Ben Ainslie - Guest Star

Ben Ainslie, CBE: Three-time Olympic gold medallist and captain of Team Origin, Britain’s America’s Cup boat.

I’ve been on a bit of a book launch tour over the past couple of weeks which has thrown up all kinds of surprises. The thing is, I’m so busy either preparing or competing for Olympics, or America’s Cup, or other off-shore races, that it’s rare for me ever to venture far from a boat, but the need to talk about my autobiography has meant a fortnight on land.

The tour took me to the launch in Falmouth, which is where it all began for me. The very first book I signed in the High Street booksellers was for a nine year old boy mad keen on sailing. He reminded me of myself when I was his age 23 years ago back in the same Cornish town. I hope he can go on to enjoy the sport, and be as successful, as I have managed to be.

I then took a sleeper train for the first time in my life from Truro to London. It seemed a good idea at the time, and I did have a nice compartment for myself, but I wouldn’t say it was the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. Having been at another book signing in Canary Wharf I then pitched up for the Chris Evans show on Radio 2. If I’m honest I was a little nervous because I thought he’d take the mickey out of me and sailing but he was very nice, and appeared genuinely interested in what I’ve done, and in the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics. Other appearances included the Simon Mayo radio programme and a session at the Southampton Boat Show, which went very well. I wasn’t sure whether people would be interested in reading my story so far, so I was relieved and pleasantly surprised to see so many attending the various launches and signings.

I guess it’s an indication of how far my sport has come. Maybe even ten years ago people thought sailors were one of two kinds: the pipe-smoking, bearded, rum-swilling pirate type on the high seas, or the blazered, cravatte-wearing Henry sipping his gin on the Mediterranean or at Cowes. Now, thanks to the exploits of both the offshore sailors – Ellen Macarthur, Pete Goss, Alex Thomson, Mike Golding, Sam Davies, Dee Caffari and others – and the many Olympic medallists the public recognise it’s a serious sport played by serious people.

Talking of which I’ll be with Team Origin for the Louis Vuitton Series which starts next month in Nice where we should be racing against many of our America’s Cup rivals. Whether it ends up being 2011 or 2013, we’ll be ready and competitive for the America’s Cup. I’ve also enjoyed some other off-shore races this year, including winning the LA to Hawaii Transpac 09 in a 100-foot long Super Maxi and breaking the time record by over a day when we reached the island in just over five days. We then went on to win the Copa del Rey in a 72-foot Mini Maxi too.

It hasn’t been all sailing, though. It takes a lot, for example, for me to miss my Monday afternoon session of five-a-side football each week near my home in Lymington in the New Forest. I tend to play midfield which means that I struggle to get into the right places to score but, when I do, I tend to find the target. I never wear my favourite Chelsea shirt, complete with the name “Ainslie” on its back, though, because I’d be putting myself up for a fall. Fortunately, I have conscientious playing mates who have told me none of them want to be the one who breaks my leg and puts me out of the America’s Cup or trying to defend my Olympic title in Weymouth, in 2012.

Weymouth, incidentally, is very impressive as an Olympic site, and it’s also going to be vital for the re-generation of an area that needs a pick-me-up. One of the main remits for staging the Games is its legacy and while the Olympic Park in Stratford will do wonders for East London so, too, will be the sailing site for Weymouth and Portland Bill. 
If I were to win my fourth gold medal I’d allow myself the time to do many of the things I’ve had to turn down since Beijing, like appearing on TV’s “Celebrity Mastermind.” I would have loved to have given it a go, with the life and times of JFK being my “specialist subject,” after I produced a history project on him and the Cuban missile crisis at college in Winchester.

I’d also go to more Formula One Grands Prix having been to the British GP last year at Silverstone, and the European GP in Valencia this year. Ironically I was chatting to Flavio Briatore in Valencia, trying to tempt him into getting into sailing. His response was that he felt he was already blowing too much of his money in Formula One. I guess now, after the Renault scandal and his dismissal, he may want to distance himself from sport a little.

Still, if the F1 teams had any sense, they should be queuing up to invite me. Last year I was a guest of McLaren-Mercedes as their driver, Lewis Hamilton, won in the rain. This time I was Brawn GP’s guest as their driver, Rubens Barrichello, also won. Jenson Button came 6th and came across as a really nice guy. I hope he manages to get over the line and become world champion in the next race or two.

Jenson and Rubens, and Lewis Hamilton, whom I got to know last year when he went sailing with me in Cowes, share a love of speed with me, only theirs is considerably quicker than mine and a lot drier too!

"Close to the Wind,” Ben Ainslie’s autobiography, is published by Yellow Jersey Press.