INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record in the 37th America’s Cup, has announced its race crew for the 37th America’s Cup.
INEOS Britannia’s AC75 will have eight crew on-board during racing; two Helms, two Trimmers and four Cyclors (power supply cycling sailors).
Joining Ben Ainslie aboard Britannia for the America’s Cup will be:
- Co-helm Dylan Fletcher
- Trimmers Leigh McMillan and Bleddyn Mon
- Four Cyclors on-board from a pool of nine.
The biggest surprise is the choice of Dylan Fletcher as Co-helm in the starting line-up, over Giles Scott.
Scott recently took over from Anslie on the helm of the teams TP52 multihull on the SailGP race circuit.
Ainslie said: “We have 15 sailors in our squad but eight sailors on the yacht at one time, so clearly we are going to have rotations. We have a bunch of really talented sailors, so in a way we are spoilt for choice.
It’s a very difficult decision to define who you’re going to select in these roles, particularly when you have two such talented sailors in Dylan and Giles.”
INEOS Britannia’s mission to make it to the final match race and bring the Cup home begins this Thursday at the Barcelona Preliminary Regatta.
Taking place between 22-25 August, the Preliminary Regatta will be the first time all six AC75 boats – 5 challengers and the Defender – competing in the Cup will be raced against each other.
INEOS Britannia partnered with Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s Applied Science Division to design and build its AC75, with the teams dedicating more than two-and-a-half years to the process.
The shoreside support crew includes:
- Giles Scott as Head of Sailing
- Iain Jensen as Trimmer Support
- Rob Wilson, Xabi Fernandez and Ian Williams as Coaches
- Pete Cunningham as Head of Human Performance.
INEOS Britannia’s nine strong Cyclor crew will rotate on and off the boat between races to ensure optimum performance.
They include returning America’s Cup athletes: Freddie Carr, Ben Cornish, Matt Gotrel, Neil Hunter and Luke Parkinson.
The further four Cyclors are America’s Cup rookies, with some never having sailed before joining INEOS Britannia.
They include Olympic silver medallist Harry Leask, Matt Rossiter and Ryan Todhunter, who have all moved over from the world of rowing and were selected for their power potential.
The 2019 Finn National Champion James Skulczuk completes the Cyclor line-up, having moved his attention to cycling to stay fit while the Covid-19 pandemic halted his sailing career.
Ainslie said: “We’ve got a great team together for this campaign, not just on-board the boat but also behind the scenes too, including our Technical Partnership with Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
We are lucky to have the support of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS team who have been instrumental in getting us to this point.”
The Barcelona Preliminary Regatta starts on 22 August, with four days of match races to find the two fastest teams.
The top two teams will progress to the winner-takes-all final match race on Sunday 25 August to decide the ultimate winner of the warm-up event. Races start at 13:00 BST each day.
Note Preliminary Regatta results do not count for the Challenger Selection Series.
The Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selections Series), then begins on Thursday 29 August.
That series will determine which of the five Challenging teams will take on Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match.
Related Post . . .
RSS – Posts