BRITAIN'S 173 years of hurt goes on after thrashing by NZ
Not only is the America’s Cup the oldest competition in international sport, it is also one of the most idiosyncratic.
So it was that, as New Zealand crossed the finish line in Barcelona, to seal an ultimately comprehensive 7-2 victory over Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia and lift the Auld Mug for the third time in a row, an official letter was being passed by Bertie Bickett, chairman of the Royal Yacht Squadron, under whose flag Ineos Britannia race, to his opposite number in the New Zealand Royal Yacht Squadron, challenging the Kiwis to another match.
The challenge was accepted and Ineos are, as a consequence, official Challenger of Record for the 38th America’s Cup. The race for the next Cup has already started.
Where that will be and when will be decided over the coming days and weeks. “We would hope to have a protocol out in around eight months,” Bicket told Telegraph Sport. Saudi Arabia is one option for the venue, admitted Team New Zealand’s chief executive Grant Dalton who gets to decide on that element. Returning to New Zealand is another. Or staying in Barcelona.
But one thing is clear, Ainslie’s team will be there. “100 per cent,” said the Ineos helmsman and skipper after getting off the water and embracing his young children, Bellatrix, 8, and Fox, 3. “I’m not a quitter so we’ll keep going until we get that job done.”
There will be those who will look at the final scoreline here and laugh at that statement, imagining this to be some sort of drubbing, as if it was a football score. Who will consider the millions spent as money down the drain. The truth is, the America’s Cup match is a two-horse race. And in a two-horse race, the fastest horse usually wins. New Zealand were definitely the faster horse.
Ineos were good but not good enough. “Another week or two and we might have had them,” reckoned Ainslie’s co-helm Dylan Fletcher. He may have been right. We will never know.
New Zealand’s Peter Burling lifts the America’s Cup aloft in Barcelona Credit: Shutterstock/Quiquw Garcia
The America’s Cup is so hard to win precisely because it is not fair. The odds are always stacked in favour of the defender. They set the rules, they decide the class of boat, they decide the venue, the challengers. They even run the event itself. That is why only four countries have ever won it in 173 years. That is why the New York Yacht Club retained it for the first 130-odd years of the Cup’s existence.
But Ainslie is right not to feel too disappointed today. Ineos were the most successful British team in 90-odd years. They were the first to reach the actual Cup match in 60 years. And they were the first to come through the Louis Vuitton challenger series since that became a thing some 40 years ago.
What is more, they proved conclusively that the technical partnership with Mercedes F1, at which some people sneered when they came to grief in Auckland nearly four years ago, could work. This team was light years better than that one. It was ambitious with its design, and then improved faster than any other team in Barcelona once racing got under way.
Ultimately, Ineos were unable to upset the odds. New Zealand, who were able to spend two months longer designing their boat as they knew they were already in the final, who tested out different foils during challenger series before deciding on their final package, who spent three weeks making refinements to their boat while assessing the opposition in the knockout rounds, were just too good. As Ainslie was happy to admit.
“In my view they are the best team ever in the America’s Cup,” he said in the immediate aftermath of Race 9, which Ineos lost by 37 seconds despite another good start and then an excellent fightback to draw level mid-race. “When you look at it, they were a click faster than us, a click better manoeuvring, a little bit better at figuring out the wind shifts off the start line. They sailed immaculately. When you get beaten by a team at that level you just have to take your hats off to them. It’s no surprise really. They have been at this for 30-35 years and every time they do it they get stronger.”
Ineos Britannia went up against a juggernaut in Emirates Team New Zealand Credit: Shutterstock/Quique Garcia
Ainslie said he did not know whether he would be on the helm next time. Fletcher, who almost certainly will be, insisted the 47-year-old was “still at the top of his game”, referencing Ineos’ pre-starts. But whether he is or he isn’t, Ainslie promised Ineos would be better next time when they will be backed once again by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Mercedes F1, albeit with other partners and sponsors brought in to help fund the £100m-plus campaign.
“This isn’t the end of the journey for us,” reflected Ainslie, who thanked the British public for getting behind his team. “We’ve been going for 10 years now and we’re getting better every time. I’m disappointed but proud of the team, at how far we’ve come in 10 years.
“The best teams in the modern history of the Cup, New Zealand and Luna Rossa, are the teams who have been around the longest. Each time you do it you learn more, you get more efficient, you learn more about your design tools. This is our third time around and we got close this time but not quite close enough. We are determined to keep going until we get the job done.”
