Ainslie wins Portsmouth America’s Cup World Series event

For the home team to win the first of the AC World Series events for the 35^th America’s Cup cycle was a dream result. But Land Rover BAR’s slick crew

work and tactical expertise on Saturday saw Ainslie’s team deliver the

result that they and their supporters wanted with a first and second

gained the hard way, (from behind), in the first two races. Ainslie

frequently achieves his best results when he’s under pressure and there

was plenty of that this weekend in Portsmouth.

For starters there was the pressure of expectation. His four Gold

medals go a long way to setting those expectations from the off. But

since announcing his campaign to bring the America’s Cup home the star

studded cast of backers and supporters, along with Royal support, has

made no secret of the team’s desire and focus along with a belief that

it can and will be done come 2017. Nothing like setting a few goals, but

then as team principal Sir Keith Mills keeps saying, there is no point

in going into this campaign with anything other than a clear focus on

winning.

So, for the many thousands that turned up on Saturday, delivering a

result in home waters was expected, particularly if they were to buy

into the idea that the world’s oldest trophy in international sport

could indeed return to its birth place.

But Sunday was a very different affair.

The forecast for the second day’s racing, which would be for double

points, had not looked good for some time with winds well in excess of

the 25knot upper limit on their way.

By Saturday evening it became clear that the forecast was soon to

become a reality forcing the organisers to consider bringing the racing

schedule forward. For a national championships this is simply a matter

of posting an amendment to the sailing instructions on the notice board.

But for an event that is linked in with live television at home and

abroad, to say nothing of the 60,000 potential spectators that were

expected to arrive, along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who

would be watching the racing and handing out the prizes, shifting the

time of the racing was not easy. But shift it they did in an attempt to

get at least one of the two races in before Armageddon struck.

As we in the radio commentary RIB joined the armada of mark boats and

race officials to head out to the race course and through the entrance

to Portsmouth’s harbour it was clear that conditions were already pretty

punchy.

While there was only 19-20knots it was blowing from the south east,

straight into the teeth of an ebb tide that kicked up a very unpleasant

sea state in the entrance. How the AC45Fs with rigs you can’t reef would

get out, let alone back in when the breeze had built, was beyond me.

Once out, the breeze simply built as the rain turned horizontal and

after waiting for a while to see whether there was any chance of it

dropping, regatta director Iain Murray abandoned all racing for the day.

Sadly it was the only sensible decision and there were none in the teams that saw any other option.

“As a competitor I love the breezy conditions, but I 100% agree with

race committee’s decision,” said Glenn Ashby, Emirates Team New

Zealand’s wing trimmer. “The safety concerns were definitely there, we

have a 25 knot wind limit for a reason, and fully respect that, and I

think all the other competitors do too, we don’t want to get anyone

hurt.”

The result left Ainslie in the lead overall, which in turn meant

another appointment with the Duke and Duchess to collect some more

silverware.

To end such a big event that has required so much effort, investment

and belief in this way was a cruel blow to all of those concerned. But

the opening ACWS regatta has set the bar high and hopefully laid the

foundations for similar support in a year’s time when the event returns

to Portsmouth.

But Ainslie remained upbeat.

“We’re absolutely delighted to win the first America’s Cup World

Series here in Portsmouth, it’s a great start for us on our America’s

Cup journey,” he said. “It’s incredible for us, to win here on our home

patch, in front of our home crowd, it’s a massive statement for the

future.

“In my sailing career, I’ve never seen anything like yesterday. The

amount of people that came out on the water, on the shore line,

supporting the event and supporting us as a home team, we were all of us

as a team completely blown away by.”

Interestingly, others were also quick to sing the praises of the event, not least Ainslie’s former team mate.

“I think this just shows how great it is to have a British team back

in the America’s Cup competition,” said Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy

Spithill. “There was some serious interest here – you look at the

estimated spectator numbers on and off the water, it was as if the

actual America’s Cup was being raced in terms of crowd size, it was

really comparable. It’s just so cool to see a competitive team come from

here and I know from past experiences that the Brits get behind their

home sporting teams. These guys will be tough.”

Two days before Spithill had joked about how he and the other teams

were out to spoil Ainslie’s dream. On this occasion he hadn’t, but no

one would doubt that he is capable of it.

Artemis skipper Nathan Outteridge described the local support in another way.

“This was probably the biggest spectator fleet we’ve had for any of

the AC World Series events. Normally it’s quite difficult to see the

boundaries to the course, here it was easy with a wall of boats that

surrounded the entire course.”

His team had had a poor day on Saturday, made worse by a crew error

in the second race when they dumped the wrong line at the leeward mark

and dropped their unfurled code zero into the water.

“We thought it was the runner and it turned out to be the halyard,”

he explained. “But that what’s happens when you’re put under pressure in

these high intense races.”

Pressure affects different people in different ways, but with the

next ACWS event in Gothenburg, Outteridge’s Swedish flagged team will be

hoping to emulate Ainslie’s result in front of their home crowd.

Overall Results

1st Land Rover BAR 19

2nd Emirates Team New Zealand 18

3rd Oracle Team USA 16

4th Groupama Team France 13

5th SoftBank Team Japan 13

6th Artemis Racing 11

Future events

Louis Vuitton ACWS Gothenburg – August 27-30

Louis Vuitton ACWS Bermuda – October 16-18