Ben Ainslie interview

[Music] [Music] so it is August the 15th and we are just days away from the start of the 37th America's Cup cycle first thing to come up will be the preliminary event which starts in just a few days time I've just arrived here in Barcelona I'm going to be here right the way through until the end of October when the cup will have been decided now I've only been here a couple of days but I'm pleased to say My First Media engagement was to be given a tour of the inos Britannia team base I've been here before earlier on this year to have a look but of course now it's getting pretty real plus I also was able to get hold of a few of the key crew members to get a taste of what's going on we kick off with the man at the top Ben [Music] anley good to see you Ben likewise Matt you right I'm very well very well it's um it's funny isn't it this period in the cup because it takes such a long time to get to this stage you go through the routine for years building up to it and now we're just days away from it do you have to sort of pinch yourself to make yourself think Hang on we're about to actually start or does it feel quite natural that come on let's just get on with it no it's pretty it's bit like a marathon really you put it like that you know it's a obviously it's a it's a long old SLO lot of work huge amount of effort I always say it's so hard to explain to people how much effort goes into designing and building and operating these things but no we're you know we're coming into the to the final mile now and and everyone's focused knows what we need to do obviously huge amount of effort going into getting the boat race prepped and you know excitement about that final push is there a balance to be struck though between on the one hand you need everybody needs to appreciate the significance of what's about to happen this is it this is for Real on the other hand you need I guess you need to approach it like we just keep you know sa as race as you train train as your race or whatever the expression is it's it's striking that balance that must be quite tricky yeah and it's a development game of course so we know that history tells us that the teams that are able to keep developing through the competition keep learning keep improving the performance probably going to be the ones that end up on on top at the end so you can't just sort of say right draw a line in the sand the boat is the boat and we go out and just race and it'll be what it'll be we got to still keep developing keep that in the back of our minds so that's a balance you're constantly trying to find But ultimately when you get on the race course you know some point you're Racing for Keeps and you know can't afford to make any mistakes and you got to get decent starts and you got maneuvers you got to be perfect and and and so yeah finding that right balance is key last time around um you had to do an awful lot of development as we know cuz it was a pretty shocking start as as you kept saying at the time it was quite clear that it was how much more confident do you feel now how are you in a much better place now than you were back then yeah we're in a much better place than we were in Orland certainly going into that Christmas race in Oakland I think there's still some areas of our boat I know that we can still make some big jumps in performance and frankly we're going to need to if we're going to win this thing it's I can't speak for the other teams to me it looks like some of the teams have have have been race ready for a while and really performing well others maybe not so much and again that's just going to be that's going to be critical as we go through the next two three weeks you know which teams are making some jumps which teams are are performing well if they' got a if they got a an advantage over the rest how how much faster are they and uh you know you're going to bridge that Gap or you're going to cross over so time will tell you've had a few days out there already now with some official practice racing tell us about that what what have you been doing have they been full on practice races have they been practice starts how do it all work yeah they've been one lappers so yeah you know full on start and then when we mark back down around the Lou gate and and finish and go again hard to take a huge amount from it because it's been in very light airs the start as you'd expect particularly in the lighter airs the starts been critical and the racing that we've done we've done okay we've done pretty well but I wouldn't say that's really gives a a strong feeling on our on our performance necessarily because very little time on the same tack as the other boat um again the Maneuvers be those TS or jibes are being really key so yeah I mean we we've taken a lot from it but I think people observing that I I wouldn't say that's necessarily a really strong guide on the on on the performance you almost sound a bit disappointed that you were hoping for more out of the practice sessions than you than you've actually managed to get yes and no because I depends how you look at it if you if you think you're potentially in a strong spot well do you actually want to do that much racing you know I think there's been a lot of debate amongst the challenging teams you know should we be racing against a Defender ultimately I think you're not going to have any practice racing unless you allow the defender to turn up cuz they're they're the ones mandating it in the first place and I think you can learn a lot from from them as well so it works both ways I think you just have to be very um you know clear about how you want to approach it what what are you looking to learn from it what are you if you're going to hold anything back you know understanding what what that might be and all the the teams will be playing that game to to a certain extent so that's why I S of say well you got you know you always got to keep take it with a pinch of salt because there's a lot more to it underneath it than than MCI going into the preliminary Riata the the the third one but the first in in these boats how much does that matter because on points it doesn't matter at all does it it doesn't count towards the cup towards def uh Challenger selection or anything how important is it I think it's relatively important you're right the points don't count but we're you know rapidly running out of time there isn't really that much opportunity between the end of the prelim and the start of the round Robbins to make that many changes to your boat so if you got a significant issue chances are you're not going to get not going to sort that out and one team's going home on the 8th of September you know that that's going to be pretty brutal and I think we're all there all of the challenges no one's taking that for granted you want to make sure that's not you um so that that's you know that's effectively to answer your question yeah prelim reget is important in of making sure you're on the pace I mean the whole cycle this whole America's Cup cycle um it's about 2 and a half months now isn't it and people say two and a half months but I mean that's one of the shortest ones we've had in quite a while isn't it does it Go flash absolutely and like I said there's really little time between rounds to affect much change to the boat so whereas in previous cups you know we talked about the Christmas race in the last cup we had I think almost a month between the Christmas race and the start of the Challenger Series luckily for us we were able to other than changing the hole of the boat we pretty much changed everything else you know new rig new sales change the foils think we even change the rudder put a boom on the boat you know massive changes and we saw that was a big jump in performance for us got it got got us to being you know somewhat competitive at this time you can't there's no time to make any serious changes like that and and also the class rules have changed that you know the the number of foils that teams are allowed the ability to change you can change between rounds but trying to remeasure is not that simple in the time available so yeah again you you've got to make sure you're you're competitive from the off from your own point of you as as a Helmsman um apart from the obvious in that now you share the helm uh which you didn't last time um how how much has it changed how different is it where you're sitting hanging onto the wheel and pushing the buttons how's your job changed yeah it's really different it's really different you know credit to Luna Roser in the last cup for making that work obviously they've been work they've been taking that approach for a while but the communication's obviously the challenge there CU you're completely blind well relatively blind to what's going on on the other side of the yacht and so that communication with the other Helm is really really critical and you got to make some Split Second decisions and there'll be times when Ashley whoever's telling on that side of the boat they just got to use their own initiative and make that decision and get on with it you can't you haven't got time to have a debate about it so yeah good really good relationship good Communications that's the key to that and as far as um pushing buttons and the data one of the things that seems to have come out of this cycle is that well I say come out of it it's assumptions because we don't know what all the other teams are really doing but it does seem like um the sort of Information Management I guess yeah information man agement among the team has changed isn't it with different people taking on different or addition additional roles does it feel like that is it is is this a different era of how to sail these boats if you're a crew member uh yes and no I you know I can't say exactly what the other teams are doing but my sort of understanding from observing them is some of them are actually quite similar to how they were laid out in Oakland for us it's slightly different not hugely different but slightly different in how how we're running it and you know each the team has their own approach they're making that work you there's a huge amount of effort technology development that goes into the HMI how the cre different crew members can input and controlling the boat and how that all works together and that's that's a big that'll be a big part of the performance of the relative performance of these boats how big a part has the simulator played this time yeah it's huge huge I mean not just in the for for the designers they're coming up with different whole section shapes foil shapes Arrow um Concepts that's a massive part of the simulation but also for us as Sailors getting time in the Sim as we're talking about looking at different control systems for example looking at practicing pre- starts other areas of the race course all that's done on the Sim so it's a massive toour without a decent operating Sim you're serious disadvantage in this game especially because you could only have one boat as well this time I guess that must have 175 obviously we've seen with the ac4s that's been some of the te teams have taking that approach of running two boat programs with the ac4s with with with great success we took a different approach of our test boat and the partnership with Mercedes so there's been some slightly different approaches there but yeah regardless having the the Sim has been whatever approach you taken in that respect having the Sim is really key SE state has been something we've talked about a lot over the last year 18 months since some of the teams have been here would you say overall are people are teams are you getting more used to it or is it still the big sort of curve ball that could come across the course I think it's you're it's a it is a curve ball I mean mother nature could well play a huge part in the outcome here because certain teams will be more competitive in The Big C States than than others and and also different wi ranges uh that's what's always been a challenge with Barcelona with and we've known that since since of course it was selected as the venue but it has make it a really challenge in venue from a design perspective for all of the teams and that'll be fascinating to see how it plays out and would you say o overall the emphasis here I know I've sort of spoken to various teams about this over the last 18 months two years there was a great deal of focus initially about how much faster the boat's going to go but it doesn't seem like the top speed is really the thing here what the thing here is going to be taking off in low wind speed and being reliably staying on your foils and the rest of it would that be a fair assumption yeah May well it's always I mean that's always going to be a key but I think you'll be if we see some racing in the High Teens low 20s I think people observers will be Gob smacked by the performance of these boats particularly upwind not just I'm not just talking about our team all other teams the performance is is mind-blowing I mean you you think how how's that even possible that a sailing yacht can reach numbers like that it's it's really impressive M nice one well thanks very much ben good luck with it all we'll be watching we'll be talking to you again you will do cheers matate [Music]