AC45F Yachts, America's Cup World Series

INEOS Britannia is a British sailing team that is the challenger of record for the 37th America's Cup. The team was established in 2012 with the ambition of winning the America's Cup for Great Britain and to 'bring the cup home' to the United Kingdom. The team joined forces with

INEOS INEOS Group Limited is a British multinational chemicals company headquartered and registered in London. , it is the fourth largest chemical company in the world. Ineos is organised into about 20 standalone business units, each with its own b ...

in 2018. In 2021 the team will challenge for the 36th America's Cup in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, and will represent the

Royal Yacht Squadron The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to w ...

. The team is owned and backed by

founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe and led by the most successful Olympic sailor of all time,

Sir Ben Ainslie Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie (born 5 February 1977) is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at the four consecutiv ...

, who is team principal, CEO and skipper.

Formation and facilities

In January 2012, Ben Ainslie announced the formation of a British team to compete in the America's Cup, called Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR). His team competed in the AC45 class for the remaining races of the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series to develop experience and generate interest from sponsors. The team was also known as J.P. Morgan BAR in this early period and competed for the

Royal Cornwall Yacht Club Situated on the waterfront setting of the Greenbank area in Falmouth, the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) was formed in 1871, and is the 15th oldest “Royal” yacht club in England. History In 1871 the forty-seven founding members of the cl ...

. In January 2014, Ainslie began the process of raising £100M to fund the team, as well as development of racing yachts which was projected to take 30% of the budget. The project was initially backed by 12 core supporters including Sir Charles Dunstone and Sir Keith Mills. In December 2014 Ben Ainslie Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) announced that they would work together on the America's Cup project, with Formula One designer

Adrian Newey Adrian Martin Newey, (born 26 December 1958) is a British Formula One engineer. He is currently the chief technical officer of the Red Bull Racing F1 team. Newey has worked in both Formula One and IndyCar racing as a race engineer, aerodynami ...

leading RBAT's efforts regarding design and engineering. J.P. Morgan indicated that it was not planning to continue sponsorship and the team began the search for a new title sponsor. In April 2014, as part of the launch of Rear Admiral Rob Stevens's 'Transforming Solent' report, which makes 36 recommendations with 15 prioritised at an investment cost of £91M, Ainslie announced plans to build a team headquarters in the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay t ...

area. Having reviewed a number of sites, the project put forward plans to develop an operational building at Camber Dock, as part of the wider redevelopment of

Portsmouth Harbour Portsmouth Harbour is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it ...

. On 18 June, Portsmouth Council approved plans for the £12M main operations building, which Ainslie confirmed would be built subject to £8M of requested

UK Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

-backed development funding. On 1 July 2014, in a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, central government funding of £7.5M towards the operational building's construction was confirmed, with construction reliant on final planning permission from the council and the project raising the additional required funds. The operational building is also where the boats are designed and manufactured, and contains administration and full crew development facilities. The design was developed by HGP Architects, which also designed the nearby

Spinnaker Tower The Spinnaker Tower is a landmark observation tower in Portsmouth, England. It is the centrepiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour, which was supported by a National Lottery grant. The tower's design was chosen by Portsmouth reside ...

. The building was opened in June 2015 and featured approximately 400 solar panels generating 130MWh/y, ventilation features and insulation to improve its sustainability.Sailing team HQ scoops BREEAM 'Excellent' rating
, Engineering and Technology Magazine, IET, 22 July 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016. In September 2018 it was announced that sailing clothing brand

Henri Lloyd Henri Lloyd is a British clothing brand that specialised in sailing apparel and fashion for men and women. Established in Manchester in 1963, the company had 40 stores spanning the UK, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe. In June 2018, the b ...

would continue its long partnership with Sir Ben by supplying the kit for INEOS Team UK in the pursuit of the 36th challenge of the America's Cup in 2021. On 4 October 2021, the team announced a high-performance partnership with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, bringing together the best of the worlds of high-performance marine and automotive engineering, with the goal to win the America’s Cup for Britain. The team is based in Brackley, home of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. James Allison will be the technical lead of the team's 37th America’s Cup challenge in his capacity as Chief Technical Officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and INEOS Britannia.

34th America's Cup

2012-2013 Americas Cup World Series

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in City of New York, New York City and Delaware General Corporation Law, inco ...

BAR initially competed in the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series competing in their AC45 catamaran. The team had excellent performance in two events in San Francisco but slipped to a surprise defeat in Naples in April 2013. In August 2013, the competition jury received a report from Oracle Team USA that their boat and others they had loaned had unauthorised modifications. Since they were using one of the out of measurement boats provided by Team Oracle USA, Ainslie withdrew his team from the competition on 7 August 2013. They denied that they had any prior knowledge that the boat was out of measurement, and were scored DSQ (disqualified) from the series. In 2013, the team set a new multihull record of 2 hours 52 minutes 15 seconds for the

Round the Island Race The Round the Island Race is an annual yacht race around the Isle of Wight. It starts and finishes in Cowes, and is organised by the Island Sailing Club. The course is about long. It was first held in 1931, it was sponsored by JP Morgan Asset ...

in their AC45.

34th America's Cup

The team did not enter to compete in the

34th America's Cup The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay on September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealan ...

, with Ben Ainslie instead sailing as helm onboard Oracle Team USA's second

AC72 The AC72 (America's Cup 72 class) is a class of wingsail catamarans built to a box rule, which governs the construction and operation of yachts competing in the 2013 Louis Vuitton and the America's Cup races. The class was subsequently replac ...

in the teams training programme ahead of the event. During the

match, Oracle Team USA were losing to

Emirates Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup i ...

8-1. The American syndicate decided to replace tactician John Kostecki with Ainslie, and went on to win 10 consecutive race wins to win the America's Cup. Ben Ainslie was credited as one of the key reasons behind their famous comeback to win the America's Cup in 2013. Several of the team's other key sailors also competed for Luna Rossa Challenge in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series.

35th America's Cup

Yachts

Crew

2015-2016 Americas Cup World Series

Following Ainslie's win representing the USA, it was announced that Ben Ainslie Racing would challenge for the 35th America's Cup in 2017. The team competed in the

2014 Extreme Sailing Series The 2014 Extreme Sailing Series was the eighth edition of the sailing series, and the fourth year as a fully global event. The series started in Singapore on 20 February 2014 and ended in Sydney, Australia on 14 December 2014 and took place in 8 ...

, finishing 5th overall in the

Extreme 40 The Extreme 40 is a class of sailing catamaran created by TornadoSport and designed by Yves Loday. The boats are 40 feet long and are constructed out of carbon fibre. They have a top speed of about and can sail at about in 20–25 knots of wind ...

class catamaran. The team raced in 2015-16 America's Cup World Series in the AC45F catamaran class, winning events in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

and

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

to take the overall series win.

Louis Vuitton Cup

In March 2015, former McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh was announced as Ben Ainslie Racing's CEO. In June 2015, Ben Ainslie announced a partnership with

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

and changed the team's name to Land Rover BAR. The teams win in the 2015–16 America's Cup World Series conferred points towards the

2017 Louis Vuitton Cup The 2017 Louis Vuitton Challenger's Trophy (officially, the Trophy was given to the winner of the 2017 Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger Playoffs) was a sailing competition held to determine the challenger in the 2017 America's Cup. The tourn ...

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, which began May 2017. The team was knocked out of the competition by New Zealand in the Challenger semi-final. The defeat was attributed simply to the greater speed of the opponent's boat.

Red Bull Youth Americas Cup

Following the announcement that alongside the 35th Americas Cup would be held the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup, Land Rover BAR launched the Land Rover BAR Academy in January 2016, with over 150 young British sailors under the age of 24 applying to be part of the team. Of these sailors, a team of sailors were selected. The squad trained and competed on a

GC32 The GC32 is a class of hydrofoiling catamaran, 32 feet in length (9.75 meters) and constructed of carbon fibre, with a top speed of about . They are sailed in the GC32 Racing Tour, and have replaced the Extreme 40, Extreme 40's in the Extreme Sail ...

Class catamaran in the

Extreme Sailing Series The Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) (formerly the iShares Cup) was an annual global racing series, organised by OC Sport, which ran from 2007 to 2018. The series started in 2007 with its main attraction being the stadium racing which puts the race c ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, under the expert guidance of the team's senior sailors and coaches. The team raced in

in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America's Cup in the

AC45 The America's Cup World Series are match races and fleet regattas used as heats for the 2013 America's Cup and the 2017 America's Cup. The Yachts AC45 and AC45F The World Series uses AC45 catamarans, a one-design wingsail catamaran designed spec ...

F foiling catamaran class, finishing in 1st place with 50 points, 2 points ahead of their nearest rivals from New Zealand. The team was credited with being the only team to race with a female sailor onboard.

Crew

Extreme Sailing Series & GC32 Racing Tour

Following on from Land Rover BAR Academy's success over the previous two years in the GC32 class, the team, newly sponsored by

competed simultaneously in the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

and the 2018 GC32 Racing Tour, both in the hydro-foiling

Class catamaran class. The INEOS Rebels youth team finished in 4th place overall in the Extreme Sailing Series, whilst the senior INEOS Team UK team finished in 2nd place overall in the GC32 Racing Tour, with several event wins. Following the collapse of the Extreme Sailing Series at the end of 2018, the team began using their two GC32s for two boat training in preparation for their 36th America's Cup campaign.

Sail GP

On 26 November 2019,

SailGP SailGP is an international sailing competition using high performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix around the world. Its reigning champions are Tom Slingsby's Australia SailGP Team, who wo ...

announced that

Ben Ainslie Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie (born 5 February 1977) is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at the four consecutiv ...

would join the Great Britain SailGP Team as helm on the British F50 foiling catamaran. The team announced title sponsorship from

, with the sailing team made up of both existing SailGP GBR and INEOS Team UK sailors. The collaboration between the teams concluded at the end of 2020. The team's first and only SailGP event was in Sydney in February 2020. Ainslie's crew won four of the five fleet races, before taking the win in the final race against Tom Slingsby's Australian team. The second round of the 2020 SailGP series was due to be held in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

in May 2020, however SailGP delayed the second season until 2021 due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, with points from the Sydney race removed from the championship.

Crew

Results

36th America's Cup

In 2018 it was announced that the team would join forces with INEOS and would challenge for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, as INEOS Team UK. The team will race for Royal Yacht Squadron Racing. The

team boasts a world class sailing crew including Team Principal Skipper

and fellow Olympic Gold medallist Giles Scott. Combined, the team has 16 America's Cup wins and eight Olympic medals. INEOS Team UK's leadership team includes four times Cup winner

Grant Simmer Grant Simmer (born 1957) is an Australian sailor and yacht designer who has competed in multiple America's Cups. He sailed as navigator on ''Australia II'' when it won the 1983 America's Cup. He stayed with Alan Bond's syndicate and was navigato ...

as CEO and Nick Holroyd, who was instrumental in bringing foiling technology into the Cup, as Chief Designer. On 4 October 2019 INEOS Team UK launched their first America's Cup boat from their HQ in Portsmouth, naming her ‘Britannia’ in homage to one of Britain's most famous racing yachts, after over 90,000 design hours and 50,000 construction hours. In January 2020 the team relocated to Cagliari,

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, for a winter training camp with the team's first America's Cup boat. In March 2020, however, due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

global pandemic the team made the decision to withdraw all sailing operations from Sardinia and return to the UK. In October 2020 the team relocated to Auckland for the 36th America's Cup and on 16 October the team launched their race boat for the 36th America's Cup, Britannia, a foiling monohull capable of estimated top speeds of over 50 knots (93 km/H, 57.5 MP/H) and a significant evolution from the team's first AC75 with noticeable changes to hull shape, deck layout and more.

Yachts

Crew

2019-2020 America's Cup World Series

Due to the

, the first two events in the 2019-20 America's Cup World Series due to be held in Cagliari and

were cancelled due to the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the most significant disruption to the worldwide sporting calendar since World War II. Across the world and to varying degrees, sports events have been cancelled or postponed. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo w ...

. The four AC36 teams competed in the third and final ACWS event in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

in December 2020. INEOS Team UK struggled to keep their AC75 foiling during their manoeuvres, consequently ending the event with no wins, and in last place overall.

Prada Cup

Following a disappointing performance in the Auckland ACWS event in December 2020, the team spent the following three weeks making modifications to their boat ''Britannia'' ahead of the start of the Prada Cup qualifying series. This included a new mast and sails as well as modifications to the hull and foils. The team received support from

sponsored Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. INEOS Team UK dominated the Round Robin phase of the Prada Cup which saw them race and beat each of the two other challenger teams three times, securing their place in the Prada Cup Final beginning on the 13th of February 2021. The team's place in the Prada Cup final marked a significant point in their campaign, being the furthest any British challenge had progressed in the competition since the introduction of a challenger selection series. After Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's win in the Prada Cup Semi-Finals against American Magic, the American team was eliminated from the event, securing the Italian team's place in the Prada Cup Final alongside INEOS Team UK. The Prada Cup Finals were held in predominantly light wind (8-14 knots), with Luna Rossa showing great improvement in boat handling, winning the first 5 races consecutively. INEOS Team UK showed superior downwind pace in Race 6, taking their sole race win before

Luna Rossa Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, originally named Prada Challenge, then Luna Rossa Challenge, is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate first created to compete for the 2000 America's Cup. It won the Louis Vuitton Cup on their first attempt in 2000, but ...

dominated Day 4 to take their sixth and seventh race win, winning the Prada Cup overall, and securing their place in the 36th America's Cup Match against

Notes

References

External links

Official
website {{DEFAULTSORT:INEOS TEAM UK America's Cup teams Extreme Sailing Series teams Ineos Sailing in the United Kingdom Sport in Portsmouth