How the America’s Cup became a saltwater space race
THIS weekend Portsmouth is playing host to a sporting revolution. What is happening in the historic old harbour today and tomorrow is sailing, but not as we know it.
“That’s a boat?” said one young onlooker peering through the Hampshire murk as a vast, 70ft high machine swished past but yards from the shore. “It looks more like a space craft.”
For the first time since 1851, we are witness to the world’s oldest sporting competition taking place in British waters. The America’s Cup World Series is the first stage in the qualification process for the right to take on the current holders Team Oracle USA. At stake is possession of a trophy which, in its multi-layered, wedding cake frills, must be reckoned the most ostentatious piece of silverware in world sport. But the Cup is the only link to the past. What is going on in Portsmouth is 21st century, whizz-bang racing. In its breakneck urge for innovation, this is a salt water version of the space race.
There are three qualification regattas this year – in Portsmouth, Gothenburg and Bermuda – involving boats from Britain, France, Japan, Sweden, New Zealand and the USA. Then another three next year before an eventual play-off semi-final and final in the scrap for the right to go head-to-head with the holders, in the summer of 2017.
And the British boat, skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie, looks in the best of shape for the start of the process.
In the two practice races staged yesterday ahead of the weekend competition, in which all the crews raced identical, super-fast boats, Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR craft finished first and third.
For Sir Ben it marks the first tangible manifestation of a lifelong dream. After winning the Cup for Oracle Team USA in the most dramatic fashion in 2013, he is determined to win it again, but this time for Britain. His is not a cheap ambition. From the very start in 1851, when a syndicate of gamblers steered their boat across the Atlantic in a then astonishing 18 days and took up a challenge from the locals to sail round the Isle of Wight, money has ruled this contest. That year the winner’s boat cost $30,000 to construct, the equivalent today of £12 million. And over the 164 years of its existence, the America’s Cup has consumed many a rich man’s fortune. But after raising £80million so far, Ainslie is not disturbed by the prospect. For him, the aim is not simply to win the Cup and bring it back to the place it all began. He has determined to build an innovative sailing business in Portsmouth. Backed by government and local authority money, as well as corporate investment, he has built a headquarters on the old dockside, from which he hopes to spin out a succession of cutting edge boats. And he will use them to pursue the most valuable commodity in world sport.
The tradition of the competition is that the holder makes the rules. More significantly, particularly since the last staging of the competition when the television coverage was revolutionised, it is the holder who maintains all the commercial rights. They sell the broadcasting round the world. Which means winning the next America’s Cup has been estimated to be worth somewhere north of £100 million.
“If we could bring the America’s Cup back here and host it here, what a dream,” said Ainslie as he made his final preparations for his assault. “I have a vision of the harbour entrance being the finish line, a southwesterly breeze blowing, two boats screaming through, it will be incredible.”
Given Ainslie’s peerless sporting history, it would be an unwise man who bet against him achieving his goal.
‘Winning the next America’s Cup has been estimated to be worth somewhere north of £100m’
Sport: Page 12