America’s Cup: Hard times for the Brits

The America’s Cup is a design competition, and in the first cycle of a new class, it is inevitable for the range of performance to be wide. Each team is desperate to know how their AC75 boat matches up, and hopeful there remains time to address any deficiencies.

While the Challenger Series begins January 15, an early glimpse came this week as teams held practice races in advance of the PRADA America’s Cup World Series Auckland and the PRADA Christmas Race on December 17-20.

The early indicators are the Kiwi defenders are seriously fast, and the British challenge is in serious trouble. Commenting about his home team is Magnus Wheately:

We’ve all experienced the utterly deflating feeling of hauling a boat that is at least two clicks slower around a racecourse. You come off the line and use your talent to get the first two shifts right but in the drag race to the layline you just can’t keep up.

For most of us, that’s our honest story week in week out. It’s depressing. You don’t have the sails, your hull is covered in a week of weed (at best), and that kicker block that you’ve been meaning to replace for months just gave up the ghost.

Your crew are great and loyal but they are a mix of estate agents, accountants, and your family and let’s be honest, they are only here for the swift ale in the bar afterwards or to chat up that blonde who does foredeck on the boat way out in front.

It’s nice to be on the water, you kid yourself. At least you’re not gardening or putting up those shelves in the spare room. But let’s face it, you will never win apart from that one race at the end of the season where you lucked-out and put a half decent performance together that ensures you’ll be back.

Well, imagine how you’d feel if you’d just blown £120 million of someone else’s money and have an absolutely balls-out racing machine laden with some of the best sailors on the planet, a supercomputer or two to measure a billion points of data a day, and you’re still way off the pace.

The first time you take it to a racecourse, it breaks. You then scuttle back to base, close the doors and silently weep. The management are all at each other’s throats and the billionaire owner is breathing, heavily, down your neck. You don’t even have a blonde in the bar to chase. It’s depressing.

Well that’s what’s happening in New Zealand right now with Ratty’s Rita (owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS TEAM UK boat, Britannia), looking like the lamest of lame ducks and the rest of the fleet and commentators dumbfounded as to where it has all gone wrong.

It’s dark times as they scratch their heads over the speed conundrum they face and I’m hearing the first rumblings of discord in the team with morale at rock bottom. To be honest those rumours have been around since the start and the take-over of BAR way back when.

There are some dark characters at work in this team unafraid to throw colleagues under the bus and shift the blame relentlessly but something has gone terribly wrong and the clock is ticking. They didn’t compete in the first tune-ups and were resolutely in the shed today trying to fix issues with the mast but it’s their on-the-water performances whilst tuning up that have set the alarm bells ringing.

Team Ineos sail the boat differently to the others – and some would say they are stuck in a set of procedures that other teams moved on from some time ago. And they are slow. Possibly not even at the pace of American Magic and a million miles from Team New Zealand and Prada.

It’s a familiar story being played out – the only difference is that this time, they really should have no excuses. I fear that the team is being swamped by internal politics, as is so often the case with British challengers, and that the big voices in the team have railroaded rather than collaborated.

The pressure being exerted from the sponsors will, I imagine, be pretty unbearable. Far from the cuddly image he likes to portray, Ratty and his machine are hard-ball players. You don’t get to be one of the world’s richest men by being a nice guy and he is surrounded by hard-as-nails goons who will be asking serious questions. This is not a nice place to be for Ben (skipper Ben Ainslie) and the sailors. Not nice at all.

December 18th could be a horrible day for Team Ineos. Two races against Team New Zealand – the All Blacks of yachting – who will take no prisoners. They are a ruthless killing machine as evidenced in their cruise to victory over Team Prada. To get anywhere close to their level will be nigh on impossible not just for Team Ineos but for the rest of the Challengers.

The Kiwis look like they have speed to burn all around the course and remember they will be sandbagging, easing off the throttle at every opportunity. The only unknown for TNZ is Ineos but I don’t see any cause for concern from the defender. They are up for the challenge and remember, when you have a fast boat, you become a tactical genius.

Hard times for the Brits. Hard times.

Details: www.americascup.com

36th America’s Cup
In addition to Challenges from Italy, USA, and Great Britain that were accepted during the initial entry period (January 1 to June 30, 2018), eight additional Notices of Challenge were received by the late entry deadline on November 30, 2018. Of those eight submittals, entries from Malta, USA, and the Netherlands were also accepted. Here’s the list:

Defender:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

Challengers:
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger of Record
• American Magic (USA)
• INEOS Team UK (GBR)
• Malta Altus Challenge (MLT) – WITHDRAWN
• Stars + Stripes Team USA (USA) – WITHDRAWN
• DutchSail (NED) – WITHDRAWN

Key America’s Cup dates:
✔ September 28, 2017: 36th America’s Cup Protocol released
✔ November 30, 2017: AC75 Class concepts released to key stakeholders
✔ January 1, 2018: Entries for Challengers open
✔ March 31, 2018: AC75 Class Rule published
✔ June 30, 2018: Entries for Challengers close
✔ August 31, 2018: Location of the America’s Cup Match and The PRADA Cup confirmed
✔ August 31, 2018: Specific race course area confirmed
✔ November 30, 2018: Late entries deadline
✔ March 31, 2019: Boat 1 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ 2nd half of 2019: 2 x America’s Cup World Series events (CANCELLED)
✔ October 1, 2019: US$1million late entry fee deadline (NOT KNOWN)
✔ February 1, 2020: Boat 2 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ April 23-26, 2020: First (1/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Cagliari, Sardinia (CANCELLED)
✔ June 4-7, 2020: Second (2/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth, England (CANCELLED)
• December 17-20, 2020: Third (3/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Auckland, New Zealand
• January 15-February 22, 2021: The PRADA Cup Challenger Selection Series
• March 6-15, 2021: The America’s Cup Match

Youth America’s Cup Competition (CANCELLED)
• February 18-23, 2021
• March 1-5, 2021
• March 8-12, 2021

AC75 launch dates:
September 6, 2019 – Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Boat 1
September 10, 2019 – American Magic (USA), Boat 1; actual launch date earlier but not released
October 2, 2019 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 1
October 4, 2019 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 1
October 16, 2020 – American Magic (USA), Boat 2
October 17, 2020 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 2
October 20, 2020 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 2
November 19, 2020 – Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Boat 2

Details: www.americascup.com