Ainslie's victory came amid a British clean sweep of the podium spots in the Finn class where he was joined by world champion Ed Wright, who took silver, and Giles Scott in bronze position, while SKUD Paralympic duo Alexandra Rickham-Niki Birrell and Laser star Nick Thompson secured Britain's other two Sail Melbourne titles.

With the help of three wins in the nine-race qualifying series, the 33-year-old Ainslie went into today's double-points scoring medal race with a six point lead over Scott, the World Championship bronze medallist and winner of summer's Skandia Sail for Gold World Cup event at Weymouth and Portland last summer.

Wright was just one point behind Scott in third heading in to the final race.

"Ed was going right and Giles was going left," said Ainslie.

"I went with Giles.

"It [the wind] was slowly clocking left but there was a big right hand shift which lifted Ed."

Wright took advantage of the conditions to finish the medal race in second, which boosted him into second place overall, while Scott finished the medal race in third with a fourth place enough to hand Ainslie gold – his first since his return to Finn class racing this year.

The second leg of the 2010-11 ISAF Sailing World Cup series will be the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta from 23-29 January, 2011.

To find out more about the victories of Rickham-Birrell and Thompson click here.


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