Yachting: Ainslie returns to familiar waters

Ben Ainslie says New Zealand's love of sailing means the Omega Auckland match-racing cup will be a blast. Photo / Brett Phibbs

After a bleak few months training in trying conditions over the European winter, British sailing great Ben Ainslie has relished the chance to have a decent tune-up on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour this week.

The Team Origin skipper arrived in the country with his crew on Monday and has spent the week helping Emirates Team New Zealand put their boats through their paces before the Auckland round of the Louis Vuitton series, which gets under way in just over a week.

The eight teams competing in the event will race in two identical Team NZ yachts - NZL 84 and NZL 92 - which have been fitted out, optimised and rigged after a year in storage.

With the future of the America's Cup looking decidedly brighter now that the bitter dispute between Alinghi and BMW Oracle has been settled on the water, motivation among the syndicates to get back out and race is climbing.

But before the teams take to the water for the Louis Vuitton event, a number of skippers in Auckland for the regatta will first be pitted against one another in the Omega Auckland match-racing cup.

The curtain-raiser event will see Ainslie and nine other sailing greats battle it out in Farr-designed MRX yachts for a prize purse of US$75,000 ($109,000).

Ainslie's crew of four will be made up of fellow Team Origin members and he believes the invitational regatta will provide the perfect opportunity to sharpen their match-racing skills before the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

"It's nothing like racing on the cup boats, but still it's great for working on those relationships between myself and the tactician and the trimmers and obviously it happens so much quicker in the smaller boats," said Ainslie.

Although the Omega match-racing regatta is a new event designed to add an extra competitive element to the Auckland Festival of Sail, it is not a mere exhibition event as far as Ainslie is concerned.

"Kiwis really seem to love their sailing, so any event down here tends to be a big one, so it'll be exciting," said Ainslie.

Ainslie, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, will face off against a number of veteran match-racing skippers including New Zealand's Chris Dickson, Frenchmen Bertrand Pace and Sebastian Col, and Magnus Holmberg of Sweden.

But some of the more anticipated showdowns will be between Ainslie and two of the young guns on the world match-racing tour. The British sailor is ranked third in the world match-racing standings behind New Zealand's Adam Minoprio and 23-year-old Australian Torvar Mirsky and is eager to get one back over the young upstarts.

It must be pointed out, though, that Ainslie competed in just four of the 12 events on the match racing tour last year and would almost certainly be pushing for the top ranking had he sailed in a few more regattas.

However, Ainslie hasn't forgotten about being shown up by Minoprio in the final of the Monsoon Cup late last year - the premier event on the tour calendar.

"We raced against Adam and his team in the final of the Monsoon Cup and they were on fire that week and they came out on top.

"Both [Minoprio and Mirsky's] teams have done fantastically well over the last two seasons so it'll be great to race against them."

The Omega Auckland match racing regatta will be run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and will take place off the Westhaven breakwater.

OMEGA AUCKLAND MATCH-RACING REGATTA

March 2-6, Waitemata Harbour

The line-up:

Ben Ainslie (GBR): Skipper Team Origin, British America's Cup challenger, No 3 in world match-racing championship standings.

Dean Barker (NZL): Skipper Emirates Team New Zealand.

Francesco Bruni (ITA): Skipper Azzurra Sailing Team.

Sebastian Col (FRA): Skipper ALL4ONE French/German challenge, No 7 ranking in the world match-racing championships.

Chris Dickson (NZL): America's Cup veteran back racing after a two-year lay-off.

Magnus Holmberg (SWE): America's Cup (Victory Challenge), previous No 1 in world match-racing.

Karol Jablonski (POL): America's Cup skipper now with Russian Synergy team.

Adam Minoprio (NZL): Winner of the 2009 world match-racing tour.

Torvar Mirsky (AUS): No 2 in world match-racing championship standings.

Bertrand Pace (FRA): America's Cup veteran, former world match-racing champion.