After finishing last at the first AC40 Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltru, Ben Ainslie admitted that they got it wrong.
The Ineos Britannia CEO/Helm commented; “We are really frustrated with our performance, whilst we have focused our strategy on testing T6 and not the AC40 it’s still not acceptable for us to be at the back of the fleet. We clearly got the balance wrong, and we need to put that right.”
In what was a difficult event for all six America’s Cup teams, with only one day briefly producing reasonable foiling conditions, the British team seemed at a loss.
They failed to make any impression, while the French who had less than 15 days of sailing on the boat, won a race and finished third overall.
This limited training time was highlighted in the fifth race by the performance of the Kiwis, who even when they fell to last place, behind the Brits, after falling off the foils while leading, where able to recover to take second place at the finish behind American Magic.
Ainslie, “Despite the frustration, there are still positives to take away from it in terms of the learning and what is making a difference for our competitors in this boat and how we can improve for the next preliminary event in Jeddah, but also applying those techniques when we start sailing our AC75 Race Boat next year.
“Days like today are tough for the team and we now have to find the balance to improve in the AC40 regatta but also keep our development focus on the America’s Cup”
Time will tell if this strategy produces a Cup winning AC75 for the 37th America’s Cup.
The second preliminary regatta of the 37th America’s Cup will be held on the waters of the Red Sea in Jeddah, 30 November – 3 December 2023.
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