J.P.Morgan skipper Ben Ainslie

“Today was a tough race it was quite close racing four boats in it for the win, in some ways the whole fleet because of the points system, It was disappointing not to hang onto the lead but after  abad start we did a really good job to fight back and secure second so I couldn’t be happier with the way the week’s gone really in terms of training and preparation compared with last time around. It’s where we want to be and it gives us a great foundation for the future.

What happened at the start, well we tried to squeeze into a gap and it was a bit tight, fair enough we conceded a penalty so we didn’t have the best start and we could have done a better job. The first beat we really struggled and didn’t get that right and you know that cost us a lot but after that we were fine the boys did a great job and to make gains from the back of the fleet to get fourth, so that was a great come back. Jimmy and his team did a great job today and it’s a shame we weren’t able to match that today but it’s been a great week. Unfortunately today didn’t go our way, it’s the nature of this racing with the points stacked on Super Sunday on the last race.  You have to perform on that final race and Jimmy and his team to their credit did just that, and they won the race and the regatta.  We were struggling a bit at the back of the pack today, but thankfully we got fourth which meant second overall. We would have loved to have won that was our aim going into that race, but overall we’re really happy with the week. We’ve made some massive improvements from the last regatta and there is still a lot we can improve on. It’s been a great week great racing and we’v really enjoyed it . 

I know we have been asked all week what the difference has been from last time, and it is definitely the preparation and time together on the water as a team. This week we had some solid races, we had pretty good starts and the guys just did a fantastic job sailing the boat fast and the boat handling was particularly good. Kyle and the other guys did a great job with the tactical calls, when we did have some bad starts we just dug deep and pulled through. As i’ve said before there is still a lot we can improve on which I think is a nice thing, we’ll go away and look at that for the next event. Overall we had a great series here, the improvements from last time are massive and we know we have the ability to come back and start winning these events so that’s the plan moving forward.”