The most successful British Challenge in over 90 years ended in defeat in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match after a spirited series against the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, that was closer and more hard-fought than the 7-2 scoreline suggests. What INEOS Britannia achieved in reaching the country’s first America’s Cup Match final since 1964 and then taking two races off the defender – a feat last achieved by Sir T.O.M. Sopwith in 1934 – was nothing short of remarkable and a huge shot in the arm for British sailing at the elite end of the sport.
Sir Ben Ainslie, the Skipper and Team Principal of INEOS Britannia, was quick to thank his team after the loss saying: “For our team to get into the America’s Cup itself was a huge achievement. We’ve been on quite a journey for the last 10 years – and especially the last three years. Ultimately, to fall short at the final hurdle is always tough, but we know that we’ve been up against one of the best, if not the best, teams in the history of the America’s Cup. We have to take that on the chin, and I think that the team have done a brilliant job to develop through this campaign, and as one very plucky Brit said, ‘it’s the courage to continue that counts’, so that’s what we’re up for.”
Looking to the future, as well as reflecting on the support the team has received in Barcelona, Ainslie added: “We can’t say enough about the support we’ve had here and back over in the UK, it has been unbelievable. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and it has made a huge difference to the team, a great motivator and a great driver. As for the future of the team, we set out to win the Cup, we got close and we’re getting closer every time. To my mind when you set out to achieve a target you’ve got to get there. So we continue, we keep going, and keep taking this organisation forward.”
Where this challenge began was immediately after the end of the last America’s Cup in Auckland in 2021, with INEOS Britannia becoming the Challenger of Record the moment Emirates Team New Zealand crossed the finish line on March 17.
With the Challenger of Record status secured, behind the scenes, work began immediately as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS Sports Group fully integrated with the America’s Cup team. Investment in Formula 1 and cycling came to the fore as the Protocol that would govern the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup was agreed between Defender and Challenger of Record and in October 2021, it was confirmed that the sailing team could plug into the resources of both the Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of the all-conquering Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, and the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team.
Team signings announced in October 2021 included the highly experienced naval architect, Martin Fischer, a key part of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s design team for two America’s Cup campaigns, as well as Giles Scott, the team’s tactician in Auckland, who became one of the first sailors to re-sign following his superb gold medal in the Finn Class in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Furthermore, Dave Endean, Project Director for the team’s 36th America’s Cup campaign, completed the leadership team as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the day-to-day running and operations of the team’s campaign, alongside Ainslie.
Speaking about the launch of the team’s 37th America’s Cup campaign Ben Ainslie said: “The America’s Cup is the ultimate team sport and to be successful you need continuity. It takes time to develop the IP, skills and know-how necessary to be a winning team, especially when you are up against teams with over 25 years’ experience. As we enter our third campaign, we have taken a lot of learnings from our previous challenges and assembled a world class team combining talent from Formula 1 and the America’s Cup. Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science bring a legacy of design to the table. They are proven winners, it’s in their DNA, it’s in their culture.»
INEOS Chairman and Founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe further added: “The America’s Cup has been 170 years of pain for us in Britain. We’ve had fantastic sailors in this country, but we’ve never had the boat that could win. We believe that assembling this unique collection of elite sports teams will give us a stronger chance of achieving what has never been done before. There are many synergies across our sporting family and what Mercedes F1’s engineering and organisational expertise can add to our America’s Cup challenge is one of the strongest examples of that.”
In early 2022 the first sailor signings were announced with the likes of Neil Hunter, Matt Gotrel, Bleddyn Mon, Luke Parkinson, Ben Cornish, Iain Jensen, David Carr, and Leigh McMillan being confirmed. By the end of 2022 further Cyclor strength was added with Matt Rositter coming on board and then in March 2023, it was confirmed that Dylan Fletcher, gold medallist in Tokyo 2020 and International Moth World Champion had been recruited. The following month, the power trio of sailor James Skulczuk, and elite rowers Harry Leask and Ryan Todhunter was additionally confirmed. Ainslie had secured some mighty talent for the challenge that lay before them.
With the team in place and itching to get sailing, it was announced in May 2022 that the winter training base would be built in Mallorca at the Palma Ribera de San Carlos Quay just next to the Portopi lighthouse, in a partnership with the Ports de Balears. Meanwhile, work on the team’s first boat, an LEQ12, continued at pace back in the UK at Carrington Boats, in Hythe.
The summer of 2022 also heralded the announcement of the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup and the welcome return of the Youth America’s Cup. As Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia fully embraced this initiative and an exciting new project was announced by Sir Ben Ainslie and Hannah Mills OBE at the beginning of August 2022 – Athena Pathway.
At the time, Mills commented: “Sailing has made great strides forward in gender equality in recent decades, led by the Olympic side of the sport where gender equality has now been reached on the water. But the professional side, particularly in high-performance foiling sailing, is far behind where it needs to be. We as a sport are uniquely placed to drive huge global change when it comes to gender equality. high-performance sailing has no major barriers to physical entry and through the Athena Pathway we will create a gender equal pathway for all, with sustainability at its heart. I am incredibly excited to be teaming up with Ben on this project to change the landscape of professional sailing in the UK. Young girls are already coming up to me excited by the potential opportunities within the America’s Cup, and beyond, as they get older – which is amazing to see. Equally, however, the knock-on effect this could have in terms of growth within our sport as more females see career opportunities within the marine industry could be huge”.
Much anticipation surrounded the arrival of the team’s first boat in October 2022, an angular creation that was named ‘T6’ and spearheaded a whole new and very defined process for the team. Having been built at Carrington Boats on the south coast of England, the boat was then transported to Brackley in the UK – the home of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team – for its fit out.
At the boat’s reveal in October 2022, James Allison, Chief Technical Officer of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, commented: “We understand from our F1 experience, the vital importance of creating the best suite of tools for designing and engineering the vehicle. We also understand the crucial role that validation plays in improving and coming to trust those tools. T6 has been designed for that purpose, and we’re all looking forward to getting to grips with the data she can provide.”
A capsize in training on February 8 2023 saw T6 fully invert with the mast and double skinned mainsail submerged. The shore crew and sailors worked together for over two hours and after first getting T6 back on its side they were eventually able to fully right the yacht. T6 was then side towed by two support boats back to the team base, where a full assessment of the damage was conducted. The team also faced further challenges when the lithium batteries that power the yacht’s complex control systems reacted to seawater ingress causing a fire on board.
With T6 temporarily incapacitated, a stroke of luck came with the timely delivery and subsequent commissioning of the team’s first AC40 on February 13 2023. The new boat was named ‘Athena’ and officially christened by Operations Team member Athene Macrae. The sailing team were quick to adapt to the AC40 and set their sights on the first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú, Spain in September 2023. However, having spent so little time in the boat relative to the competition, it was not a successful regatta with INEOS Britannia finishing last and Ainslie commenting: “We are really frustrated with our performance. Whilst we have focused our strategy on testing T6 and not the AC40 it’s still not acceptable for us to be at the back of the fleet. We clearly got the balance wrong and we need to put that right.
The second Preliminary Regatta taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the end of November 2023 was an opportunity for the British reset. However, a fifth place overall result was again a disappointment, with Ainslie commenting: “It’s a frustrating result but there is still plenty to take away, lots of learnings and massive improvement from last time out in Villanova. We have learned way more than we thought we would from these two AC40 events. Disappointing as the results are in many ways, they have been a massive boost to our campaign. Without these events, undoubtedly, we would not have been as competitive next year in Barcelona.”