Ainslie to discuss British team
Four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie is to hold talks within "a matter of weeks" over the possibility of a British entry into the America's Cup.
Ainslie was the strategist for Oracle Team USA as they remarkably recovered from 8-1 down to beat Team New Zealand 9-8 and win this year's event in San Francisco Bay.
He spoke in the aftermath about his wish to repeat his victory with a British team but emphasised on Sunday that there is no time to waste if he is to make that dream a reality.
"It's a matter of weeks, literally," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme.
"I'm heading back to the UK on Monday, I've got some key meetings with some of these people and we'll talk pretty honestly about whether we think it's realistic to get a campaign together.
"None of us want to do it unless we've got a good shot of winning it. Otherwise, we're just wasting everyone's time."
There has not been a British victory in the competition's 162-year history and 36-year-old Ainslie acknowledges investment is needed if he is to help change that.
"It's the cost of securing the talent," he said.
"It's a relatively small world, the America's Cup world, and there are probably four or five guys out there who can design a winning boat. If you don't have one of those guys then realistically, you are probably not going to win, and obviously the key sailors as well."
Ainslie was involved along with millionaire entrepreneur Sir Keith Mills in a prospective British entry for this year's event.
Mills, though, pulled his funding out of the project over safety concerns - which were sadly borne out by the death of Ainslie's fellow British Olympian Andrew Simpson after Sweden's Artemis Racing Team, of which he was a part, capsized during training.
"He proved to be right, the boats are dangerous," said Ainslie. "Tragically we saw that with the loss of Andrew Simpson, which was just the most terrible time for all of us involved. The whole sailing world was rocked by that."
It was suggested to Ainslie that any prospective British boat in the competition could be named 'Bart' - Simpson's nickname, after the cartoon character - and he said: "That wouldn't be a bad start, would it?
"We (Team USA) thought that maybe Bart was looking down on us the other day, we were 8-1 down and we needed a bit of inspiration and I'm sure he played his part."
