“[They realise] that it’s not about gin and tonics on the aft-deck at Cowes week.”If ever Ainslie was seduced into a mood of complacency, one particular memory ensures that he maintains his sense of equilibrium. It was just after the 1996 Olympics, when the double-handed boat he was sailing, together with Iain Percy, off Hayling Island was involved in a collision with a faster, larger craft “It [his boat] broke apart,” says Ainslie “We had to be rescued by the RNLI. As we were towed past the Sailing Club, which is right on the beach, everybody was clapping and cheering. That was definitely the most embarrassing experience of my life.”Eight years on, Ainslie is seeking one of the most enriching performances of his career. “My mother was going to do the race as well, but became pregnant with my sister, Fleur.

Mum and dad were both really keen sailors and it was natural that they wanted me to get involved.”Little could his parents have imagined that by 27 their son would have twice been named World Sailor of the Year. “After that, we had lots of great family holidays on her, cruising down the French coast.” Ainslie Snr had skippered a boat to victory in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973. “My parents [Roddy and Sue] had bought a boat, a 40-footer, in Ireland, and we sailed it across the Irish Sea to Liverpool, and then up the Manchester Ship Canal to be refitted,” he recalls. It has been a virtually seamless transition for this talisman of a Great Britain squad from which significant feats are expected this month.Some optimists suggest results could prove even better than the Sydney tally of three golds in the single-handed classes – for Ainslie, Iain Percy and Shirley Robertson – and two silvers. This time, six golds are not out of the question in a sport where the preparation, at international level, is rigorous, the organisation and back-up highly professional.Such is his affinity with water, you gain the impression that Ainslie, 27, was born more sea mammal than human. Perhaps, appropriately, his Swedish girlfriend, Boel, is a marine biologist.The Macclesfield-born yachtsman, whose family moved to Cornwall, first discovered himself “before the mast” at the age of four.

It would be hard to get that purely through commercial sponsorship. You’d need a sugar daddy as well who’s really prepared to go for it.”Another Olympic gold can only enhance those aspirations. Since switching boats, Ainslie has secured three consecutive world championships in the class. The latest, at Rio de Janeiro in April, was the 15th major gold medal of his career.