Yahoo Finance Sailing's coming home: Ben Ainslie bids to bring America's Cup back to UK
He has done it before. At the 2012 Olympics Ben Ainslie, favourite for the gold medal in the single-handed Finn class, lost the first six races to a Danish sailor. Starting his fightback, he accused the Dane and a Dutch sailor of ganging up on him. “They’ve made a mistake because I’m angry,” he said. “And they didn’t want to do that.”
Mild-mannered – shy even – on land, Ainslie could become something of a monster in a boat. In a nail-biting final race Britain’s greatest sailor just clinched gold. It was his fourth, to add to the silver he won as a 19-year-old in Atlanta.
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Fast forward a year to the America’s Cup – the big one in sailing as well as the oldest trophy in world sport – in San Francisco bay in 2013. The holders, the software billionaire Larry Ellison’s Team Oracle USA, were being outsmarted by the challenger, Emirates Team NZ. In a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation, Ellison sacked his tactician and replaced him with a Brit: (by now Sir Ben) Ainslie. The results did not change immediately, they lost another couple of races, until the Kiwis were 8-1 up in the first-to-nine competition.
But then the tide changed, the US catamaran started winning: 8-2, 8-3, 8-4 … 8-8. In a thrilling final race, the Kiwis made a better start, but the American boat reeled them in, passing them on the final windward leg to complete one of the most extraordinary comebacks in sporting history. And Ainslie was calling the shots.
Fast forward further, to the present, Auckland in New Zealand – venue for the 36th America’s Cup. And Ainslie is trying to fulfil his dream, by winning the “auld mug” again, but this time for his own country, with Ineos Team UK. Britain has never won the America’s Cup. The first race, around the Isle of Wight in 1851, was won by the US schooner America (hence the name); since when, in spite of multiple attempts, the British have never got their hands back on it.
It was not looking likely they would. After events in Portsmouth and Sardinia were cancelled because of Covid, the first time the four teams – challengers Luna Rossa from Italy, American Magic from the US, Ineos Team UK as well as the America’s Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand – got the chance to get a proper look at, and go up against, each other was the preliminary America’s Cup World Series in December just before Christmas. And the British boat, with Ainslie at the wheel, was painfully off the pace.
This time they’re competing in AC75 monohulls – experimental high-tech machines that appear to defy science but actually push physics to its very limits. They fly around on foils, at three times the speed of the wind, and up to 50 knots (57 mph). It might still be about money, a lot of it, but this is closer to Formula One than gentlemen racing their elegant yachts around the Isle of Wight.
Ineos Team UK lost to the Americans, they did not even finish against the Italians, they lost to the Kiwis. Then they lost to them all over again. Six races, no wins, no points. Systems were not working, the boat was not working, there was talk of discord in the team.
This was just the warm-up though, it did not really matter. And following the Christmas break, when they returned for the Prada Cup last week, things started to look up. First, quickly, this is how it works: in the Prada Cup, Ineos Team UK, Luna Rossa and American Magic compete against each other and the winner gets to challenge the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for the America’s Cup proper in March.
On the first day last Friday, they blasted out of the blocks with two solid starts, then hung on to beat American Magic and Luna Rossa respectively. “Same boat, a few modifications,” said Ainslie coyly afterwards, without divulging any details. “We’re just very happy to have finally won a few races. Relief is probably the overriding emotion, it’s been a tough old ride.”
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And the winning continued over the weekend, firstly a difficult victory over the Americans in light conditions on Saturday, with the boats falling off their foils and speeds falling to single figures – almost like the way sailing used to be. On Sunday, the conditions were trickier still and the first race against Luna Rossa was abandoned after a heavy rain squall caused a 90-degree windshift on the course. The restarted race was a thriller, the boats looking equally matched, and had three changes of lead, but Ainslie with help from his tactician Giles Scott (another Finn Olympic gold medallist) made better use of the wind shifts and crossed the line 18 seconds ahead of the Italians.
The following race, between Luna Rossa and American Magic was more dramatic still, with the Americans capsizing spectacularly while leading and having to be towed ignominiously back to shore. The spectacle has been another winner at this America’s Cup – short races, extraordinary flying machines tearing around in a stunning setting, close to the shore. And if you are not one of the lucky ones, watching the action from the grass on North Head in a Covid-free New Zealand summer, then there is free coverage on the America’s Cup YouTube channel, with graphics that mean it is actually possible to know what is going on, and live audio from the boats. “Nice work gents,” said Ainslie, after crossing the line, followed by fist bumps all round.
There is a way to go, another round robin stage starting on Friday, followed by a semi-final and a final, the winner of which gets to sail a best of 13 match with the Kiwis, starting on 6 March. But could Ainslie be on the way to another extraordinary turnaround? And ending 170 years of hurt. It’s coming home, it’s coming home, sailing’s coming home.
