Ainslie denies gunning for Barker's job

1.20pm

Team New Zealand strategist Ben Ainslie says he wants to develop his ability to steer an America's Cup yacht, but denies his aim is to take skipper Dean Barker's job.

The Briton, a double Olympic champion in different dinghy classes, is part of an international afterguard hired by the syndicate as it prepares to challenge for the Auld Mug in 2007.

Earlier this month, Ainslie got his first taste of proper cup racing when Team NZ won the overall trophy for two warm-up regattas at the cup venue of Valencia.

The syndicate now moves back to Auckland for training over the summer.

Ainslie, in a column in The Times newspaper today, said his goal in the coming months was to develop his steering skills.

"The hard part of this for me is when people try to build this up as me trying to take Dean Barker's job, which is clearly not the case," he said.

"The whole team is based around him being the helmsman and the skipper, so for that to change it would take something remarkable."

Ainslie said what he wanted to do was to learn and to be good enough to be the person to push Barker, so the Aucklander could be the best on the water when racing began.

"I will also have a role sailing as strategist, so somewhere between that and helming is where my ambitions lie," he said.

There would be pressure for him to get results, because "the team is not going to hang around waiting for me".

Ainslie added that, having done all his sailing on his own for 15 years, working in a large team had been a weird feeling and required a lot of trust.

"Certainly there was plenty of that in evidence on the back of the Kiwi boat and everyone worked brilliantly throughout the 2-1/2 weeks," he said of the Spanish regattas.

Ainslie, 27, has three Olympic medals, starting with a Laser silver at the Atlanta Games venue of Savannah in 1996 and going on to take the Laser gold at Sydney four years later.

Earlier this year, in Athens, he won gold in the heavier Finn class. In the same event, Barker finished 13th in what was his first Olympics.

- NZPA