Ainslie’s embarrassed by Nelson comparisons … but that was one hell of a victory

Ainslie had previously said there were about only four or five people capable of designing the boats for an America’s Cup onslaught.

Since that point, even Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey has been talked of as a possible candidate and Ainslie, a Formula One nut, would love him to be involved. “The idea of him doing it isn’t ludicrous at all,” says Ainslie.

“F1 is predominantly about aerodynamics and that’s the same with the America’s Cup, as well as hydrodynamics. Someone like Adrian Newey would be a huge asset to any America’s Cup team but I don’t know — whether he’s interested or not is another thing.”

The comments suggest with the impending deadline that Newey is not about to jump ship from Red Bull to build one but Ainslie believes the talent is there for a predominantly British operation. “We have fantastic designers in the UK, sailors as well,” he says.

Because of the nature of America’s Cup sailing, the 36-year-old Ainslie has barely had time to draw breath let alone allow himself to grasp the enormity of his achievement.

Amid a plethora of interviews in the aftermath of the victory, he managed some celebrations with his crew members, a weekend in New York with his girlfriend and, perhaps most tellingly, drinks with his close friend, Iain Percy. Ordinarily, that duo for drinks in the early hours of the morning in San Francisco after victory would have been a trio had Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson not lost his life in an accident on the very waters where Ainslie claimed his great triumph.

Simpson had been aboard the Swedish Artemis Racing yacht when it capsized and he was trapped underneath its hull for 10 minutes.

Ainslie, Percy and Simpson grew up together in the sailing fraternity and not a day goes by where Ainslie does not think of his friend.

“It was great to spend some time with Iain after things calmed down,” says Ainslie. “We always talk about Bart when we’re together, we talk about what he would have thought.

“I think he would have liked it. He would have thought it was fantastic, racing that tight and great competition — the way it should have been.”

Ainslie conjured up the personality of his deceased friend in the key moments with Oracle staring down the barrel of one of the biggest whitewashes in America’s Cup history. “I did think about how he would have approached it, he was just so positive and he took that on board a boat,” he says. “Iain’s the same so thinking that helped. I knew I had to be Mr Positive.”

For a sailor more renowned for being Mr Angry in the four Olympic sailing regattas when he has won four golds, it was certainly a personality facelift on the water and one he revelled in.

“Actually, being Mr Positive came to me pretty easily,” he says somewhat surprised. “At that point, I didn’t have anything to lose.”

Ainslie was one of the final throws of the dice made by the Oracle management, brought in to replace John Kostecki with the American team facing a 6-1 deficit.

That first conversation with Kostecki was a difficult one but Ainslie recalls, “He handled it very well,” talking his replacement through getting to grips with a navigation system that Kostecki himself had created.

For the Briton, it was like a “24-hour crash course” but he mastered it. That the turnaround coincided with him being brought into the boat was latched on to by the British media, hence the saviour analogies.

Of that praise, he says: “It’s a little bit embarrassing when people basically say you did it single-handedly when it’s such a team effort. There were 11 people on the boat and 120 behind the scenes. It wasn’t about individuals.”

As for the Nelson comparison, he laughs awkwardly, before adding: “It’s great that Britain has pride in its maritime heritage and that the America’s Cup is part of it.”