Ineos Britannia’s challenge for the 37th America’s Cup is over, and Ineos Britannia’s challenge for the 38th America’s Cup has just begun. Emirates Team New Zealand won the ninth of the head-to-head races, and with it the match, 7-2. It means the New Zealanders are the first team in modern history to win the cup three times in succession, and that Great Britain’s 173-year wait to win the Auld Mug will go on for who knows how long. But in the moments after the defeat, the Ineos Britannia’s skipper, Ben Ainslie, confirmed that he will lead the team through another campaign, and that they will, again, be the official challenger of record.
If they’re going to win, they will have to beat a New Zealand team which Ainslie admiringly described as “the best team in the history of the cup”.
They were too good for Britain this time, at any rate. Team New Zealand’s boat, Taihoro, had the edge in the calmer waters and low winds that have prevailed in Barcelona during the regatta. Their boat goes so well in light conditions that you could blow it along with a paper fan. It was no coincidence that Britain’s two wins came on the only racing day when the waves were up, and Taihoro, which has smaller foils than Britannia, struggled to cope in the choppy water.
The disparity between them on a calm day was so stark that as soon as everyone woke on Saturday and saw the flat seas and the flags hanging limp on their poles around Port Vell, it was clear that if the wind could just pick up enough for the race to start, New Zealand would convert the match point they had earned by winning both of the races held on Friday.
Down in the New Zealanders’ corner of the port, the celebrations started before the race, as if all they needed to do to win the Auld Mug was lower their boat safely into the water. While they were docking out, they had turned the speakers on their soundsystem outwards and were blasting a playlist of Kiwi classics out across the Mediterranean, which meant OMC’s How Bizarre was bouncing around the high sails of the moored mega yachts owned by all the millionaires and billionaires who had flown in for the occasion.
Some of the old salt sailing sorts among the New Zealanders even allowed themselves a little wrinkle of a wry smile. Which was more than Britain’s fans managed. But Ainslie had promised to fight all the way, and he was as good as his word. He manoeuvred his boat superbly through the pre-start, and came off the line with a slight advantage, but it didn’t last.
Taihoro swept into the lead through the first shift when they went racing down the faster right side of the course. By the time they reached the first turn they were 200m ahead and the race looked over already.
It wasn’t. Ineos Britannia fought back over the third leg when Team New Zealand allowed them use of that same faster right-hand side. All of a sudden the gap started to close, from 200m, to 100m, to 20m, to 10m, until there was only one between the two boats as they came into the third turn halfway through the race.
“It felt like it was our moment, our chance to get back into the race,” Ainslie said afterwards, “they gave us the opportunity, but it wasn’t quite enough.” After 10 years of work, it was as close as Britannia got. Taihoro pulled away again on the downwind leg, and stayed in control for the rest of the race.
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“We had our moments in the finals,” Ainslie said, “but at the end of the day the better team won.”
He was rightly proud of what his team has achieved, and has committed to coming back as the challenger of record in the 38th America’s Cup. It is unclear where it will be held, or what the design specifications of the yachts involved will be, and it’s unclear, too, if he will be skipper, or whether Sir Jim Ratcliffe will fund the team through the next cycle. “I know he wants to stay involved, but we’ve got to figure out just what that looks like,” Ainslie said. “There’s so much to figure out, but for sure Jim and Ineos are keen. Maybe we’ve got to fight for some other backers to come in and support them.”
Either way, Ainslie isn’t giving up on his dream yet. “This is our third go around, and every time we get closer,” Ainslie said. “We got close this time. We didn’t quite get there, but we’re determined to keep going until we get the job done. We set this thing up 10 years ago to win the cup and I’m not a quitter.”
