America's Cup: Sir Ainslie with a royal tailwind

She has sailed in the past and is a big fan of the British America's Cup campaign Land Rover BAR: Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and wife of the British Prince William. Today she once again visited the headquarters of the British Cup Hunters in Portsmouth, where she inaugurated the new "Tech Deck" training centre and then completed a training lap on the "T1" training projectile. The sporty mother of two also took the controls and enjoyed the "flying lesson" at speeds of up to 33 knots. The ambassador of British sailing does not usually have many appointments with such a sporting flavour. Knight Ainslie gave Kate verbal flowers for her efforts: "It was fantastic to have our royal patron on board today during training on the Solent. We put her at the helm and flew over the water at 33 knots on the America's Cup World Series race course off Portsmouth. You quickly realise that she has already sailed a lot. She felt right at home on board."

The royal patron of the 1851 Trust - and thus of the charitable activities of Team Land Rover BAR - met Sir Ben Ainslie, Sir Keith Mills and their team at the British headquarters in Portsmouth. With the help of the state-of-the-art education centre and facilities they have inaugurated, young people will be introduced to the boats, crew and technology in an exciting and educational way that will help the British project to fly and win the America's Cup. Four-time Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie and his crew want to bring the most important trophy in international sailing back to its roots in Great Britain for the first time in its 165-year history and are already regarded as one of the most promising challengers in the 35th America's Cup.

The focus of the education centre, whose units have been adapted from school content in the UK education system and are designed to spark students' curiosity and develop their talents, is on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The STEMcrew programmes are also available online and are free to teachers who want to use America's Cup themes to delve deeper into the above areas in the classroom. Yacht design and racing tactics are among the topics that can be used for scientific work.