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| Sir Ben Ainsle Photo by Ellen Hoke/ellenhoke.com |
“No, not really!" said Ainslie, quite candidly, agreeing with Jobson that a hot shower at the end of the day is a good thing. He did add however that his Dad competed
in the first-ever Whitbread race...and had also dealt with the difficulties of cancer.
“The reason we’re here tonight is I think everyone knows
someone - friend/family member - who’s been involved with cancer or suffered
from cancer. It’s obviously a very difficult disease to go through. My father
actually suffers from prostate cancer so I know first-hand what a lot of people
here have gone through. It’s a very difficult thing to have to deal with and so
I think it’s amazing that you’re all here tonight and raising these funds.”
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Gary J: Oracle
Team USA was a little bit behind the 8-ball there, digging deeper, and there
was a change. And you were the change, coming on board. How did it feel coming
on a third of the way through the regatta and feeling like you had some
pressure on your shoulders?
Ben A: We were
obviously in a pretty difficult situation as a team. We were in dire straits
and I think all of you here as sailors would know what the sport is like.
There’s a lot of different components to it. So, yeah, we weren’t going
particularly well, our speed wasn’t that good particularly on the upwind legs,
I think the idea was to bring in a fresh face and a different perspective.
My
goal was to try to be Mr. Positive even though things were looking about as bad
as they could be to try and get some enthusiasm going. And of course this
America’s Cup, it was always going to be a development race with a new class of
boat with the AC72 multihulls, foiling and everything that goes with that.
There was always a chance that we could develop faster than the other team and
build some confidence from that. Ultimately that’s what happened. It was
definitely a team effort - the designers, the boat builders, the sailors all
coming together to make some..actually some quite small changes. There’s been a
lot of talk about Herbies? I don’t even know what a Herbie is but maybe someone
else here knows. But it didn’t have anything to do with us winning the
America’s Cup, it was about small changes and looking at technique on the boat
with the sailors and the designers and ultimately winning some races and
getting some confidence.
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| Gary Jobson & Ben Ainslie Photo: Ellen Hoke/ellenhoke.com |
Gary J: Speaking
of confidence, I was in England last summer when you got your 4th
gold medal. You had dug yourself a little hole earlier in the regatta in
Weymouth that you had to dig out of. In the end you had an unbelievable race
when you came through and got the point that you needed and won a gold medal.
The fact that you were able to do that last year, did that give you some
confidence that you could pull it off again this year and at this level in the
America’s Cup
Ben A: They are totally
different challenges. I’ve been in a lot of difficult spots in my career as I
know you have and a lot of great sailors have. Ultimately if you’re going to
put yourself in those positions you’re going to end up in a tough spot from
time to time. I think in this particular instance with this America’s Cup, it
was really a credit to the team. There was no finger pointing, there were no
heated arguments, we were clearly at a disadvantage earlier in the event and
clearly behind speed-wise but we just kept to the task and I guess that’s
really got to be credit to the management with guys like Russell Coutts, Grant
Simmer and Larry Ellison to keep sticking with the team and keep trying to
develop increased performance of the boat. It’s very easy when things are going
wrong to start pointing the finger and even give up early on. I think it was
impressive that the team stuck with it.
Gary J: It was fascinating to
listen to you and Tom Slingsby talk - I think it’s a really good lesson for all
sailors particularly young people that communication makes a difference. Did
you plan that out, because in a Finn you don’t get to talk much to anybody?
Ben A: It was an amazing experiment because when they first put me
on the boat it was really like putting three helmsmen together on the back of
the boat. Jimmy and I had never really sailed together and I’d never sailed
with Tommy either. It was a bit of a gamble for sure. I have to give a lot of
credit to John Kostecki who did a fantastic job of tactician up until that
point and it wasn’t that John had necessarily done anything wrong, it was that
there just needed to be some kind of change to up the atmosphere on the boat
because things were not looking good. John was just amazing. They’d made the
change, he’d already left for home and I called him and said, “Look John, I’m
sorry about this,” and he said, “It’s fine, I want the team to do well, I’ll
come in tomorrow morning and we’ll go through all the software etc.” I hadn’t
even seen the navigational software up until that point because I’d been
steering the other boat. To have that kind of support, I think was just a
measure as to the kind of team it was and especially John despite the
disappointment of not being on the boat and racing.
Gary J: You’ve got to know how he is to race against, and of course
you together had this unbelievable turn-a-round? Is Jimmy Spithill fearless?
Ben A: I’d say so. We all saw what he was like in the press
conferences, right? You guys all had a good crack at him and he came through
that pretty unscathed. He’s a machine, emotionless.
Gary J: What sort of
psychology was going on there at those press conferences?
Ben A: Unless
there were some big changes I didn’t know about, I think he was pulling
everyone’s leg. He was impressive, I think you’re right, he was certainly able
to keep the Kiwis guessing about what was going on. You hear all the stories
about us flying boat builders in from all around the world which was complete
nonsense. I think it worked.
Gary J: The
pressure was on, you started to go fast and you were making good calls. What
was in your mind day after day - it stretched on for a week? What was the
attitude on the boat?
Ben A: I guess in
the end it was potentially a little bit of karma. As you pointed out earlier we
went into the event minus two points for something that involved a different
class of boat, something that was not the America’s Cup and something that was
a complete balls-up. It was a complete lack of communication and a real honest
mistake. We obviously got punished very hard for that and it was right that the
team was made an example but at the same time it was a very harsh penalty. Maybe
that was things just getting evened out a bit. But I certainly felt for the
Kiwis. I sailed for the team for the 2007 Cup and know the guys really well -
Dean, Ray and the rest of the guys. They’re all brilliant guys, great sailors
and it was tough for them to have to go through that. I think the hardest part
for those guys was that they had a whole nation waiting in the wings to bring
the America’s Cup home. The more out team got better and faster it must have
been tough to deal with.
Gary J: When the Kiwis almost capsized, what were you thinking at the time?
Ben A: That was a
real game changer. For most of us on the boat that was the first race where we
actually started being competitive upwind and we actually caught them up on
that upwind leg. For whatever reason they had a bad tack, whether they were
rushed or had a mechanical issue, that’s really what put them in that difficult
position. But certainly for us, that situation there gave us the belief that we
could match them upwind and if we sailed well we could beat them and for our
whole team that was a massive boost.
Gary J: The
Olympic Games in Weymouth, I was there and you were in the news like crazy -
you were one of the superstars of Great Britain. How did you react to that
pressure during the Games?
Ben A: I guess I
didn’t deal with it very well in the beginning because for the first six races
I was beaten by the Danish sailor who sailed incredibly well and I was really -
think I need to go to a sports psychologist and work that out. It was a tough
situation, there was a huge expectation on all of the home athletes to perform.
I think the hardest thing is with past Olympics when you go away to compete,
you’re away from home and all the distractions - you get on with it. When
you’re at home, all of a sudden you have to deal with the expectations of sponsors,
family, friends - there were people I’d never met before who claimed they were
related to me in some way - that’s hard!
Gary J: There’s a
question that’s been gnawing at me for about a month now...who are you going to
sail for in the next America’s Cup?
Ben A: That’s an
easy question - I thought you were going to ask me something difficult. There’s
a lot going on as you know - it’s an interesting period. We need to find out
what happens with the next event what Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison decide they want to do. I think we’ll be happy
being back here in San Francisco. It’s an awesome venue with great hosts. It’s
no secret we’d like to have a British team involved in the Cup. Having said
that, as we all know, it’s a big boys game. You can’t go into it without the
right level of funds - you have to have the team with the wherewithal to win
otherwise there’s no point. You’re wasting everyone’s time. We’re going to
decide in the next couple of weeks if we can get that together so things are
moving along quite quickly and hopefully that can be the case.
Gary J: Is it scary coming into the leeward mark at 45
knots?
Ben A: It is a bit dodgy at times, yeah. The funny thing was
we had a lot of software and I had a tablet in the life jacket to help with
navigation and as you all know everyone around the world got into the sailing.
I was getting messages from around the world from everyone saying, “Finally I
can understand what sailing is about, it’s amazing.” Also, I was getting
messages from friends and family at home saying, “This is ridiculous, we’re
trying to get our kids to sleep and the racing’s on at 10-11pm and the kids
wont go to bed.” I had a message from my nephew who is 8 years old. He said,
“Uncle Ben, the racing’s really fantastic but I don’t understand why you keep
opening your life jacket and you’re looking for sweets.”
Gary J: I understand
very early on that both John Kostecki and Jimmy fell overboard. Did you ever
fall overboard?
Ben A: I very
nearly fell overboard in training when I was steering the boat. The forces on
the boat are amazing. We had designers who went out on the boat and they hadn’t
been on the boat much before. If they were in the wrong spot and not holding
onto anything when we were turning upwind, they’d literally go flying off the
boat. So we did lose quite a few people off the boat. It’s easily done and we
had some scary moments and I can say they were scary as we obviously know what happened
to the Artemis team and to Andrew Simpson who was one of my best mates in the
world. The America’s Cup was great but I think the way that the America’s Cup
and the sailing community dealt with that was fantastic.
Gary J: Tell us a little bit about Larry Ellison from your
perspective?
Ben A: The times I’ve known Larry Ellison he’s been very
charming, very approachable, very knowledgeable about sailing. I think he’s
clearly a very busy man. We saw him as a team perhaps three or four times
during the whole 12 months I was with the team. I know he kept in regular
contact with Russell Coutts and was clearly up on what was going on with the
team, certainly he was out there everyday supporting the team - on the phone a
lot to Russell during the races - he’s on it, he knows what’s going on. Certainly
towards the end of the event he gave up his whole business week at Oracle World
which must be one of Larry’s biggest weeks of the year work-wise, he gave it
all up to support us which was fantastic. Certainly this whole thing that we’ve
seen with the America’s Cup - yes, there’s been a lot of criticism, yes, none
of us knew where this would really end up but we were fortunate that the event
ended up the success that it was but we shouldn’t forget that it was really
Larry Ellison and Russell Coutt’s vision to make it happen. The TV production
in particular was stunning.
Gary J: I think you should sail for Great Britain and come challenge here. You could be the enemies but it could be exciting and the British have had such a long unsuccessful history in the America’s Cup that you could be the guy to turn it around!
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| Gary Jobson, John Walters (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society President/CEO, Sir Ben Ainslie, & SFYC Leukemia Cup Chair Tom Perkins. Photo Ellen Hoke/ellenhoke.com |
