Ineos Britannia is Team New Zealand’s challenger

After the decisive victory, the celebration of Ineos Britannia took place on the water: every crew member lifted the trophy, the owner Jim Ratcliffe also climbed aboard the “Britannia” and joined the skipper Ben Ainslie to take part in the historic Triumph to be there. For the first time in the history of the Challenger series, which began in 1970, a British team has won the Challenger final. In a week, England will be sailing for the America’s Cup for the first time in sixty years.

After the two wins against the Italian Luna Rossa boat on Wednesday, the British only needed one more win on Friday. “We’re 6-4 behind, but we’re not dead yet,” Luna Rossa team boss Max Sirena encouraged his staff. On the water, however, Ainslie once again won the pre-start. Only just. But Britannia defended their lead until the finish, even though Luna Rossa put a lot of pressure on them.

The impressive learning curve of Ineos Britannia

While the champagne was flowing on the Ineos Britannia, the disappointment among the losers, such as helmsman Jimmy Spithill, was palpable. “This is sport,” he said. And a little later announced his resignation as helmsman in the America’s Cup. “That was my last race,” he said. Francesco Bruni, the other helmsman, had previously indicated similar intentions.

Looking at the entire qualifying series, the English victory is well deserved. After a miserable start in the pre-regatta, they continued to improve. They won the Preliminary Regatta in a tiebreaker against Luna Rossa. They clearly defeated Alinghi 5-2 in the semi-finals. And they survived the Challenger final without any technical problems, unlike the Italians, who lost two races for this reason. The two teams have sailed against each other a total of 14 times in this cup, with a score of 9:5 for Britannia.

The key to British success may have been a personnel decision; A few weeks ago, skipper Ainslie replaced his co-helmsman Giles Scott, a double Olympic sailor, with Dylan Fletcher, also an Olympic champion. The Ainslie/Fletcher duo had hardly been match-tested before, but offered a surprisingly good performance behind the wheel and seemed to work well together from the start.

The learning curve that Ineos Britannia has shown is also impressive. Grant Dalton, the CEO of defending champions New Zealand, has an explanation for this. In an interview, he praised Ineos Britannia’s collaboration with the Mercedes Formula 1 team. The English now represent a greater threat to him than before because the racing team’s good analytical tools have made it possible to change the boat and make it faster if necessary.

Luna Rossa’s defeat may have hurt many sailing fans around the world. The Italians’ silver boat, called the “Silver Bullet” by the press, was appealing with its elegance and suppleness. In terms of speed, Luna Rossa was able to keep up with the “Rita”, the English AC75. But the two helmsmen, Spithill and Bruni, made small maneuvering errors here and there. Two technical failures didn’t make things any better.

Nevertheless, it was a good performance from the Italians. The big question now is whether team owner Patrizio Bertelli will compete again. If he has that intention, he will have to leave the helm to younger sailors after Spithill and probably Bruni retire. There are plenty of them in Italy: Luna Rossa won the Youth America’s Cup in a convincing manner.

New Zealand goes into the race as favorites

Ineos Britannia, which is financed by English billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, successfully took revenge for its defeat in the Challenger final in Auckland more than three years ago by defeating Luna Rossa. Like the Italians back then, the English are the Challenger of Record (COR) in this cup, i.e. the first challenger to Defender New Zealand.

Together with him they worked out the cup protocol and were able to introduce their ideas and have an influence. The COR reached the Cup final twice in the AC75 class era. This is a sign that this position brings with it an advantage over the other Challengers. According to reports, New Zealand and England have agreed that the winner should choose the losing team as COR for the 38th America’s Cup.

Defender New Zealand against Challenger England – that is the pairing for the 37th America’s Cup. After taking part in the pre-regatta and qualifying phase, the New Zealanders have fallen out of the headlines. They completed training trips in their cup boat, barely noticed by the public.

The first two races will take place a week from today. The winner is whoever achieves seven wins first. Team New Zealand is aiming for a hat trick and is going into the racing series as favorites. It won the two preliminary regattas and the qualifying series despite competing out of competition.

The New Zealanders’ problem will be the lack of competition practice. You will face an opponent who comes from a strong and balanced racing series and can compete with great self-confidence. And whose starving skipper Ben Ainslie wants to seize the historic opportunity to make history with the first British Cup victory.