Ben Ainslie has his sights firmly set on a podium spot for the final ‘million-dollar race’ as he leads his SailGP Team into the first Sail Grand Prix event in Dubai.
Ainslie and his Great Britain SailGP Team returned to the water as the team began training ahead of this weekends Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O – 12 and 13 November.
The team are looking to make something of a comeback this weekend and hunt down a spot on the podium following a challenging event in Cadiz.
Racing takes place in Dubai between from 10:30 hrs GMT – Racing from 11:00 hrs – on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 November.
Ainslie meanwhile said the team’s plan for Dubai is just to ‘keep going’ after being unable to compete in Copenhagen and then finishing fifth overall in Cádiz and third in Saint-Tropez.
They now sit in fourth place, ten points off the leader and Ainslie reitereated the importance of the Dubai event . . .
‘We’ve got our sights firmly set on that end of season podium final, which means we need to come out there strong this weekend to climb back up on the leader board.’
With Dubai taking the 2022/23 series past the half-way point in the global sailing championship, the pressure is on to get a podium spot for the final ‘million-dollar race’ taking place in San Francisco in May 2023.
Ainslie has been busy recently with launching the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup Team’s new T6 (LEQ12 test boat) at their winter base in Palma, Mallorca. And will also take delivery of their new AC40 in November.
As soon as the Dubai SailGP event is over Ainslie will return to Mallorca to rejoin the America’s Cup testing programme as they gather data for the British AC team’s new AC75 . . . which is in design and will start building in April at Carrington Boats in the UK.
Great Britain SailGP Team line-up:
In Dubai the British F50 catamaran will once again be powered by nature and the brute strength of Olympic gold winning rower Matt Gotrel (GBR) and the Isle of Arran’s Neil Hunter (GBR) on the grinding handles.
The wing trim, flight controller and trimmer grinder roles are again retained by Iain Jensen (AUS), Luke Parkinson (GBR / AUS) and Nick Hutton (GBR)
With Hannah Diamond (GBR) re-joining the line-up as strategist following a great race weekend with the team back in Saint- Tropez in September.
Racing takes place in Dubai with the first race at 11:14 hrs GMT on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 November.
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