Having arrived in Bermuda in the middle of January ahead of the competition, Ben Ainsle Racing spent a week on the island training for the 35th America’s Cup.

Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie joined the team as they trained aboard their two foiling Nacra F20s and enjoyed the much sunnier climes.

This is the first time the team will have trained together in Bermuda for the America’s Cup, having previsouly sailed their Nacra F20s off Port Hamble in the UK.

Speaking about their week-long training camp, Ainslie said: “We had a great training camp out at the America’s Cup venue in Bermuda, it’s been really good for the team to get out on the water, trying to learn about the venue, the wind direction and the wave states in our 20-foot foiling training boats.”

“We’ve learnt a huge amount and can now go back to our design team and start working on developing the final race boat for 2017.

“Bermuda is just the most beautiful island, the people are so warm and friendly and are already really excited about having the America’s Cup here, we are all looking forward to returning”, he added.

BAR’s sailing team manager, Jono Macbeth said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to be in Bermuda on our first winter training camp and we’re just getting stuck in. We have our two foiling 20s with us and the main objective is to get everyone up and foiling. It’s proving to be a fantastic venue.

“I really wanted to make sure that were using our time wisely out here so we are doing two training sessions in the gym and sailing the boats five or six hours every day. There’s really not a huge amount of time for the boys to do anything except eat, train and go sailing.