The clash

Ben Ainslie on his Olympic sailing coming head to head with his new appointment as skipper/helm of TeamOrign

The last few days have been ones of mixed news for Britain's foremost Olympic sailor, Ben Ainslie. On Friday, the three time Olympic medallist was confirmed as skipper and helmsman of Sir Keith Mills' TeamOrigin America's Cup campaign. But on Tuesday there was some controversy when, incredibly, Ainslie did not have his place confirmed in the Finn slot within Skandia Team GBR to go to the Beijing Olympics. This was despite Ainslie's credentials as the greatest Finn of recent years, possibly ever, having won four consecutive World Championships, the gold medal in Athens, not to mention dominating the two all-important test events in Qingdao, this year and last, the venue for next year's Olympic regatta.

The issue with the Team GBR sailing team selectors is clearly one of power politics. The RYA want to feel they are in control of the situation. At the same time world class sailors such as Ainslie and Iain Percy (who with his crew Bart Simpson also weren't confirmed on Tuesday - despite having the only active Olympic-standard Star campaign in the UK) are now getting demands on their time with campaigns as important as the Olympics, at a time when the days are gone that a leisurely four year Cup cycle allowed sailors to flit easily from America's Cup to the Volvo Ocean Race or the Olympics and back. With a two year Cup cycle ahead of us the RYA's selectors are clearly concerned that Ainslie, Percy and Simpson - all afterguard members for TeamOrigin - won't allocate enough time to their Olympic training over the next 12 months.

So did Tuesday's announcement come as a surprise? "To be honest I thought they would either announce I was going to be selected or that they would want another trials either later this year or the beginning of next year, so in some ways it was a little bit of a surprise," admits Ainslie. "The problem from Ed’s point of view [Ed Wright] is that we haven’t raced each other that much in the last couple of years, but from my point of view the only relevant regatta is China because it is so venue-specific, and without much training I have been able to win both regattas." Unless the RYA selectors call for some trials, the next time Ainslie will meet Ed Wright on the water will be at the Worlds in Melbourne in January.

From the Olympic selector's point of view, the case of Ainslie is unique. Here we have a sailor who breezed into the test regattas to win not just comfortably, but proved himself on both occasions to be a level way above the other sailors. Last year after almost a year's break from the Finn, with just one week of training, Ainslie notched up seven bullets in eight races. This year was closer, Ainslie scoring just three bullets and discarding a sixth and even with a lowly seventh place in the double points scoring medal race he still finished on 26 points, albeit just eight ahead of the Netherland's second placed Pieter Jan Postma.

This year prior to the test event Ainslie had time to put in a little more training: "Straight after the Cup I went home to Lymington and trained for about 10 days and then I had another 10 days in China before the regatta started." But he acknowledges this won't be enough for the Olympics proper next year. "Certainly I felt the standard was much better this year in terms of the effort people had made, from what they had learned last year. It was certainly tougher racing." And for the Olympics next year it will be harder still.

"China is very tough - it is going to be a tough Olympic Games, very difficult conditions and that probably makes it a better situation for me it is like that. But we all have to get on with it because the conditions aren’t going to change," he says. "It is more about getting off the start line well and sailing the boat well in those tidal conditions as much as anything else. I don’t think it matters how long you have been away from the boat. Those type of skills take a long time to develop."

Given that Ainslie seems not to need the full-time approach to his Olympic sailing as others do, the question to be resolved is what is the minimum amount of time the RYA will require of him to fulfil his Olympic commitments? "For sure the intention is to sit down with Sparky [Olympic Manager Stephen Park] and the RYA and run through the proposed program with TeamOrigin and hopefully give them some re-assurance that the focus is definitely there for the Olympics next year and the program will allow us to do the training necessary to go there and to try and be successful," says Ainslie.

As far as TeamOrigin goes the negotiation has already been a similar one. "It has always been very clear with Keith [Mills] and Mike [Sanderson] about my potential Olympic obligation and from the outset they have always been super keen on me doing the Olympics. Certainly with Keith’s position it would be a little two faced if he turned around and said ‘we don’t want you to be involved with the Olympics’ since he is the man behind 2012. So I have every support possible from the top of Team Origin and actually the dates work out very fortuitously in terms of the Olympic regatta in the Finn and the training I need to do for that, with AC commitments next year."

The only fly in the ointment is likely to be the Acts in 2008, the dates for which have yet to be announced by ACM. "The first Act could be in June or early July and that is the one potential sticking point," acknowledges Ainslie. "It will just take careful time management, but it is certainly doable. From within TeamOrigin, we obviously focussed on putting a new sailing team together and looking towards the next Cup, but at the same time it would be great for the next team if Iain and Bart and myself could go out and do well at the Olympic Games. It would just add strength to the team."

He continues: "I see the two roles complimenting each other in a way. The dinghy sailing will keep me fresh and keep the feel there and the Cup sailing is all about design and management and those things aren’t unimportant in a technical class like the Finn. So I think it is doable."

As far as TeamOrigin is concerned, his appointment within TeamOrigin is a dream come true. For years now Ainslie has spoken of being at the helm of a British America's Cup yacht with Iain Percy by his side. "It’s what we’ve been working for for a long time and that relationship between Iain and I will be crucial to how the whole sailing team works and runs and I am sure it is going to work very well," he says.

Negotiations with Ainslie began reasonably soon after Mike Sanderson's appointment to TeamOrigin and he says he and Sanderson worked together closely on the make-up of the sailing team. "Obviously Mike being involved was a massive plus. I’ve been talking to him daily for the last three months or so and we are really happy with the squad we’ve got together," he says. "We need one or two trimmers and probably another person at the back of the boat but we want to make sure we get the right people rather than chucking the cheque book at people because it is the right thing to do."

As far as match race practice and potential involvement with the Match Racing Tour is concerned, Ainslie for the next year will have his hands full with his Olympic program and his responsibilities at TeamOrigin. "I didn't do a massive amount with Team New Zealand because the focus was on sailing Cup boats, but when I put my head to it we ended up winning the regatta in San Francisco against Baird and a lot of the good guys, so I know that when we have some time and can put some proper training into it we’ll be able to compete at the very top level. I think with this Cup cycle that will come very late because of the new class of boat and I think the sailing side will be literally the last three months up to the race, of nailing how to match race this new class of boats - that will all happen very late."

Saying this Ainslie is due to compete in a match race regatta this October in Trapani, just to see where they stand. "This is just to give us a feel for what we have to work on with the team moving forwards, but we won’t hit the match racing circuit in earnest until the second half of next year."

We feel certain that the dispute between Ainslie and the RYA's Olympic squad selectors will be resolved shortly and will be a case of 'how' not 'if' Ainslie gets to do the next Olympics. However the situation could have been handled considerably better diplomacy.