The wait is over . . . Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Britannia sailing team has abandoned its challenge for the next America’s Cup.
Ratcliffe, Chairman of INEOS, has abandoned the Ineos team challenge, blaming “a protracted negotiation” with former skipper Sir Ben Ainslie and his Athena Racing team.
In a statement, Ineos said “The agreement that had been reached with Athena would have allowed both parties to compete in the next Cup, but it depended on a rapid resolution.”
“Ineos Britannia had agreed the substantive terms very quickly, but Athena failed to bring the agreement to a timely conclusion.”
“Ineos Britannia is of the opinion that this six-month delay has undermined its ability to prepare for the next Cup and so has reluctantly withdrawn its challenge.”
Ratcliffe said, “This was a very difficult decision to have taken following our challenge at the last two America’s Cups. We were the most successful British challenger in modern times with an exceptionally quick boat and we felt with the very effective input from the Mercedes F1 engineers that we had a real chance to win at the next Cup. Unfortunately, the opportunity has slipped away.”
In February, Ainslie’s Athena Racing claimed it was the official Challenger of Record for the 38th America’s Cup, and intended to continue with their challenge for the 38th America’s Cup.
Ainslie will now face a major task to regroup and make a realistic challenge with a new boat, without the continuation of the Ineos/Mercedes backing combination that took the British challenger to their best result in modern times . . . reaching a first AC final since 1964 in the 37th AC edition last year.
