America's Cup - Ben Ainslie: We’re really looking forward to getting racing again

AC UNCUT’s Genny Tulloch catches up with Ben Ainslie who will lead his J.P. Morgan BAR team into battle at the AC World Series in Naples this month.


Ainslie, who has been training on AC45s in San Francisco Bay (he even joined the capsize club a couple of weeks ago), says he can’t wait to get to the start line.

“We’re really looking forward to getting racing again,” Ainslie says. “It’s been a long time. It’s hard to know what to expect, as we haven’t sailed in the whole range of conditions in these boats… I think we may need to learn a lot quite quickly about sailing in the lighter winds if we get that in Naples.

Ainslie says the challenge of learning how to fit into a team environment and how to sail multihulls is a big motivating factor as he switches gears from the Olympics to the America’s Cup environment.

“The skills of racing and being under pressure is the same, but the boats are completely different. It’s almost like learning a new sport. It’s great to have a new skill set to learn and get into.”