By Greg Pearson
The America’s Cup World Series has received a boost with three-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie launching a new team, set to join the AC45 catamaran circuit after the Brit attempts to defend his Finn title at the London Games.
The new team, named Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR), brings the number of boats competing on the AC World Series to 11 – including Italian syndicate Luna Rossa who will also make their debut later this year.
But interestingly, BAR will not be a part of the next America’s Cup proper, to be held in San Francisco next year.
"I have to be very clear, we have absolutely no intention whatsoever of competing as a challenger for the 34th America's Cup," Ainslie announced today.
Instead, Ainslie will sail with Oracle Racing for their defence in San Francisco, then mount a challenge for the next Cup.
“I think with the direction the Cup has taken in the last few years, it’s actually really important that Oracle Racing win again and it continues on the path that it has taken” said Ainslie, who was part of Team New Zealand’s challenge in 2007.
That is unlikely to be a view shared by the other syndicates, who are likely to spend hundreds of millions to take the Auld Mug from the Oracle team headed by four time Cup winner Sir Russell Coutts.
Oracle already have two AC45’s sailing on the World Series, and BAR’s entry will effectively bring that to three of the eleven boats, with Oracle, backed by American software billionaire Larry Ellison, underwriting the initial set up costs for the new team – around $4.8 million.
BAR’s position with Oracle also leaves the 34th America’s Cup with just four teams officially entered at this stage – defenders Oracle, and three challengers - Emirates Team New Zealand, Artemis Racing and Luna Rossa.
"It's just not realistic in the time frame that we have in terms of putting the team together and designing and building an AC72,” said Ainslie, in reference to the new monster catamarans that will sail for the Cup in San Francisco.
If Ainslie, considered one of the world’s best sailors and with experience in the America’s Cup is unable to mount a new challenge, what chances are there of anyone else entering?
Of the other teams currently sailing on the World Series but yet to pay the entry fee for next year, all are new players and most still lag a long way behind the likes of World Series leaders Team New Zealand on the water.
Even if one or two do make it to the start line of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series in San Francisco, will five or six challengers really blow life into the sails of the new look America’s Cup that Oracle has envisioned?
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