TRIPLE Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie is star attraction today, Friday, August 26, at the Dartmouth Regatta – and you can watch all the action online.

Ainslie, who won sailing gold medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, will be taking part in the J/109 European Championship in J/109, Jet, chartered by his title sponsors, JP Morgan Asset Management.

His excellence on the water will be broadcast and screened on http://www.livestream.com/sailingmovies">www.livestream.com/sailingmovies both during and after the event.

This will take place between 10.45am and 2pm, weather permitting.

It is also hoped that various pubs and other venues in Dartmouth, which were not confirmed at the time of going to press, will be broadcasting Ainslie's aquatic adventures.

Ainslie will also be presenting Thursday's racing prizes on Friday evening at the Royal Dart Yacht Club (RDYC) in Kingswear, which hosts the Regatta each year.

In Friday's racing, the JP Morgan team will partly crew the boat with clients and Ainslie will skipper her.

The J/109 European Championship is a major event on the sailing calendar and the fact that Dartmouth Regatta week has been chosen as the venue is a huge boost for the town.

The championship comes hot on the heels of the J/80 Nationals, which took place in the port in June this year and will also be held there in May 2012.

In a further coup for the town, as publicised in this newspaper recently, it will also hold the J/80 World Championships in June, which will be hosted by Britannia Royal Naval College.

Dartmouth is attracting some top-class racing events and the RDYC has shown it has what it takes to be an efficient organiser and popular host of major sailing events.

Seventeen J/109s have entered the European Championship, including David and Kirsty Apthorp's J-Dream, which won the National Championship in Weymouth in June this year and Adam and Helen Wright's Velvet Elvis which came second.

Both boats are regular competitors at Dartmouth Regatta.

Viewers of Friday's broadcast, which is being run for the first time this year thanks to Steve Mittler, a director of Baltic Wharf boatyard in Totnes, should be advised that it is a trial event and therefore viewing may be restricted.

If you can plug your computer into a TV, this would help as you would get a bigger screen.

To find out how your screen can be connected to the broadcast, email Steve Mittler at [email protected]">[email protected], or call him on 07974763492.

The JRSC and RDYC would like to thank all the sponsors who make Dartmouth Week a success: The Port of Dartmouth; Baltic Wharf Boatyard; Henri Lloyd; Dart Marina Hotel; Darthaven Marina; Noss Marina; Atlantic Spars; Pedros Yacht Services; Roach Carpenters; Dart Harbour; Towergate Marton; Charles Head and Son; Paul Barclay; Carlsberg; Thatchers Cider; Stags Waterside; Mount Gay Rum; Ravenspring; Key Yachting Ltd; The Coastal House and Bolle Marine.