British sailor Ben Ainslie started out as favourite to win the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series at Portsmouth and at the end of the first day of racing on Saturday, he and his Landrover BAR team were overall leaders after dominating the opening two races.
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Sir Ben, who has won four Olympic golds and a silver, was famously employed as a tactician during the last America’s Cup race, helping the US Oracle team overturn an 8-1 deficit to beat New Zealand.
“Building up the whole team – designers, sailors, the boat builders – getting our testing boats out and now having the first America’s Cup World Series here in Portsmouth”.
Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR team leads Emirates Team New Zealand by a single point, the Kiwis posting a win and a third place finish.
The event will mark the first time a British team has competed in an official Americas Cup race in front of a home crowd since the first race, for the oldest trophy in global sport, took place in the very same waters in 1851.
Close to 50,000 fans were cheering Ainslie on from the venue ashore (with many more stacked along the waterfront outside the ticketed venue).
‘We started building the team 18 months ago and we have worked incredibly hard in so many different areas to get to this point.
“That continues all the way through to 2017 so (there’s) a lot of work still to do and we’ve just got to keep our heads down and stay focused”.
“We’re pretty green in these foiling boats so we’re happy to come out of the day in the shape we’re in”. Later they will take to the water to watch the first race of the day then return to dry land to see the second.
The man Burling replaced at Team New Zealand, Dean Barker, is now the CEO and skipper of SoftBank Team Japan. Barker says the new team, sailing together for the first time in Portsmouth, is undergoing a learning process.
They are fourth equal with Team France, nestled in behind Oracle Team USA, who are third after a second and fourth on the testing day for the cup holders.
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The teams now head into “Super Sunday” where two more races will be run, but with double the points up for grabs!
