THE purest barometer of Ben Ainslie's America's Cup success is not in feedback from his INEOS Britannia's billionaire backer Jim Ratcliffe, nor in the warm-up regattas to this year's event.
Instead, it rests on the shoulders of a seven-year-old Wimbledon schoolgirl.
Bellatrix is the team's biggest detractor, and also the elder of Ainslie's two children.
"She's a hard-ass so, if we're not winning, we know about it," he says of the critiques he receives on his return to London from the team's Barcelona base. "People talk about dealing with pressure, but my hardest taskmaster is definitely my daughter.
"She'll be like, 'Daddy, that was embarrassing, what was going on, what's the point, why are you even bothering?' Most of the time it's funny, but every now and then, when you've had a brutal week, you could do with a softer time." With the clock ticking to the America's Cup later this year, Ainslie's multi-million-pound operation has not been without its setbacks, most recently a costly battery fire which put one of its test boats completely out of action.
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