INEOS Britannia

INEOS Britannia
Career
Yacht club	Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (2012-2013)  Royal Yacht Squadron (2015-Present)
Established	2012
Nation	United Kingdom
Team principal(s)	Sir Jim Ratcliffe Sir Ben Ainslie
CEO	Sir Ben Ainslie
Skipper	Sir Ben Ainslie
Notable victories	Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series 2024
Yachts
Sail no.	Boat name
GBR-3	R1 (AC50)
GBR-3	Britannia (AC75)

INEOS Britannia is a British sailing team that is the challenger of record for the 37th America's Cup.

The team was established in 2012 with the ambition of winning the America's Cup for Great Britain and to 'bring the cup home' to the United Kingdom. The team joined forces with INEOS in 2018. In 2021 the team challenged for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron.

The team is backed by INEOS founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe and led by the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie, who is owner team principal, CEO and skipper.

In January 2012, Ben Ainslie announced the formation of a British team to compete in the America's Cup, called Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR). His team competed in the AC45 class for the remaining races of the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series to develop experience and generate interest from sponsors.^[1] The team was also known as J.P. Morgan BAR in this early period and competed for the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club.^[2]

In January 2014, Ainslie began the process of raising £100M to fund the team, as well as development of racing yachts which was projected to take 30% of the budget. The project was initially backed by 12 core supporters including Sir Charles Dunstone and Sir Keith Mills.^[3] In December 2014 Ben Ainslie Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) announced that they would work together on the America's Cup project, with Formula One designer Adrian Newey leading RBAT's efforts regarding design and engineering.^[4] J.P. Morgan indicated that it was not planning to continue sponsorship and the team began the search for a new title sponsor.^[5]

In April 2014, as part of the launch of Rear Admiral Rob Stevens's 'Transforming Solent' report, which makes 36 recommendations with 15 prioritised at an investment cost of £91M, Ainslie announced plans to build a team headquarters in the Solent area.^[6] Having reviewed a number of sites, the project put forward plans to develop an operational building at Camber Dock, as part of the wider redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour.^[7] On 18 June, Portsmouth Council approved plans for the £12M main operations building, which Ainslie confirmed would be built subject to £8M of requested UK Government-backed development funding.^[8] On 1 July 2014, in a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, central government funding of £7.5M towards the operational building's construction was confirmed, with construction reliant on final planning permission from the council and the project raising the additional required funds.^[9] The operational building is also where the boats are designed and manufactured, and contains administration and full crew development facilities. The design was developed by HGP Architects,^[10] which also designed the nearby Spinnaker Tower. The building was opened in June 2015 and featured approximately 400 solar panels generating 130MWh/y,^[11] ventilation features and insulation to improve its sustainability.^[10]

In September 2018 it was announced^[12] that sailing clothing brand Henri Lloyd would continue its long partnership with Sir Ben by supplying the kit for INEOS Team UK in the pursuit of the 36th challenge of the America's Cup in 2021.

On 4 October 2021, the team announced a high-performance partnership with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, bringing together the best of the worlds of high-performance marine and automotive engineering, with the goal to win the America's Cup for Britain.

The team is based in Brackley, home of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. James Allison will be the technical lead of the team's 37th America's Cup challenge in his capacity as Chief Technical Officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and INEOS Britannia.

JP Morgan BAR initially competed in the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series competing in their AC45 catamaran. The team had excellent performance in two events in San Francisco but slipped to a surprise defeat in Naples in April 2013.^[13] In August 2013, the competition jury received a report from Oracle Team USA that their boat and others they had loaned had unauthorised modifications.^[14] Since they were using one of the out of measurement boats provided by Team Oracle USA, Ainslie withdrew his team from the competition on 7 August 2013. They denied that they had any prior knowledge that the boat was out of measurement, and were scored DSQ (disqualified) from the series.^[15]

America's Cup World Series 2012-2013
	Team	Skipper	Total pts	Notes
1	Oracle Racing	Jimmy Spithill Tom Slingsby	274	DSQ
2	Luna Rossa Challenge	Chris Draper	204
3	Ben Ainslie Racing	Ben Ainslie	196	DSQ
4	Team New Zealand	Dean Barker	193
5	Artemis Racing	Terry Hutchinson Charlie Ekberg	181
6	Energy Team	Loick Peyron Yann Guichard	175
7	Luna Rossa Challenge	Francesco Bruni Paul Cambell-James Iker Martínez	165
8	Oracle Racing	Russell Coutts Darren Bundock	114
9	Team Korea	Chris Draper Pete Burling	110
10	Artemis Racing	Nathan Outteridge Santiago Lange	98
11	China Team	Phil Robertson Mitch Booth	78
12	HS Racing	Roman Hagara	39	DSQ

In 2013, the team set a new multihull record of 2 hours 52 minutes 15 seconds for the Round the Island Race in their AC45.

The team did not enter to compete in the 34th America's Cup, with Ben Ainslie instead sailing as helm onboard Oracle Team USA's second AC72 in the team's training programme ahead of the event. During the 34th America's Cup match, Oracle Team USA were losing to Emirates Team New Zealand 8–1. The American syndicate decided to replace tactician John Kostecki with Ainslie, and went on to win 10 consecutive race wins to win the America's Cup. Ben Ainslie was credited as one of the key reasons behind their famous comeback to win the America's Cup in 2013. Several of the team's other key sailors also competed for Luna Rossa Challenge in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series.

Club	Name	Launch date	Class
Royal Yacht Squadron	T1	October 2014	AC45F
Royal Yacht Squadron	T2	October 2015	AC45 Turbo
Royal Yacht Squadron	T3	April 2016	AC45 Turbo
Royal Yacht Squadron	R1	February 2017	AC50

Sailor	Position
Ben Ainslie	Skipper
Giles Scott	Tactician
Paul Cambell-James	Mainsail Trimmer
Bleddyn Mon	Trimmer
Jonathan Macbeth	Grinder
Nick Hutton	Grinder
David Carr	Grinder
Neil Hunter	Grinder
Ed Powys	Grinder

Following Ainslie's win representing the US, it was announced that Ben Ainslie Racing would challenge for the 35th America's Cup in 2017. The team competed in the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series, finishing 5th overall in the Extreme 40 class catamaran.

The team raced in 2015-16 America's Cup World Series in the AC45F catamaran class, winning events in Portsmouth, Toulon and Fukuoka to take the overall series win.

America's Cup World Series 2015-2016
	Team	Skipper	Total pts
1	Land Rover BAR	Sir Ben Ainslie	512
2	Oracle Team USA	Jimmy Spithill	493
3	Emirates Team New Zealand	Pete Burling	485
4	Softbank Team Japan	Dean Barker	466
5	Artemis Racing	Nathan Outteridge	460
6	Groupama Team France	Franck Cammas	419

In March 2015, former McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh was announced as Ben Ainslie Racing's CEO. In June 2015, Ben Ainslie announced a partnership with Land Rover and changed the team's name to Land Rover BAR.

The team's win in the 2015–16 America's Cup World Series conferred points towards the 2017 Louis Vuitton Cup in Bermuda, which began May 2017. The team was knocked out of the competition by New Zealand in the Challenger semi-final. The defeat was attributed simply to the greater speed of the opponent's boat.

Round Robins
	Team	W	L	ACWS pts	Total pts
1	Oracle Team USA	8	2	0	9
2	Emirates Team New Zealand	8	2	0	8
3	Land Rover BAR	4	6	2	6
4	Artemis Racing	5	5	0	5
5	Softbank Team Japan	3	7	0	3
5	Groupama Team France	2	8	0	2

Semi Finals
	Team	W	L
1	Emirates Team New Zealand	5	2
2	Land Rover BAR	2	5

Following the announcement that alongside the 35th Americas Cup would be held the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup, Land Rover BAR launched the Land Rover BAR Academy in January 2016, with over 150 young British sailors under the age of 24 applying to be part of the team. Of these sailors, a team of sailors were selected. The squad trained and competed on a GC32 Class catamaran in the Extreme Sailing Series in 2016 and 2017, under the expert guidance of the team's senior sailors and coaches.

The team raced in Bermuda in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America's Cup in the AC45F foiling catamaran class, finishing in 1st place with 50 points, 2 points ahead of their nearest rivals from New Zealand. The team was credited with being the only team to race with a female sailor on board.

Qualifying Group A
	Team	Skipper	Total Pts
1	Artemis Youth Racing	Rasmus Rosengren	55
2	SVB Team Germany	Paul Kohlhoff	47
3	Team Tilt	Sebastien Schneiter	46
4	Team France Jeune	Robin Follin	46
5	Youth Vikings Denmark	Daniel Bjørnholt	43
6	Kaijin Team Japan	Ibuki Koizumi	33

Qualifying Group B
	Team	Skipper	Total Pts
1	NZL Sailing Team	Logan Dunning-Beck	51
2	Land Rover BAR Academy	Rob Bunce	51
3	Spanish Impulse	Jordi Xammar	51
4	Team BDA	MacKenzie Cooper	45
5	Next Generation USA	Carson Crain	36
6	Candidate Sailing Team	Lukas Höllwerth	36

Final
	Team	Skipper	Total Pts
1	Land Rover BAR Academy	Rob Bunce	50
2	NZL Sailing Team	Logan Dunning-Beck	48
3	Team Tilt	Sebastien Schneiter	42
4	Artemis Youth Racing	Rasmus Rosengren	37
5	Team France Jeune	Robin Follin	35
6	Spanish Impulse	Jordi Xammar	34
7	SVB Team Germany	Paul Kohlhoff	33
8	Team BDA	MacKenzie Cooper	33

Sailor	Position
Neil Hunter	Skipper
Rob Bunce	Skipper
Chris Taylor	Helm
Owen Bowerman	Helm
Annabel Vose	Tactician
Elliot Hanson	Mainsail Trimmer
Will Alloway	Mainsail Trimmer
Adam Kay	Trimmer
Oli Greber	Trimmer
Sam Batten	Trimmer

Following on from Land Rover BAR Academy's success over the previous two years in the GC32 class, the team, newly sponsored by INEOS competed simultaneously in the 2018 Extreme Sailing Series and the 2018 GC32 Racing Tour, both in the hydro-foiling GC32 Class catamaran class. The INEOS Rebels youth team finished in 4th place overall in the Extreme Sailing Series, whilst the senior INEOS Team UK team finished in 2nd place overall in the GC32 Racing Tour, with several event wins. Following the collapse of the Extreme Sailing Series at the end of 2018, the team began using their two GC32s for two boat training in preparation for their 36th America's Cup campaign.

Extreme Sailing Series 2018
	Team	Skipper	Total Pts
1	Alinghi	Arnaud Psarofaghis	92
2	Oman Air	Phil Robertson	83
3	SAP Extreme Sailing Team	Adam Minoprio	83
4	Red Bull Sailing Team	Roman Hagara	72
5	INEOS Rebels UK	Leigh Macmillan	70
6	Team Mexico	Erik Brockmann	56

GC32 Racing Tour 2018
	Team	Skipper	Total Pts
1	Norauto	Franck Cammas	7
2	INEOS Team UK	Sir Ben Ainslie	17
3	Zoulou	Erik Maris	19
4	Realteam	Jerome Clerc	20
5	Argo	Jason Carroll	23
6	Frank Racing	Simon Hull	27
7	.film Racing	Simon Delzoppo	31
8	Codigo Rojo Racing	Frederico Ferioli	41

On 26 November 2019, SailGP announced that Ben Ainslie would join the Great Britain SailGP Team as helm on the British F50 foiling catamaran. The team announced title sponsorship from INEOS, with the sailing team made up of both existing SailGP GBR and INEOS Team UK sailors. The collaboration between the teams concluded at the end of 2020.

The team's first and only SailGP event was in Sydney in February 2020. Ainslie's crew won four of the five fleet races, before taking the win in the final race against Tom Slingsby's Australian team. The second round of the 2020 SailGP series was due to be held in San Francisco in May 2020,^[16] however SailGP delayed the second season until 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with points from the Sydney race removed from the championship.^[17]

Sailor	Position
Sir Ben Ainslie	Helm
Chris Draper	CEO
Luke Parkinson	Flight Controller
Iain Jensen	Wing Trimmer
Richard Mason	Trimmer
Matt Gotrel	Grinder
Neil Hunter	Grinder

Pos Team SYD[a] Points 1 2 3 4 5 F 1 Great Britain 1 1 1 1 4 1 47 2 Australia 2 3 5 2 1 2 42 3 Japan 3 4 3 3 3 39 4 Spain 5 2 2 4 2 31 5 United States 4 6 4 5 5 31 6 Denmark 7 5 6 7 6 22 7 France 6 DNS DNS 6 7 14 Citation:[18]

Key Colour Result 1 Winner 2 Second place 3 Third place 4–7 Finish DNF Did not finish DNS Did not start DSQ Disqualified WH Withheld from racing C Race cancelled

In 2018 it was announced that the team would join forces with INEOS and would challenge for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, as INEOS Team UK.^[19] The team will race for Royal Yacht Squadron Racing.

The INEOS team boasts a world class sailing crew including Team Principal Skipper Sir Ben Ainslie and fellow Olympic Gold medallist Giles Scott. Combined, the team has 16 America's Cup wins and eight Olympic medals.^[20]

INEOS Team UK's leadership team includes four times Cup winner Grant Simmer as CEO^[21] and Nick Holroyd, who was instrumental in bringing foiling technology into the Cup, as Chief Designer.^[22]

On 4 October 2019 INEOS Team UK launched their first America's Cup boat from their HQ in Portsmouth, naming her ‘Britannia’ in homage to one of Britain's most famous racing yachts, after over 90,000 design hours and 50,000 construction hours.^[23]

In January 2020 the team relocated to Cagliari, Sardinia, for a winter training camp with the team's first America's Cup boat.^[24] In March 2020, however, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic the team made the decision to withdraw all sailing operations from Sardinia and return to the UK.^[25]

In October 2020 the team relocated to Auckland for the 36th America's Cup^[26] and on 16 October the team launched their race boat for the 36th America's Cup, Britannia, a foiling monohull capable of estimated top speeds of over 50 knots (93 km/H, 57.5 MP/H) and a significant evolution from the team's first AC75 with noticeable changes to hull shape, deck layout and more.^[27]

Club	Name	Launch date	Class
Royal Yacht Squadron	T5	August 2018	Quant 28F
Royal Yacht Squadron	Britannia	October 2019	AC75
Royal Yacht Squadron	Britannia II	October 2020	AC75

Sailor	Position
Sir Ben Ainslie	Skipper
Giles Scott	Tactician
Leigh Macmillan	Flight Controller
Luke Parkinson	Flight Controller
Bleddyn Mon	Mainsail Trimmer
Joey Newton	Trimmer
Nick Hutton	Trimmer
Richard Mason	Trimmer
Ben Cornish	Grinder
Chris Brittle	Grinder
David Carr	Grinder
Graeme Spence	Grinder
Matt Gotrel	Grinder
Neil Hunter	Grinder
Oli Greber	Grinder
Tim Carter	Grinder

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first two events in the 2019-20 America's Cup World Series due to be held in Cagliari^[28] and Portsmouth^[29] were cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports. The four AC36 teams competed in the third and final ACWS event in Auckland in December 2020. INEOS Team UK struggled to keep their AC75 foiling during their manoeuvres, consequently ending the event with no wins, and in last place overall.

ACWS Auckland
	Team	Helm	W	L
1	Emirates Team New Zealand	Pete Burling	5	1
2	American Magic	Dean Barker	4	2
3	Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli	James Spithill Francesco Bruni	3	3
4	INEOS Team UK	Sir Ben Ainslie	0	6

Following a disappointing performance in the Auckland ACWS event in December 2020, the team spent the following three weeks making modifications to their boat Britannia ahead of the start of the Prada Cup qualifying series. This included a new mast and sails as well as modifications to the hull and foils. The team received support from INEOS sponsored Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

INEOS Team UK dominated the Round Robin phase of the Prada Cup which saw them race and beat each of the two other challenger teams three times, securing their place in the Prada Cup Final beginning on 13 February 2021. The team's place in the Prada Cup final marked a significant point in their campaign, being the furthest any British challenge had progressed in the competition since the introduction of a challenger selection series.

Round Robins
	Team	Helm	W	L
1	INEOS Team UK	Sir Ben Ainslie	6	0
2	Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli	James Spithill Francesco Bruni	3	3
3	American Magic	Dean Barker	0	6

After Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's win in the Prada Cup Semi-Finals against American Magic, the American team was eliminated from the event, securing the Italian team's place in the Prada Cup Final alongside INEOS Team UK.

The Prada Cup Finals were held in predominantly light wind (8-14 knots), with Luna Rossa showing great improvement in boat handling, winning the first 5 races consecutively. INEOS Team UK showed superior downwind pace in Race 6, taking their sole race win before Luna Rossa dominated Day 4 to take their sixth and seventh race win for the Prada Cup overall, and securing their place in the 36th America's Cup Match against Emirates Team New Zealand.

Final
	Team	Helm	W	L
1	Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli	James Spithill Francesco Bruni	7	1
2	INEOS Team UK	Sir Ben Ainslie	1	7

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