VIDEO: When teammates become rivals

Ben Ainslie is the Olympic hero at the head of Land Rover BAR, looking to win the America’s Cup for Britain for the first time in history. Jimmy Spithill has led his ORACLE TEAM USA to two consecutive America’s Cup victories, including an amazing comeback in 2013 with Ainslie as a teammate. Now they are on opposite sides.

The complete field of challengers will be joining these two skippers when the first races of the 35th America’s Cup cycle begin with the launch of the America’s Cup World Series on July 25-26 in Portsmouth, UK.

Emirates Team New Zealand has turned over its race crew to a younger generation, with Peter Burling taking the helm. The first winner of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in 2013 is on fire with an unprecedented string of victories in the 49er class as he simultaneously campaigns for the 2016 Olympic Games.

The man he replaced, Dean Barker, didn’t sit on the sidelines for long. Barker bounced back as the CEO and skipper of SoftBank Team Japan, making its America’s Cup debut in Portsmouth.

Artemis Racing will be led by Nathan Outteridge, who turned heads in the last America’s Cup for his ability to coolly step into his first America’s Cup campaign and assume a leadership role. An Olympic gold medalist, Outteridge is far from unique on an Artemis Racing team stocked with medal-winning sailors.

And Groupama Team France will be flying with Franck Cammas, the French multihull veteran who has seemingly won every race, and broken every record, he has set his mind to.

Video published on Jul 16, 2015.