Yachting: A champion in reserve

Ben Ainslie (centre) gave up his place as a strategist on Team New Zealand's race boat working with Dean Barker (left) and tactician Terry Hutchinson to be helmsman of the No 2 boat. Picture / ACM

As Ben Ainslie tells it, America's Cup Team New Zealand chief Grant Dalton came out on the wrong side of a $1000 bet that champion golfer Michael Campbell, out on the water for a sail with the team, couldn't hit a chase boat with a golf shot.

Campbell was showing his golfing prowess while on the water. Ainslie, the Briton sailing for Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup campaign, uses the tale to demonstrate how the Cup galvanises New Zealand. "We had Michael out on the boat in Auckland, hitting a few balls off the bow. Our chase boat was about 150m away and Grant bet Campbell $1000 that he couldn't hit the boat.

"So he drilled it, not like a normal golf shot, only about 10m above the water. The guys on the chase boat were like, 'Oh shit' - and it went straight into the side of them. It was so funny."

I met Ainslie in Valencia, where the team is based most of the time. They are now in Auckland to fine-tune the boat but will be back in Spain for Christmas. He showed me round the impressive Team NZ base, where the soft furnishings, wood and even electricity sockets have been imported from New Zealand to make everyone, except perhaps him, feel at home.

Not that such expenditure counts as particularly lavish in the big-spending world of America's Cup.

Ainslie pointed out the base of rival team Oracle and mentioned, without any discernible envy, that it has escalators, a crèche and even a cinema.

Not yet 30, Ainslie was only 19 when he won a silver medal in a Laser at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. That was followed by gold in Sydney in 2000 and gold again, in the Finn class, in Athens in 2004, making him one of the finest racers of single-handed sailing boats Britain has ever produced.

This begs the question: Why, instead of carefully plotting further Olympic success at Beijing in 2008, has he signed away three years of his life in pursuit of glory for New Zealand - and not even as a first-team player?

In Team New Zealand's attempt to repeat its 1995 success in the America's Cup, Ainslie is helmsman on the reserve boat.

He concedes that, to outsiders, it must look strange for such an accomplished sailor to have settled for a job on the reserve boat. "I was supposed to be on the race boat as a strategist," he explained, "but it had always been my goal to be a helmsman, whose main responsibility is to make the thing go as fast as possible.

"You're the guy on the wheel, the guy who ultimately decides what happens. So I had to give up my space on the race boat. We always go sailing with two boats and we need a back-up in every position."

There is, he added, a friendly rivalry between him and Dean Barker, the first-choice helmsman. "I've known him since I went sailing in New Zealand when I was 16 and he was a bit of a local hero. We're good friends. But at the same time, he knows that I'm the only person who can take his job away from him."

As for the reason he has temporarily turned his back on smaller-scale vessels, the explanation is simple: "My childhood dream was to win an Olympic gold medal and the America's Cup. I've done one of those things, now I'm trying to do the other."

In an ideal world, Ainslie would be spearheading a British campaign to win the America's Cup - but there isn't one, which is why he has embraced the Kiwi cause. It is a cause, moreover, which engages the entire nation. If Team New Zealand were to win the America's Cup, the ripple effect would be extraordinary, far more powerful than in Britain.

Ainslie is an engagingly modest man, the first to acknowledge the huge collective effort involved in the America's Cup is a far cry from the kind of sailing in which he made his name.

"It's like the difference between karting and Formula One. America's Cup is about technology, design and sponsorship, as well as talent."

But more individual challenges lie ahead. "I'm very keen to be in Beijing," he said. "The biggest issue is qualifying, because there's only one spot per nation per class and it's hard to find time to fit in the training."

When he went to China in August and raced a Finn in a pre-Olympic test, having scarcely been in the boat for months, he blitzed the opposition. He believes his America's Cup experience has helped him as a sailor.

There were 12 teams beavering away in Valencia when I visited, including Cup holder Alinghi. The remaining 11 were fighting for the right to challenge Alinghi next year and, at the moment, Team New Zealand are in pole position. So Ainslie is on track to add the America's Cup to his Olympic medals and, if it must be as back-up, so be it.

It is single-mindedness, not single-handedness, that counts in America's Cup. Ainslie is respected by his team-mates but held in no greater esteem than anyone else.

"The fact that I've done well in smaller boats really doesn't count for all that much," he said. I challenge his choice of words - two Olympic golds and a silver does not equate to "done well". He smiles modestly.

"Yes, but this takes time to learn. We have a coach called Rod Davis, an America's Cup legend. This is his eighth one. And he's taught me so much, I've avoided so many pitfalls through his guidance."

Meanwhile, Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth says he hopes to face Italian challenger Luna Rossa, rather than Team New Zealand, in next year's competition, ensuring the trophy stays in Europe. "I think it's been good for the Cup to be in Europe. It will be nice for it to stay in Europe so it would be nice to face Luna Rossa," Butterworth told the Associated Press.

Luna Rossa Challenge, which lost to Team New Zealand in the 2000 America's Cup, is seen as the strongest of the European challengers.

Butterworth took over as skipper of Alinghi, bankrolled by Swiss biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, following the firing of Russell Coutts in 2004.

Butterworth identified Luna Rossa, San Francisco-based BMW Oracle Racing and Team New Zealand as front-runners for the challenge to Alinghi next year.

"Oracle is a pretty tough crew and they will be tough right to the end. Luna Rossa have a good sailing squad but whether they will be able to get their boats to the end remains to be seen. And Team New Zealand just carry on as usual."

Butterworth said the Alinghi crew had spent much of their time testing their new SUI91 yacht against SUI64, the boat which won the America's Cup in Auckland in 2003.

The crew is expecting to take delivery of another new yacht in March and they can choose to sail either of the new vessels in the competition.

- INDEPENDENT