HAMPSHIRE Sailor Ben Ainslie was involved in a confrontation with a television boat at sailing's World Championships today.

The three-time Olympic gold medallist finished race nine second to Holland's Pieter-Jan Postma, but felt impeded by the media boat's wake on the downwind leg.

After the Finn race ended, Lymington-based Ainslie swum over to the offending boat and hauled himself on board to remonstrate with the crew.

Skandia Team GBR's official Twitter account posted this afternoon "reports of an 'assault' are somewhat exaggerated" and Ainslie is now attending a protest hearing in Perth, Australia."

Ainslie said in a statement: "On the final downwind leg of the race, I was hindered by a media boat, the actions of which I felt were seriously impeding my progress in the race,"

"Clearly with it being a World Championship, emotions are running high and in the heat of the moment after the race I boarded the media boat to make my views known to the crew.

"I realise this was an inappropriate course of action and have already apologised to those concerned."

Ainslie's bad day was compounded in race 10, where he was black-flagged at the start yet sailed on with the fleet despite disqualification.