Countdown starts to America’s Cup 2021

Sir Ben Ainslie is back in competitive sailing this week.

The four-times Olympic gold medallist is in New Zealand with his Portsmouth-based Ineos Team UK crew for the America’s Cup World Series and Christmas Cup.

The World Series is a preliminary regatta ahead of the America’s

Cup which will see all four teams - representing the UK, USA, Italy and New Zealand - race against each other for the first time in their respective AC75 boats.

It is the first and only opportunity for the teams to race before the challenge for the America’s Cup starts in earnest in the Prada Cup, the Challenger Selection Series, in January.

Ainslie, below, and co are competing in their revolutionary 75-foot flying monohull, BRITANNIA, for the first time in Auckland.

This is his second bid to bring the world’s oldest international sporting trophy to the UK for the first time, having lost in the semi-finals in 2017.

Ainslie has won the competition, though, when he acted as a tactician for Team Oracle USA in 2013.

Britain lost the first America’s Cup race around the Isle of Wight, in 1851, and last attained official challenger status in 1958.

The 36th America’s Cup will take place in March next year, when reigning champions New Zealand will face challengers whose right has been established via a series of warm-up and selection races.

It will be either Ainslie’s team, Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Team, or the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic.

Competitors in the 2021 America’s Cup will be racing AC75 hydrofoil monohulls.

The 75-foot boats are designed to effectively ‘fly’ up to two metres above the surface of the water, and can reach speeds in excess of 60mph.

The first winner of the race in 1851 was a 101-foot schooner.

Early signs for this year’s British challenge were not exactly positive.

The team missed most of the opening week of trial races due to a gear problem, and suffered the indignity of having to be towed back to their base on Monday.

Ainslie belatedly completed his first trial race on Tuesday, but was well beaten by his American rivals.

Prior to this week’s racing starting, The Duchess of Cambridge issued a good luck message.

A keen sailor who was dressed in one of the crew’s navy jackets, the Duchess said in a video message: ‘Sir Ben Ainslie and his team are about to embark on the challenge of a lifetime – an attempt to win sport’s oldest international trophy, the America’s Cup.

‘As all the teams prepare to take part in their first race, I want to wish them the very best of luck over the coming months. We will all be cheering you on.’

The Duchess has previously paid three visits to Portsmouth to meet Ainsle and the rest of his team.