There were celebrations at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as three-time Olympic Gold medalist Ben Ainslie visited to launch the 2012 Falmouth Finn Festival.

Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, who have just secured sponsorship from JP Morgan Asset Management for the event, will host the Finn Festival in May next year.

It will see 200 sailors compete, including many who will feature in the Olympics later that summer.

The festival will include the Finn Gold Cup - a competition Ainslie knows well having won the event five times.

He admits it will be exciting for Falmouth when the competition arrives next summer.

“Having a major world championship down here, I think, is fantastic news for Falmouth. For me it’s great to come back to where I learnt to sail. To race in such a big event, in what is effectively home waters, I can’t say how exciting that is.

“The interesting thing is it is two months before the Olympic Games so you are going to have all the best sailors in the world competing; wanting to do well, wanting to show good form.

“So it will be a very big deal in terms of the racing and I think they will be a lot of interest from the media in terms of the results and who is doing what in the lead up to the Olympics.”

For a full report see this week's Falmouth Packet.