Scuttlebutt Interviews: Ben Ainslie, 3-Time Finn Gold Cup Champion

Ben Ainslie, the 27-year old newly crowned Finn Gold Cup champion from Lymington, England, provides Scuttlebutt with some insight on his recent accomplishment and why UK sailing has lately been so in phase.

After UK’s Ben Ainslie twice claimed the Laser World Championship, and earned silver and gold medals in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, the timing seemed right for his transition into the America’s Cup arena. But when the setting at the OneWorld Challenge camp during the 2003 America’s Cup campaign was no longer to his liking, Ainslie departed and returned to what he knew best – the Olympics.

“I moved on from the Laser as I had achieved everything I had set out to achieve,” Ainslie said. “I felt I needed a new challenge both from a motivational point of view and also technically, which I hope will help me in my future sailing.” So it would be the Finn class, where he recently won his third consecutive Finn Gold Cup (aka, World Championship).

Arriving to the site of the 2004 Finn Gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a month in advance gave Ainslie the chance to participate in the Brazilian Nationals and the South American Championships. When Ainslie finished third in the Brazilians, then second in the SA’s, one could wonder if this was a calculated tactic or just coincidence. “I was certainly not running on 100% for the first two events for a number of reasons but there was a calculated build-up to peaking for the Gold Cup,” Ainslie admitted. “There were a lot of lessons learned from the first two events which helped me in the Gold Cup performance.”

Assisting in the build-up was the UK’s team approach. “There were four of us in the British squad for the Worlds. For the first two weeks Paul Hobson from North UK coached and also worked a little bit on the sail development,” Ainslie revealed. “For the World Championships David Howlett was out as coach, which was great for me as I seem to work very well with ‘Sid’ at the big events. Like most of the other teams we were receiving daily weather reports and we also put some time into trying to work out the currents, although that did seem to be quite futile at times.”

While such a thorough approach toward event preparation is more the norm these days than the exception, it is not without risk. Recently it was reported how the UK’s top Laser campaigner Paul Goodison “crashed and burned” from the incessant training. “The Lasers are tough mentally as there are no equipment issues so training becomes an obsession,” Ainslie recalled. “I suffered from similar issues when I was younger but dealt with it by prioritizing the key events and working up to each of those, rather than going flat out for the whole season.” Goodison has recently returned to the Laser campaign after taking a break from the rigorous schedule, and Ainslie notes “Goody is already back to his winning ways.”

A comprehensive, calculated event circuit schedule requires certain financial pieces of the puzzle to be in place. “I have been fortunate that my past results have enabled me to secure sponsorship with ‘Volvo’ as a title sponsor,” Ainslie remarks, but “contrary to popular opinion we (UK) don’t run half million dollar budgets and funding is actually very tight for the whole squad. Most top sailors in the UK have personal sponsorship in one form or another!”

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