Sir Ben Ainslie will officially launch a campaign to bring the ‘Auld Mug’ back to Britain where it all began more than a century ago, and become the first team from these Isles to win the prestigious showpiece during today’s opening races of the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth.

“That’s the goal and that’s what we have been training for and the guys have done a great job in the gym and in the water,” Ainslie, team principal and skipper of regatta hosts Land Rover BAR, said. “We feel like we are in good shape and now we have to go out and prove that.”

The event will mark the first time a British team has competed in an official America’s Cup race in front of a home crowd since the first race, for the oldest trophy in international sport, took place in the very same waters in 1851.

“For us it is such a special moment because the America’s Cup started here and it’s never come back, and now we’ve got official America’s Cup racing down at Portsmouth, our hometown,” Ainslie, the four times Olympic gold medallist and multiple world and European champion, said. “It is predicted half a million people will be coming down for the four days to watch, so for us to race in front of the home crowd is very, very special.”

As the home team, expectations will be high for Ainslie and crew.

“It’s inevitably high, but that’s great and I’d much rather us being up there being well prepared,” the two times King Edward VII Gold Cup winner said. “When you go out racing you have to put that aside and just focus on the racing and again the preparation is key.

“If we didn’t have good preparation I’d be worried. But we have great preparation and all we can do is go out and race and the result will take care of itself.

“We have trained incredibly hard for this event and we are desperate to get on the water. We really want to have a great result and put on a good show in front of the home crowd, and we’re really looking forward to the racing I think is going to be incredible.”

The four race fleet race regatta will be contested in the one design, foiling AC45F catamaran.

“These boats for the America’s Cup World Series are all exactly the same among the teams so it’s very much about the sailors on the day getting it right and it’s going to be incredibly close,” Ainslie, who won the America’s Cup with Oracle in 2013, said.

“These are all fantastic teams with the best sailors in the world and we really got our work cut out to come out on top. But we will be giving it 100 per cent.”

World and European Finn champion, Giles Scott, who competed with Luna Rossa Challenge for the 34th America’s Cup, will serve as the team’s tactician.

“Giles, as most people know, is our leading Finn sailor who has won pretty much every event for the last three years and is most probably our best hope of a gold medal in Rio next year,” Ainslie said. “He’s a fantastic talent and we are very lucky to have him.”

Scott gave Ainslie the perfect warm-up yesterday, as the British team won one of two practice races.

Land Rover BAR led every leg of the first race, and in the second, Team New Zealand, with Peter Burling at the helm, came from behind to claim victory after a nearly 90 degree wind shift forced the race committee to set a new course.

“We had a gift in the first practice race, we made a very good sail choice,” Ainslie said. “Right before the start we switched to the second lightest headsail which gave us a lot more power downwind.

“It was a good practice session and we are looking forward to tomorrow.”