Southampton sailing legend Iain Percy expects Lymington’s Sir Ben Ainslie to be “very strong” at the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) event on the Solent this weekend.

The double Olympic champion is team manager for Artemis America’s Cup team, one of the other America’s Cup challengers to team Oracle Team USA’s crown alongside Ainslie’s Land Rover Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR).

Percy, who was born in Southampton and is now based in San Francisco, has been back in home waters ahead of the World Series opener in Portsmouth.

He is not confident about Artemis’s chances.

“We expect Ben Ainslie’s team to be very strong,” Percy said.

“The days we have been here are the only days we have sailed this boat so we are a little bit green with it, while Ben and the French have had nearly a year in a similar boat.

“But in two or three events in it is very much going to come down to a very pure test of sailing, which is exciting.”

Ainslie and team are hoping to be the first British team in the Cup’s 164 year history to win the competition, and will start that quest this weekend in front of a home crowd.

There will be four official races, two each on Saturday and Sunday, with practice taking place tomorrow.

The six teams will battle it out, with the World Series winner receiving a two-point start in the America’s Cup Challenger Series.

The Portsmouth event is one of up to nine World Series events over two years leading up to the final races in Bermuda in 2017.

The next ACWS event is in Gothenburg in August, followed by Bermuda in October.

There is estimated to be around half a million spectators in Portsmouth over the four days of the ACWS.

Percy’s first taste of the America’s Cup was in 2005 with +39 Challenge team, before he joined Artemis in 2012.

The 39-year-old was onboard the Artemis boat in San Francisco alongside his best friend Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, who he’d won Olympic medals with and sailed with since childhood, in 2013 when it capsized.

That incident led to Simpson’s death and, although Percy considered quitting, he knew that is not what Simpson would have wanted.

“It was personally tough and continues to be,” he said. “But I always knew he would have given me a right telling-off if I had suggested I wasn’t going to do something I enjoyed.”