ONELIFE #33 – American English

FOREWORD
MASTER AND COMMANDER
Growing up in rural Cheshire in the UK a
lot of my family’s friends were farmers, so
from a very early age I thought cars were
Land Rover vehicles – Defender models to
be more accurate. Then of course in the
sailing community so many people use Land
Rover vehicles to tow boats, to get access
to beaches, to launch and recover boats and
then at the end of the day as a place to stash
sails and sodden wetsuits.
I finally bought one of my own last
year, – I managed to get one of the very last
Defender models – just. And sure enough
living on the Isle of Wight now, Georgie, my
wife, and I use it for all those same reasons;
it’s rugged, you can take it on the beaches
and yes, still throw all your wet sailing gear
in there at the end of the day without having
to care too much. Of course it’s a family car
now with the arrival of our daughter Bellatrix
earlier this year.
I’m now leading a British challenger
to win – for the first time in 167 years –
The America’s Cup, the oldest sporting
competition in the world. Cup racing is now
as much about aerodynamics and control
systems as it is about more traditional
marine design and engineering skills. So
when we established a team to challenge
for the Cup we knew we needed those skills
and that they would come from a car maker.
I’m delighted that it’s Land Rover we have
partnered with.
We hope, whether we are successful or
not next year, we’ll use this coming together
of skills to re-ignite marine engineering, boat
building and naval architecture in the UK.
We’ve set up a Trust – The 1851 Trust –
to help do just that.
I’ve been told I was the first person
outside of Land Rover to drive the All-New
Discovery (the team are the stars in the
new ad!). I was blown away by how much
space there was in there, space enough for
the entire crew and our coach, and none of
them are small guys. Or exactly easy to keep
happy for that matter. But I was also blown
away by how Land Rover has evolved its
basic values – designing everything to be as
useful as possible – into something almost
space-age to look at.
The boat Land Rover BAR has developed
– the boat I hope to skipper to victory next
year – comes from the same place. In one
sense it’s absolutely functional, designed-forpurpose,
yet it’s evolved to a level you will
not believe until you see it. I really hope
you will be watching when we take to the
water in Bermuda next year. If nothing else,
I promise it will be spectacular.
Sir Ben Ainslie,
Team Principal and Skipper,
Land Rover BAR
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