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Press release - 11 June 2009 – Buckingham Palace - UK
Britain's triple Olympic gold medallist sailor and CORUM Ambassador, Ben Ainslie, received a CBE today from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (Thursday 11 June 2009), for services to sport at an ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Ben sailed into the record books at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by winning his third successive gold medal, added to his silver medal from Atlanta in 1996 when he was still a teenager. The four medals makes Ben Britain's greatest ever Olympic sailor, but also Britain's most successful solo Olympian having won four successive medals in an individual discipline. Being made a Commander of the British Empire tops a year of honours for the 32 year old. The awards include being named World Sailor of the Year for an unprecedented third time.
“I'm honoured to become Commander of the British Empire, it's an extremely proud moment, when you're out on the water competing in the Olympics you're racing for yourself but a part of you is also doing it for your country, so it's fitting to be recognised in this way. Receiving the CBE from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is also great for my family who have supported me throughout my career. Knowing that I am supported by CORUM and its team around the world brings me feeling that moves me beyond my limits and allows me to tap into my confidence, strength and motivation, and to achieve new successes.Over the next couple of years I will be concentrating on competing in the World Match Racing Tour and looking to get back in the Finn to concentrate on the Olympic circuit in order to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.''
Ben Ainslie will be competing in the annual JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race on Saturday 20th June, sailing against 1,700 other boats and 16,000 competitors.
Ben Ainslie Olympic achievements
Beijing 2008: Gold, Finn single-handed dinghy
Athens 2004: Gold, Finn single-handed dinghy
Sydney 2000: Gold, Laser single-handed dinghy
Atlanta 1996: Silver, Laser single-handed dinghy
Ben Ainslie & CORUM
Antonio Calce, CORUM's CEO, said the following of Ben:
“Ben's maturity, charisma, modesty and determination to succeed reflect CORUM's values perfectly. His feat provides a key message that we share with him. He proves to each of us that when we are driven by passion, great achievements are within reach and that it is a team's combined efforts, solidarity and complementarity that bring victory. Ben is more than just a brand ambassador: he is a very generous person, and we consider him one of CORUM's friends, an integral part of our family who actively participates in our company's success.”
A passionate devotee of sailing and the sea in general, Ben is also a watch connoisseur and collector. He was won over by the Admiral's Cup Tides from CORUM because this model combines both a world-exclusive complication and an indispensable sailing instrument.
For coastal regions with a twice-daily lunar cycle (in which the sea rises and falls every 12 hours and 25 minutes on average), the Admiral's Cup Tides 48 provides all the key information on tides: the lunar cycles and the strength of the tide, an estimation of water levels, the strength of the currents, and the time of the tides. The three different mechanisms composing the tides movement called for around three years of development between 1988 and 1991. In cooperation with the Geneva Astronomical Observatory and the SHOM (Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the French Navy) in Brest, which confirmed its remarkable precision. The CORUM CO-277 Tides movement is an exclusive complicated movement endowed with several functions that are visible on the watch dial through three separate counters. The counter at 12 o'clock indicates the various states of the moon, thereby reproducing its position in relation to the earth and the sun and defining the strengths of the tides that are expressed by coefficients 95-120 and 20-45. When the moon, the earth and the sun are perfectly aligned, the attraction exercised by the earth and the strength of the tides are at their peak. Tides are weaker in other situations. The counter at 6 o'clock indicates the times of low and high tides over a 24-hour period (meaning 2 low tides and 2 high tides per day). The rising and falling tide indications are displayed at 9 o'clock, as well as the intensity of the current. The intensity of the tide is strongest when the hand is lined up with the red line.
As one of the major complications mastered by CORUM, the exclusive Admiral's Cup Tides movement puts the brand right up among the finest names in the watchmaking world.
