AINSLIE VOWS TO TRY AGAIN
Brit defiant after loss to Italians
SIR BEN Ainslie’s voice came calmly through the onboard microphone: ‘Sorry guys, it isn’t going to happen. Good effort though.’
It was acknowledgement that his Ineos Team UK boat, Britannia, had failed like all her predecessors to win the America’s Cup. After 170 years of trying, the wait goes on.
Instead, the Italians, Luna Rossa, who beat Ainslie 7-1 in what amounted to a semi-final shoot-out, will face defenders Team New Zealand in the 36th edition of sailing’s most glittering epic.
Disappointment then for Ainslie and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire and boss of chemical giants Ineos, who funded the enterprise to the tune of £120million. He jumped on board Britannia to commiserate with his skipper and crew when the challenge ended in Auckland yesterday.
No sooner was Ainslie back on land than he announced his intention to head his third of British challenges in four years’ time.
‘I started this team in 2014 with the goal of getting the Cup back to Britain,’ he said. ‘As far as I’m concerned it is not over until we get the job done. We have to keep going.
‘There is a lot of learning to do from these campaigns. Look at Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand, they’ve been in the America’s Cup for 20 and 30 years respectively and, although the people may change over time, that accumulated learning and development is the key.’
It remains to be seen if Ratcliffe will commit to a new cycle, but the signs are he will.
Ineos’ central problem was their boat’s lack of speed in light winds, a fatal design fault in the technological arms race that is the central, Formula One-like component of the America’s Cup.
No matter the input of helmsman Ainslie, his tactician and successor as Olympic champion Giles Scott, and the rest of the crew, there was a limit to how much their expertise could compensate for the flaw that left them too dependent on favourable conditions.
They fought back from humiliation in the pre-Christmas warm-ups to dominate the roundrobin phase — when they beat the Italians three times in a row — but the light wind across the Hauraki Gulf at the weekend gave Ainslie little chance to augment his reputation as comeback king.
Four-nil down ahead of Saturday’s programme, they won one of two races to be 5-1 down going into yesterday’s action. Two comprehensive defeats followed.
Ainslie, inspiration behind the USA’s America’s Cup victory in 2013, was gracious in defeat despite the Italians’ chicanery of the past week, when they refused to delay racing until local Covid restrictions were relaxed enough to allow spectators to attend en masse. They no doubt wanted the Brits to sail before the wind gathered strength today.
But Ainslie, who also missed out in Bermuda in 2017, said sportingly: ‘They sailed brilliantly, had the best package overall and deserved the win. We fought tooth and nail to the last race but it wasn’t enough.’
The intrinsic inequity of the America’s Cup gave Luna Rossa a built-in advantage — for, as challenger of record, they could work with the defenders in shaping the rules of competition to their liking. But Ainslie offered no excuses, especially recognising the skill of the opposition’s co-helmsman Jimmy Spithill.
Ainslie is staying in New Zealand to watch the America’s Cup unfold, starting on March 6. As he analyses the defeat, he is already determined to be at the helm again, rather than fulfil the role of off-water supremo, in 2025.
He will be 48 by then but, crucially, steering requires more guile than outright fitness, so there is time for him to achieve a success he would place even above his four Olympic gold medals.
‘We are going to go back to the drawing board to see what we can do for next time,’ said Ainslie. ‘We won’t stop here.’