Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. My cousin My castaway this week is the sailor Sir Ben Ainsley.

11 times world and 9 times European champion.

He's also the most successful sailor in Olympic history as he

crossed the finishing line at the London 2012 games winning his fourth gold.

The crowd gave a rousing rendition of Rule Britannia.

Indeed he rules the waves with such a ruthless will to win.

It seems somewhat contradictory that on dry land he comes across as an unassuming bloke from Cornwall.

He was eight when in a duffelcoat and wellies he made his first solo journey in a little wooden boat ever since sailing has been his obsession.

Brave, strong and skilled, yes, but it's his tactical

nouse and maverick streak that sets him apart. In last year's America's Cup

he turned a one-eight defeat into a 9-8 win for the US. Whether he can do the same

for his home team may be his next big challenge. He says the desire to win is still the same as ever. If it wasn't there, that would be a worry.

Motivation has never really been a problem for me. So Ben Innsley, highly motivated then when it comes to winning. I wonder when you're

racing the feeling of wanting to win, how does it physically manifest itself?

Well it's a strange thing because as you said in my

life and most other things I'm not really that aggressive or concerned about winning or

losing but for some reason when I get into a boat, that's all I really care about.

It's sort of a morph into almost a different character.

And I suppose in the past I have scared myself on the odd occasion, but now I'm very focused and determined to try and be the best sailor I possibly can be and whenever I'm out there racing, of course I want to win.

...