BRITISH Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie was the toast of the yachting world this week he masterminded a remarkable comeback from Oracle Team USA in the America’s Cup.
Amid a week of high drama in San Francisco Bay the Americans fought back from the brink to beat Team New Zealand by 44 seconds in a winner-takes-all finale. The Americans had been trailing 8-1 and their challengers had been on match point. To say the turnaround was dramatic would be an understatement, with many commentators claiming the victory to be among sport’s greatest-ever turnarounds.
For non-sailing fans, the role of tactician may be a mystery, but this week John Derbyshire, racing manager and performance director of the Royal Yachting Association, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe, explained how the 36-year-old Brit helped Oracle to a remarkable victory.
Derbyshire likened the America’s Cup to a game of chess and said Ainslie was the Garry Kasparov of the Oracle team, the grandmaster charged with planning the crowning moves.
“The tactician is one of the three key roles on these bigger boats,” explained Derbyshire.
“Ainslie determines how to respond to another team’s move. For example, if one boat turns away from the wind, he will have to decide when to do the same.
“The tactician is responsible for the boat-on-boat manoeuvres and it’s quite a leadership role.
“He has to think about what the opposition might do and will need the strategist to inform him where the wind is coming from and ensure the helmsman is able to steer as fast as possible, and the rest of the crew need to know what is going on, too.”
Oracle had lost eight of their first 11 races. Larry Ellison’s men were under attack on home waters and, in Ainslie’s words, had a “mountain to climb”. But, then, the team gambled.
In a last throw of the dice, Oracle drafted in Ainslie to replace John Kostecki, a San Francisco native, and although the Briton’s impact was not immediate – Oracle lost their first two races with the Olympian calling the shots – he soon helped reduce the deficit and, 10 victories later, it was checkmate to Ainslie.
“The Americans were beaten until Ben joined the boat,” says Sir Knox-Johnston.
“Ben may be risking his life if he visits New Zealand, but there’s no question it was Ben’s arrival which changed the chemistry completely.”
It certainly seems Ainslie has an alchemist’s touch, combining superbly with skipper James Spithill and strategist Tom Slingsby.
“He clearly has something that makes a difference and it’s that intangible chemistry which seemed to improve the performance of the boat,” says Derbyshire.
“Ben seemed to make every call correctly and it all added up to a fantastic team performance.”
Oracle had a 178-strong crew, each member with a specific task, each with a part to play in the hi-tech multi-million pound programme.
“There will be the specialists like the meteorologists, the sail makers,” reveals Derbyshire. “There are designers and engineers who are from the sailing world but with perhaps aeronautical background, because they’re using solid wing masts rather than soft sails which we’ve previously seen.
“There’s also a large shore team that rigs the boat because getting these masts in and out of the boat requires a crane. Everything is duplicated, pretty much like Formula 1.
“On the boat each team is slightly different, but a boat is usually split into two halves. There’s the afterguard which includes the helmsman who steers, a strategist and the tactician.
“On the other side, people will have a variety of roles, from hoisting and lowering the sails to generating hydraulic power to power the movement of the sails on the wings.”
Ainslie is the first Briton in 110 years to be on board a winning America’s Cup boat and the decorated sailor has now set his sights on winning the competition with a British team.
Wealthy businessman Sir Keith Mills was the last Briton to attempt to bring the Auld Mug back to its ancestral home, establishing Team Origin in 2010 but he pulled the plug a year later once he learnt of Oracle’s plans to use catamarans for the 34th Cup.
Ainslie says Britain has the talent, while both Derbyshire and Knox-Johnston believe the Olympian has the charisma to help fulfil his ambition.
“We could probably produce three or four teams because we’re so strong in sailing,” says Knox-Johnston.
“It’s just a question of getting behind Ben because if anyone can, he can.”
A large crew, the world’s best sailors and high-performances catamarans do not come cheaply, just ask the man bankrolling Oracle, the software billionaire Larry Ellison, who reported spent close to $100m on his quest.
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