Ben Ainslie's Diary

I find it pretty funny that I've been described as 'the killer' on the water. I guess in the past my tactics have been quite aggressive. It's no different from other sports, though; at times you require aggression to be successful. I don't mind if my rivals, namely Giles Scott and Ed Wright, are a little bit scared of me. Most of the time I keep my aggression on the water. There has been the odd occasion when I've unleashed it on shore but that's very rare.

I've spent the past two months working towards June's Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, a big qualifying regatta that took place in Weymouth, where the Olympic sailing events will be held. Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour are second to none so I'm confident they'll be fantastic Olympic venues. Despite strong winds and even stronger competition at Skandia I won and qualified for the Olympic Test Event in August. That's where the focus lies now and everyone is getting fired up because there's only one British Olympic Finn Class spot up for grabs. Far from being over, I feel like the selection process has only just begun.

I'll be 35 at the 2012 Games and some of the guys I'm racing against are quite a bit younger than me, but my experience will be a big advantage. Sailing this boat is a much more physical task than it's been with other boats in the past, so I've had to work hard since I decided to return to Olympic sailing six months ago. It's not been easy and I've needed all that time to return to the top of the fleet, but I'm happy with the results.

Next week I'll be training with the Harlequins rugby squad. Hopefully I can learn a few fitness tricks from the boys. I'm constantly trying to beef up, but I also need to be aerobically fit to be light-footed around the boat. It's a constant battle to consume enough calories and make all the training worthwhile.

On terra firma I've been going to lots of events and award ceremonies with my sponsors. I often seem to end up chatting to Victoria Pendleton [the Olympic cyclist]. She's always very popular on the red carpet and is much more comfortable at the events than I am. She always looks pretty good, which must help. I've never felt more like a fish out of water than when I was at this year's BAFTAs, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Tracey Emin was on my table and I caught up with her after the meal. She kept on trying to whisk me off to dance but I had to keep turning her away. Sadly my moves aren't quite up to scratch.

Last weekend the rugby player Will Greenwood was part of my crew for the Isle of Wight's Round the Island Race. He's an important part of the team and obviously, being one of the best England rugby players, he's a great guy to have on board. There were strong winds so we needed his strength on the yacht. For experience we had the double gold Olympic medallist Shirley Robertson sailing with us. As skipper I'm reasonably bossy, but it's like any kind of racing, you need to do everything you can to win and everyone's got to chip in. (My yacht Keronimo finished seventh in its class.) I'm probably a bit softer on Denise Van Outen, who I've taken out for a sail as part of a cor-porate event. I'd never met her before but it was nice to chat properly out on the water.

I quizzed Sir Steve Redgrave about being an Olympic pin-up over lunch in Henley last week. I always enjoy spending time with him. He told me to ignore the hype and just focus on how I can be as prepared as possible for upcoming regattas. It's reassuring when you speak to someone like Steve, who has so much experience and so many medals behind him, and they endorse your own outlook. It made me feel like I was on the right track.

There's a lot of pressure to qualify for a home Olympics, not just for myself but for my friends and family. Ironically none of them applied for tickets. I think they anticipated that it would be too hard to get any. It appears they were right. If I do qualify it's all about finding out where my weaknesses lie. There's still a lot to be done before I start worrying about my Olympic wardrobe.
Investment management firm J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the title sponsor of Ben Ainslie's Olympic campaign (jpmorganassetmanagement.co.uk)