COMPETITION winners received a star-quality boost to their New Year’s resolutions when triple gold medallist Olympian Ben Ainslie gave them a Sailing lesson.

More than a dozen British Airways (BA) staff gathered at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy to gain insight into the sport from Britain’s most successful sailor.

A BA spokesman welcomed the group and said: “My 2012 launched in March last year and we asked people to make a promise to achieve something great in 2012.

“Resolutions ranged from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to campaigning for the Government to change lesson plans.

“You made a promise to take part in a sailing day. My 2012 help by providing expert advice and tips and I can’t think of a better expert than the one we’ve got here today.”

Finn sailor Ainslie, of Lymington, joked that the group were probably regretting their decision on a cold day with ‘hardly any wind and loads of fog.’ He said: “It’s great to have you here, this is where the Olympics is going to be this summer for sailing. Hopefully the conditions will be much better than this.

“This is where it will all happen and for me as a youngster, and my generation of sailors, this is where we did all the training.

“Fifteen to 20 years ago none of us really imagined we’d have the Olympics here.

“It’s a complete thrill to race on home waters where we all grew up and learnt to sail.”

During a question and answer session Ainslie was asked how he handled all the media attention and pressure.

He said: “Really once you’re out racing it’s more about each individual’s desire to be successful and to make the most of all that training.

“We might have pressures from the media but they don’t really come close to your own desires to do well.

“It’s like anything, when you’ve been studying for A-levels or a degree, you really just want to do well and make the most of all the effort you’ve put in.”

Another hot topic was Ainslie’s back injury, which he is recovering from.

He said it was ‘starting to come good now’ and he was looking forward to getting back on the water in Palma, Majorca.

Warren Surtees, new centre manager at Weymouth’s SailLaser sailing school, said: “We’ve got 15 competition winners and quite a few spectators.

“They’re all BA employees, a lot of them are cabin crew and we’re taking them out sailing in Laser Bahias, which can hold up to five people.

“One of the group is already a sailing instructor but he’s pledged to devote a lot of time to teaching kids, another wants to get into racing and one said they would quit smoking.

“It’s great for them to test out the Olympic sailing waters, learn new skills and to give those people who have already sailed on lakes the chance to experience sailing on the sea.”

The event was also attended by Dutch sailing star Marit Bouwmeester, who was crowned world champion in the Laser Radial class last December.