive the starting has been because we know what each other is thinking. We are more inclined to worry about which side of the course we want rather than stuffing the other guy up."

As part of their team development they have spent some time with the All Blacks rugby team and been lectured by manager Graham Henry. "It was good to learn about their team ethos - just simple things from each individual making the most of their opportunities and feeling responsible for the rest of the team, to how to pull together when things are going wrong. I took a lot from it. It is all good common sense stuff, but with a team with such an amazing and successful history as the All Blacks you certainly listen to what they have got to say. It was good spending some times with them."

While Ainslie is still a newcomer to match racing compared to the 'old hands' he has obviously been developing fast. He admits he still has a long way to go and feels he needs to spend some time on the match racing circuit to hone his skills further, an easier job in smaller boats. "I’ve learned a huge amount over the last couple of years. Racing Cups boats is very different to what you normally race on the circuit. It is much more about thinking long term and more strategic."

With the boats back in Valencia, training resumes early next week. This will be welcome as the team were concerned that the conditions they were experiencing in Auckland, particularly before Christmas were not depictive of what they can expect in last spring/early summer Valencia.

With Act 13 coming up in early April, followed by the Louis Vuitton Cup, Ainslie's role as B-boat helmsman within the team is likely to change, however everyone presently with the team will remain involved. "Everyone will have a role whether they are on the boat or not or watching the other teams trying to pick up what is going on - it is just important to keep motivated and being there in support for the guys who are racing. It is no good if you get to racing and everyone who is not racing on the boat goes off. That is not a great feeling for the guys who are racing."

While the afterguard is likely to remain the same, unless there is injury or illness, the rest of the crew, particularly the grinders will rotate and the team have experienced back-up for all the positions on board.

Ainsile's current focus is fully on the America's Cup and this may prove to be a detriment to his Olympic campaign. For example if Emirates Team New Zealand make it through to the Cup it is very unlikely that he will be able to sail in the ISAF World Championship event in Cascais, as through thoughtless scheduling, if the America's Cup runs beyond 5-0 the dates conflict with Cascais. It is likely to be a problem that is going to present itself more and more in the future if Ainslie is to continue trying to maintain two goals.

If he is unable to make it to Cascais, country qualification for getting Team GBR to Qingdao will be left in the capable hands of Ed Wright, alternatively there is the opportunity to qualify again at the World Championship in Melbourne in 2008.

Obviously with his Cup commitments finding time to practice in the Finn is limited. Ainslie has a boat in Valencia which he can use and he says he is still working hard on maintaining his fitness.

Since we last spoke to the triple Olympic medallist Sir Keith Mills has announced his Origin campaign for the next two America's Cup and since previously Ainslie has said that one of his objectives in life is to helm a British AC challenger, it is hard to imagine that the Origin people haven't been in touch. Everyone currently contracted to existing Cup teams are being cagey about their involvement at present and Ainslie is in the same boat.

"it is great, great news," he says of Origin. "I guess it is hard for the people behind that to put things in place when everything is so uncertain about the next Cup and personnel are all tied into this Cup. It is definitely fantastic news for British sailing."

So what would be the perfect Ainslie afterguard? "It would be good to have a mixture of youth and experience. It has always been good to sail with Iain [Percy] and people like Adam Beashel and Murray Jones who have such huge America’s Cup experience. They are people I’d like to sail with. You need that kind of mentality because it is such a different game. It is easy to go in there imagining 'it is just another boat race'. But it’s not - it is very different and there are a lot of pitfalls you need to side-step so having the people with the experience is definitely the key.

The most vital role to fill Ainslie says is the CEO, "someone to lead the team with the experience and the knowledge. That is probably the most important acquisition and he’s the guy who would put the rest of the team together. It would definitely have to be someone with America’s Cup experience and I think current AC experience, because the game moves on so quickly and it is so different from other types of sailing, you need that experience." He adds they need to be well versed in the logistics and planning but also conversant in the design side, "otherwise it would be pretty easy for someone who didn’t have the knowledge to get conned into a crazy scheme or for the designers to be running the show." Perhaps a thinly veiled reference to GBR Challenge? Beneath a CEO there needs to be people appointed to run the design and sailing teams.

Sir Keith Mills has committed Origin to the next two America's Cup, but would it be possible to do an Alinghi and win it from the outset, we quiz Ainslie. "I think if it is in two years it would be tough. I think if it is four years in New Zealand it is possible for sure. It sounds like they are realistic in their goals of wanting to come in the top four next time round and to win it the time after that."

With the America's Cup and his Olympic campaign, Ainslie says it will be hard to find time to commit to any other sailing. This is particularly hard with this ludicrous situation where so many people's futures hang on the outcome of the America's Cup in July. If Alinghi do win and the Cup is held in Valencia again in two years, it will be hard for him to compete in the Olympics. This problem would be solved if for the next Cup - as has been mooted - teams are limited in how much time they can train. If this is introduced it presents a big problem for Origin getting up to speed. "Hopefully if Emirates Team New Zealand win it, it would be in four years. Then it would be easier to do the Olmpics," says Ainslie.