Giles Scott interview: Being dropped by Ben Ainslie was tough but now I can be my own man

After being deposed as co-helm of Ineos Britannia, the two-time Olympic gold medal-winner is jumping ship to race for Canada

Spare a thought for Giles Scott this week. As the tension ramps up ahead of Britain’s first America’s Cup match for 60 years, the double Olympic champion must be feeling slightly conflicted.
Ineos Britannia’s head of sailing will be desperate to help team and country lift the Auld Mug for the first time, of course. But how he would love to have been on the helm.
Until mid-summer, that was where he was. Scott was only benched by Ben Ainslie at the 11th hour, replaced as co-helm on board Britain’s AC75 by Dylan Fletcher just a few weeks before the action got under way in August.
The demotion came so late in the day he was part of all the promotional materials for the Cup, which must have been doubly galling.
In which context, it was interesting to note, as Ineos Britannia were going toe-to-toe with Luna Rossa in last week’s Louis Vuitton Cup final, another pretty significant bit of news for British sailing was announced. Namely, the fact that Scott, who also helms Britain’s SailGP boat, is to switch to Canada for Season 5 of the global series, which begins in Dubai in November.
Naturally, it set tongues wagging in Spain. Had Scott defected to Canada in protest at his demotion from the Cup boat? Had he and Ainslie fallen out? Was the double Olympic champion about to be usurped by Fletcher on Britain’s SailGP boat too? Might Scott’s move even herald a return for Ainslie on the British F50 catamaran, the four-time Olympic champion having stepped aside for his protege last winter?
Scott smiles. The truth, he insists, is much more boring. “It was a factor, I suppose. I can’t deny that,” he says of the suggestion that his decision to join Canada might have been informed by his benching in the Cup. “The approach did come after that. But it wasn’t the deciding factor. Not at all. It was a consideration at most.”
At a dinner in Barcelona hosted by the new backer of Canada’s SailGP team, biotech millionaire Greg Bailey, Scott is in typically phlegmatic form.
He does not deny that Ainslie’s call, when it came, was an absolute body blow. Scott had been part of the British sailing squads in both Bermuda and Auckland. Having retired from Olympic sailing post-Tokyo he had set his sights on co-helming for Britain in this Cup.
“It wasn’t the nicest of conversations as you can probably imagine,” he recalls of how Ainslie broke the news to him. “I was pretty raw afterwards. But I’d like to think that I’m reasonably stoic and capable of handling things like that, which hopefully I have. Don’t get me wrong. I was freaking gutted. But it was Ben’s call to make and he decided he wanted to sail with Dylan. So yeah, what can you do? Get on with it.”
It was while Scott was still licking his wounds that he got a call from a former Cup colleague, Canada’s incoming CEO Phil Kennard. “It was literally out of the blue,” he says. “Phil told me what was going on with the Canadians. You know, Greg was coming in and this was the plan, and was I interested? And I was like: ‘Well, I’d be stupid to not find out more’. It kind of went from there.”
There was a reason, of course, that Kennard approached Scott – beyond the fact that he is a brilliant sailor.
Scott lived in Canada for much of his childhood. His father John, a sports administrator, spent a period working for the Federal Minister for Amateur Sport in Canada, moving his family over to Ottawa when Scott was one.
“We lived in a place called Chelsea just outside Ottawa,” Scott recalls. “It was great. I mean, a lot of my memories are through VCR tapes and family stories, but I do have fond memories. Skiing in the winter, skating on the local lake, and then swimming in the summer. My older brother was a full French speaker when we left and retained it all. I was too young. I lost it. But the whole family was granted citizenship so I’ve got a Canadian passport, which is cool.”
With Canada only permitted a total of two non-nationals in their third year, Scott’s signing means they have recruited an A-list driver without using up one of their non-national spots. 
After a difficult start joining mid-season – something Scott describes as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in sailing” – he got his straps towards the end of Season 4, finishing on the podium in the last three events including a memorable win in Halifax.
The move makes sense for other reasons, too. Not only is it a “multi-year deal”, there are financial perks for him as well. “Let’s just say I’m incentivised to grow the team, not just on the water,” Scott says.
Ultimately, while Scott will not say it in so many words, it is the chance to step out of Ainslie’s shadow and be the leader of his own team that is probably most attractive to him. Scott has spent his entire career following Ainslie around. He lost out in a bitter selection battle to his friend and rival in 2012. And while Ainslie recruited and groomed him in both America’s Cup and SailGP, he was always his boss. This move should allow Scott to spread his wings.
He leaves with Ainslie’s blessing, the Ineos skipper describing the way Scott has knuckled down post-benching – acting as a mentor to Fletcher, racing them both in the simulator – as “exemplary”. Fletcher, too, has been effusive in his praise for Scott, describing the 37-year-old as “brilliant” and “the best coach we could have”.
Scott smiles. “Whether I’ve been brilliant or not I don’t know,” he says. “I’ve tried to do my bit, that’s for sure. The good thing is that my role was always more than just helming the boat, I suppose. But yeah, I’ve just tried to toughen up. And continued to lead the group in my own little remit.”
Scott says he is anticipating a huge fight with the Kiwis over the coming weeks, beginning with two races on Saturday. He is not sure how Ineos’ improved boat speed and handling will fare against New Zealand’s, or what the defender might have held back for the final. But he insists he is 100 per cent invested in Britain’s success and hopes to be part of their next campaign, too.
“The one thing I am very proud of, well not necessarily proud of, but pleased about, is that I never let it become personal,” he reflects. “Like, me and Dylan are still absolutely fine. He understands the gravity of the situation, not just for him on the positive side, but for me on the negative side.
“He’s doing a good job,” Scott adds. “The results are showing that. And I’m playing my part, albeit not the part I thought I was going to play.
“I suppose the way I think about it is I have invested so much of my life into this goal, I’m not going to throw it all out the window through having a hissy fit, because Ben decided that he wanted to helm with Dylan and not me.
“Of course, I’m human. It hurt. But I’m more bought into the team than my own selfish desires or ego. We all just want to win the Cup now. That’s all that matters.”