Technicality Saves British America’s Cup Effort

On February 6th 2017 Land Rover BAR became the first America’s Cup team to launch their America’s Cup Class (ACC) boat, the yacht with which the British team will challenge for the 35th running of the America’s Cup in Bermuda in May and June 2017.

Sir Ben Ainslie’s wife Georgie and baby daughter Bellatrix sought to appropriately smash a bottle of English sparkling Nyetimber wine to christen Land Rover BAR’s America’s Cup Class race boat Rita – the name carried by all 19 of Ben’s previous Olympic and world championship winning boats.

Blowin’ STINK’s profile photo

However, it didn’t quite go according to plan. Does a failed first attempt to christen the boat pose doom on this upstart new team? Not according to @BlowinStink, one of the Cup’s most ardent commentators on Twitter. Here he shares his thoughts on the launch of @LandRoverBAR:
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In maritime tradition, it is bad luck if the christening bottle does not break on first go against the hull. However, one can find it’s just as honorable a christening to pop the cork, and spill some wine on the hull. In the case of @LandRoverBAR’s ACC, it was never dashed against the hull, rather a steel bar separate from the yacht.

So, in essence, they simply opened their bottle, albeit awkwardly, and spilled some on the hull. And that does not carry the bad luck of failing to break against the hull. So let’s get on it with it, eh? @LandRoverBAR
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Certainly the other five teams were taking notes on how to christen this new class of boat. Here is video of the British launch, with the bottle mishap omitted:

Georgie and Ben Ainslie discuss the failed bottle break: