S. Africa Crew Team Puts New Face on Sailing

Ian Ainslie, on board Team Shosholoza's racing sloop, stares at the rippling surface of the water, trying to gauge the direction of the wind. As the team's strategist, it is his job to find pockets of air and direct the boat into them.

On land an hour later, talking about the South African children he teaches to sail, he is tugging on his sock and fidgeting in his chair.

"What is really quite gratifying," he said, "is we go to events where most of these competitors are quite wealthy and you have a yacht club set up that is pretty intimidating to a poor kid. But then we go out on the water. And normally we are very good. Normally the kids are very good."

In the mid-'80s, Ainslie was barred from competing in the Olympics. South Africa, then under apartheid, was facing worldwide sanctions. Instead, Ainslie moved to Simon's Town and began teaching math in a local high school.

On the weekends, just for fun, he drove to the area's worst townships and offered to take the children sailing. The lessons grew into a school -- the first one to teach black South Africans to sail. Five of those graduates are now on board Team Shosholoza, Africa's first challenge to the 153-year-old America's Cup Race.

Marcello Burricks is the youngest crewmate. He grew up in one of South Africa's worst ghettos, forced to live there because he was of mixed race. He hung out with gang members and saw men killed in the streets.

At age 8, he was stabbed by a fellow classmate. At 14, he got into a fight with a teacher. Today he travels the world, competing in the most prestigious races.

Sea of Opportunities

Marcello, like the school's other students, was drawn to sailing because it was fun. But those lessons also gave him a greater sense of self-confidence.

Growing up in communities plagued by unemployment and violence, many of the children thought that their futures were limited to the townships. Mastering the ocean has changed that.

For Ainslie, the payoff is clear.