http://www.boatinternational.com | June 2017 http://www.boatinternational.com | June 2017
BOAT LIFE BOAT LIFE
PHOTOGRAPHS: HARRY KENNEY-HERBERT; ALAMY; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
READ GEORGIE’S
AMERICA’S CUP DIARY
boatinternational.com/
# georgieainslie
“We are 100 miles
an hour all the time”
As you’d expect of the woman behind the man leading Britain’s
America’s Cup challenge, our guest editor Georgie Ainslie lives
life at full tilt. Stewart Campbell tries to keep up with her
G
eorgie Ainslie would obviously have
preferred it if her honeymoon hadn’t
ended up as headline news, but when
you’re married to the world’s most famous
sailor – and when your boat almost collides
with an island – you’re going to generate a few
column inches.
It was in the second week of Ben and
Georgie’s honeymoon in the BVIs aboard
their 20 metre sloop Rita that their in-mast
furling system broke off Virgin Gorda. “We
had the sail stuck half in and half out,” Georgie
remembers, “and we were heading, with some
pace, towards the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.”
Unable to fully furl the mainsail, and with
winds picking up, it became “like a really slow
motion version of the movie Speed”, Georgie
Bremont’s brace for
the America’s Cup
Watch and sailing aficionados
will be coveting the new
Bremont AC35. The rose gold
watch is being made in an
extremely limited run of 35 to
mark the fact that this is the
35th America’s Cup. “It houses
our proprietary movement and
the elegant dial features a
subtle motif of the Auld Mug
trophy, apparently the oldest
trophy in international sport,
with beautiful blued hands set
on top,” says Bremont
co-founder Giles English.
This chicly understated design
is inspired by the legendary
America’s Cup J Class yachts
of the 1930s – the golden age
of J Class sailing.
Meanwhile, the Regatta AC
II is Bremont’s new classic
sailing chronograph and
totally built for purpose, with a
countdown function for racing.
This piece has a slightly larger
run of 135 pieces and comes
in stainless steel.
Bremont AC35, in 18kt rose
gold, £16,995; Bremont Regatta
AC II, in coated stainless steel,
£4,895; bremont.com
The Regatta AC II,
left, and the AC35
says. “I played the role of Sandra Bullock and
tried to steer the boat as steady as I could, while
three or four guys from Necker Island were
trying to help Ben cut the sail down.”
Disaster was averted but not before word
was leaked (by none other
than Richard Branson) and
newspapers the world over
had the story – “Ainslies
rescued by Branson!”
Fortunately, though, this
is one couple used to the
spotlight: Ben, the four time
Olympic gold medallist and
America’s Cup winner; and Georgie, one of the
biggest names in sports broadcasting.
Things haven’t become any less crazy
for the couple since then. In the three years
they’ve been together, they’ve married, moved
countries twice, changed houses three times
and had a beautiful baby girl – Bellatrix. Then
there was the small matter of launching an
America’s Cup campaign, the best funded, best
prepared tilt at the Auld Mug in the history
of UK sailing. “Sometimes Ben will turn to
me and say ‘can we just stop?’,” Georgie says,
“because we are 100 miles an hour all the time.”
Relentlessness is a life philosophy for
Georgie, a woman who’s never just dipped a
toe into anything – it’s both feet or nothing.
She started her career as a runner on morning
television programme GMTV and worked
her way up the production ranks until the
opportunity arose to do some on-air work at
the Cannes Film Festival. “I found out being
in front of the camera was something I really
wanted to have a go at.” She cobbled together
a showreel and sent it round, with one copy
ending up on the right desk at Sky Sports,
which was launching an audacious live sports
news channel and was looking for talent.
Georgie got the gig, becoming
one of the first presenters on
the new Sky Sports News.
She earned her live
television stripes at Sky.
“From very early on I was
broadcasting from the US
Open, Celtic Manor during
the Ryder Cup; we were doing
Wimbledon reports and broadcasts from
the Champions League final.” She began
presenting Sky’s Formula One coverage in
2013, but struggled with the demands. “When
you sign up for something like Formula One,
you effectively sign off on your life for that
time. You spend six months of the year in a
hotel room, which is great if that’s what you
want, but I wanted to get married and start
a family.”
She met Ben the same year. Her
friend and fellow Sky TV presenter
Sarah-Jane Mee took her to an event
in East London, where she found
herself sitting at his table. “We literally
did have that moment where you look
across the table and somebody catches
your eye and you think ‘crikey, this
could actually be something’.” They
became a couple shortly after but
were dragged apart by an unexpected
job offer from the US for Georgie
to co-present a sports talk show
with Regis Philbin, and by Ben
signing up with Oracle Team
USA for the 2013 America’s Cup
in San Francisco.
Georgie was live on air on
24 September that year,
watching a muted monitor
as Ben hauled Oracle back
into contention for the Cup,
bringing the scores level at 8-8.
“It was the hardest broadcast
I’ve ever had to do. I just had to
keep it together, while keeping
one eye on what was going on.”
She wasn’t going to miss the final day’s racing
and flew 2,500 miles with her parents across
America to watch Ben help take Oracle Team
USA to victory – one of the greatest comebacks
in the history of sport. She was back on air in
New York the next day.
In these last mad weeks before the America’s
Cup finals in Bermuda, Georgie is right back
in the middle of the maelstrom, this time with
Bellatrix, who arrived in July 2016. Georgie’s
is not only a supporting role – she does regular
Facebook Live presentations from the team’s
camp in Bermuda and is a key part of the 1851
Trust, Land Rover BAR’s charitable arm. She’s
also about to start the 1851 Club, “which is a
group of people that will support and help us
fund various projects in the name of the Trust
“I’ve always been the
sort of person who likes
to have about
a million things on the
go at once”
that will help bring kids forward,
whether it be in sailing boats or
within the technology arena”. Then
there’s her role at the head of the
considerable Land Rover BAR
family, “helping wives and families
feel like they’re part of the action”.
Wife, mother, television
presenter, charity patron and now
guest editor of Boat International –
“there are a lot of plates I’m currently
spinning!” she says. “I’ve always
been the sort of person who likes to
have about a million things on the go at once.”
But she’s ready to apply the brakes when the
America’s Cup concludes in late June. Whether
the Ainslies come home with the Cup or not,
they’re both looking forward to returning
to their home on the Isle of Wight in July for
Bellatrix’s first birthday.
“Hopefully we’ll bring a bit of the Bermuda
sunshine with us,” she says. “And after that, I
don’t really care – because we’re going on holiday
for a very long time!” B
Richard
Branson,
below right,
and three of
his Necker
Island staff,
who helped
to rescue
Georgie and
Ben Ainslie
Clockwise
from top
left: the
Land Rover
BAR team’s
base in
Portsmouth;
Georgie in
charity mode;
the Ainslies on
board Rita
“We literally did
have that moment
where you look
across a table and
somebody catches
your eye and you
think ‘crikey’”
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