Olympic hero Ben Ainslie named world sailor of year for record fourth time The award, presented to him at a ceremony in Dublin as part of ISAF's annual conference, caps a memorable year for the 35 year-old whose duel with the "Great Dane" Jonas Hogh-Christensen in Weymouth was one of the highlights of this summer's Olympics. Ainslie became the most successful sailor in Games history when he fought back from a difficult start in the Finn class to claim his fifth Olympic medal, and fourth successive gold, in a nail-biting medal race. "It is a huge honour, especially for everyone who has helped me," Ainslie said of the award. "People see the individual but it was really recognition for all the people who supported me. It was also an incredible line-up this year with all the Australians - Mat Belcher, Malcolm Page, Tom Slingsby, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen [Olympic and World Champions in the 470, Laser and 49er classes] - and France's record-breaking around-the-world sailor Loïck Peyron. It was very cool to be included in that company. A few fans on social media recalled Ainslie's disqualification from last year's ISAF world championship in Perth, when the Briton boarded a media boat in a fury after he felt it had impeded him, accusing the panel of having short memories. "I made a point of bringing that up [in my speech]," Ainslie said. It was a mistake and we all make them. But I wanted to say how grateful I was to ISAF for the way in which they handled it. Also on the agenda in Dublin were decisions over which classes should be included at Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics, as well as the election of a new president and Ainslie has urged the ISAF that the sport is at a crucial juncture in his history. "Sailing is going through a period of commercialisation and it is crucial that we get the direction right," Ainslie said. We must find the right balance between attracting spectators and preserving the integrity of the competition. We've got to be careful it doesn't just become a five-minute sprint around tiny courses where the result can be a fluke. Ainslie returns to San Francisco on Friday where he is training with his new America's Cup team JP Morgan BAR, while at the same time working with defending champions Oracle Team USA ahead of the defence of their title next year. China's laser radial Olympic champion Lijia Xu was named ISAF's female world sailor of the year.