Royal date at America’s Cup is blown off course
Long to rain over us, stormy weather stops royal couple seeing America’s Cup racing
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among those whose plans were thwarted yesterday by heavy rain. They arrived in Portsmouth to see Sir Ben Ainslie compete in the America’s Cup World Series but the races were cancelled because of the risks from winds in excess of 30mph.
THEY arrived with hopes of seeing Sir Ben Ainslie sailing to victory in two America’s Cup World Series races, only to be defeated by the British weather.
Torrential rain and 30mph winds forced the abandonment of yesterday’s racing at Portsmouth, though the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge still managed to raise the spirits of spectators.
The Duke and Duchess made no secret of where their loyalties lay, turning up in matching jackets emblazoned with the BAR logo of Ben Ainslie Racing on the front and their royal titles on the back.
The Duchess, a keen sailor, toured the base of Sir Ben’s BAR team, trying out a pair of virtual reality simulator goggles that recreated the sensation of a heaving deck in the midst of an ocean race in 15 knot winds – an experience she laughingly described as “weird”.
Chatting to staff and their families, she disclosed that Prince George, who turned two on Wednesday, actually likes to tell people he is three.
On being introduced to the young son of BAR head coach Rob Wilson, the youngster boldly stepped forward and said: “Hello, Princess, my name is Freddie Wilson.”
His mother, Wendy Maxwell, revealed afterwards: “She asked him how old he was and he said, ‘I’m three’. When I said he is only two, she said, ‘George says that. He thinks that he’s older.’ ”
The Duchess also stopped to chat to several other youngsters, including two-year-old George Mills, asking him if he liked the children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig.
The royal couple were shown a big screen which replays footage of the team’s training sessions, complete with audio. The Duke joked that the film could feature “lots of bleeps”.
Sir Ben, who has won four Olympic gold medals and one silver, said calling off yesterday’s races was the correct decision.
“It was the right call because in those conditions the boats would have capsized and people would have got hurt,” he added. “You can’t mess around with these boats. They are very powerful and if they get out of control there is carnage.”
Having come first and second in Saturday’s two races on the Solent, Sir Ben’s team were named overall winners of the weekend event, beating Emirates Team New Zealand and America’s Cup holders Oracle Team USA. Points collected during the weekend’s opening leg of the America’s Cup World Series help to determine who will next challenge the United States for the Cup, which will be staged in Bermuda in 2017.
The Duchess was at Sir Ben’s side last year when he formally launched a bid to bring the America’s Cup to Britain for the first time since 1851.
She is patron of the Portsmouthbased 1851 Trust, which works to inspire youngsters through sailing and the marine industry.
After a June heatwave, bookmaker Coral has cut the odds of this being the wettest July on record to 2-1.
More showers are forecast for the next few days, with temperatures several degrees below the July average.
‘It was the right call because in those conditions the boats would have capsized and people would have got hurt’
For weeks gardeners scanned the skies, furrowing their brows while others frolicked in the relentless sunshine. Now the weather has taken such a dramatic turn that brown, patchy lawns the nation over are being transformed directly into swamps, with no green and pleasant interlude. This is the British condition – to be supremely concerned with the weather while the weather shows no concern at all for us. It is a mismatched love affair. Many were predicting the hottest summer ever, but now July looks likely to become the wettest on record. We might try to harden our hearts, and affect no affection for the vagaries of our weather. But it’s useless to pretend that we can blow hot and cold. When it comes to matters meteorological, our passion is permanent.