The three-time Olympic gold medallist was left in 11th place and will not feature in the medal race tomorrow.

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) said in a statement that Ainslie boarded the media boat to voice his unhappiness at the boat driver's actions after his progress was impeded on the final downwind leg of race nine.

He had confronted the cameraman aboard the boat after being angered by the vessel getting too close to the race and creating a wash that he felt helped one of his rivals.

He argued with the skipper of the boat, grabbed the cameraman, then dived back into the water and swam back to his dinghy.

A jury hearing tonight found fault from both parties, but disqualified Ainslie from both of the day's races for gross misconduct, which meant he was ruled out of tomorrow's medal races and denied the opportunity to add to his five world titles. 

Under rule 69, they could, technically, have imposed a two-year ban on him which would have kept him out of next year's Olympics, an event for which he has already been selected.

The 34-year-old, twice an Olympic champion in the Finn and once in the Laser dinghy, apologised for his actions.

"I over-reacted to what I thought was a situation where I felt my performance was being severely hindered," said Ainslie, whose achievements in Beijing in 2008 were compared by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge to Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

"I'm very thankful that everyone involved has taken it how it was - as something which was blown out of proportion in terms of what actually happened.

"We've all apologised to each other and are looking forward to moving on."

Ainslie added that he was still disappointed to be disqualified, pointing out that incidents such as this were increasing as the sport seeks to become more appealing for television.

"I'm very sorry that the jury decided to react the way they did over something which really wasn't as big as it was blown up to be," he said.

"Unfortunately it's part and parcel of the sport trying to develop its area within TV and in a number of instances this week that line has been crossed and that's something which everyone has to accept is a development."

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