Sir Ben Ainsle Photo by Ellen Hoke/ellenhoke.com

At the 8th Annual Leukemia Cup Dinner, hosted by The San Francisco Yacht Club, Olympic sailing legend and America’s Cup hero Sir Ben Ainslie took to the stage in a relaxed conversation with fellow sailor and commentator Gary Jobson.

Naturally, the question came up: Would Ainslie, after Olympic gold and America’s Cup glory, ever consider adding a Round the World race to his résumé?

“No, not really!” Ainslie said with a grin, drawing laughs from the room. He agreed with Jobson that a hot shower at the end of the day is one of life’s simple but crucial pleasures. Still, he shared a personal connection — his father had competed in the very first Whitbread Round the World Race, and also faced the battle of cancer.

“The reason we’re here tonight is I think everyone knows someone — friend or family member — who’s been involved with cancer or suffered from cancer,” said Ainslie.
“It’s obviously a very difficult disease to go through. My father actually suffers from prostate cancer, so I know first-hand what a lot of people here have gone through. It’s a very difficult thing to have to deal with, and so I think it’s amazing that you’re all here tonight raising these funds.”

Later, the conversation turned to Ainslie’s pivotal role in Oracle Team USA’s comeback during the 34th America’s Cup. Jobson asked about the pressure of stepping into a struggling campaign partway through — Oracle was down 1–8 at one point — and what it felt like to be “the change.”

“We were obviously in a pretty difficult situation as a team,” said Ainslie.
“We were in dire straits, and I think all of you here as sailors would know what the sport is like — there’s a lot of different components to it.”

Oracle’s upwind speed wasn’t where it needed to be, so the idea was to bring in a fresh face and a different perspective. Ainslie saw his role not just in terms of sailing but as a morale booster.

“My goal was to try to be Mr. Positive, even though things were looking about as bad as they could be, to try and get some enthusiasm going.”

He pointed out that the AC72s — massive foiling catamarans — meant the 2013 Cup was always going to be a development race. The hope was that Oracle could evolve faster than the competition.

“Ultimately that’s what happened,” he said. “It was definitely a team effort — the designers, the boat builders, the sailors all coming together to make… actually some quite small changes.”

There had been plenty of talk at the time about mysterious tech like the so-called “Herbie” — but Ainslie wasn’t buying into the myth.

“There’s been a lot of talk about Herbies? I don’t even know what a Herbie is,” he laughed.
“But maybe someone here knows. It didn’t have anything to do with us winning the America’s Cup. It was about small changes, and looking at technique on the boat with the sailors and the designers — and ultimately winning some races and getting some confidence.”