Sailing’s very own ubermensch Sir Ben Ainslie has every right to be considered the world’s most competitive bloke. Those who knew him as a teenager say he always had just two ambitions: to bag a sackful of Olympic medals, and to win the America’s Cup for Britain. Well he didn’t have much trouble becoming the most successful sailor in Olympic history, with four golds and a silver. The America’s Cup, however – the ultimate challenge for yacht-racers – is proving a bit trickier.
The America’s Cup is pursued by some of the planet’s most steely-eyed sportsmen
You might think this is a preposterous event, bearing little relationship to anything you or I might mean by the word ‘boats’ or ‘sailing’ and pursued by very rich men for indeterminate reasons. Well, there’s some truth in that: it certainly hasn’t much in common with the red-trouser brigades of Cowes or Salcombe. But this is far from the whole story. This is savagely competitive racing, pursued by some of the planet’s most steely-eyed sportsmen, whose futuristic boats reach over 45mph in winds of seven knots. It’s Formula 1 – but at sea.
Do have a glance at the excellent coverage on TNT Sports if you can’t make it out to Barcelona, where the 37th edition of the oldest international competition in any sport is currently being duked out between Team New Zealand and Ainslie’s Britannia. It is a brilliant spectacle: fast, colourful, dramatic and TV-friendly. You also get the chance to hear Ainslie describe a Kiwi commentator who had annoyed him in the most colourful terms.
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Jonathan Sacerdoti
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Currently, Britain’s top yachtie and his team have no answer to the Kiwis, whose superior racing skills have enabled them to build a lead that looks hard to overturn.
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