BEN AINSLIE has teamed up with one of the south's most successful skippers, Adrian Stead, in a bid to bring the Admiral's Cup back to Britain.

The Olympic gold medallist has been named as part of the team to compete in the big boat, the IC45 "Indulgence", when the 2001 Cup is raced in the Solent in July.

The other two British teams will be unveiled over the next few months, but both Ian Walker and Andy Beadsworth are expected to lead the Sydney 40 campaign and the Farr 40 trials, which have attracted nine boats so far and will determine the third Admiral's Cup representative.

Stead, a former Olympic medallist and winner of the five-week 2000 Tour Voile, skippered Mumm 36 Barlo Plastics in the 1999 Admiral's Cup to finish with the best record of any boat in the event, even though Great Britain finished in fifth place.

The addition of helmsman Ainslie, now regarded as one of Britain's best young sailors after his win at the Sydney Olympics, will give them speed, points and hopefully the Cup, said Stead who has never raced with Ainslie before.

"I'm very excited about sailing with Ben.

"He's got such a great talent and being so young has so much more to contribute. I hope I can teach him some things and I'm looking forward to learning from him.

"It is difficult to quantify what he adds to the boat in performance. He is a team player - like a piece in the jigsaw puzzle - and as a team we are very strong.

"We are doing this to win - there is unfinished business after last time. We all learned from our mistakes."

Ainslie, who is strongly rumoured to be involved in Britain's efforts to raise an America's Cup campaign for 2003, has received scores of offers since his Olympic success but said the Admiral's Cup was irresistible.

"Even as a kid, I dreamed of sailing the Admiral's Cup so for me, this is a fantastic opportunity to do some big boat racing," he said.

The IL45 team will feature a number of the current "Indulgence" crew after they came third in the One Ton Cup in Marseille this year.

The boat will be renamed Barlo Plastics and will compete in the IC 45 Mediterranean Winter Series before returning to the Solent.