The 38th America’s Cup remains in a news lock-down following the breakup of the Challenger of Record team INEOS Britannia.
Since the announcement by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS Sports that it had replaced the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup team CEO Sir Ben Ainslie with Dave Endean, and would use the accumulated design expertise of their Mercedes F1 Team to challenge for the next America’s Cup, the organisation of the next America’s Cup has ground to a halt.
Ben Ainslie responded to the boardroom coup by replacing INEOS Britannia with his own team, Athena Racing, as the representative challenger team for the 38th America’s Cup.
Although the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd has yet (as of 15 February) to update its website to reflect that position and continues to show INEOS Britannia as its representative!
Media speculation since that upset has focussed on the state of Ratcliffe’s INEOS Sports, who manage his company’s sport portfolio.
They have been carrying out an appraisal of the various holdings in the light of changed trading conditions the INEOS chemical business, with the Chemical Industries Assoc., warning of more plant closure announcements. The results have apparently triggered the implementation of several cost-saving measures within INEOS Sports .
A direct result of that was the decision to end its sponsorship of the New Zealand Rugby team early. Claiming that . . . ‘Unfortunately, rather than working towards a managed solution, New Zealand Rugby have chosen to pursue legal action against their sponsor.’
And presumably those changed conditions were a factor in the INEOS Britannia decision, where the Ineos statement used similar language . . . it could “not find agreement” with Ainslie on “terms to move forward” after last year’s event in Barcelona.
Ratcliffe’s handling of both the Ben Ainslie and the New Zealand Rugby situations demonstrated that you do it Jim’s way or no-way!
Ainslie now has some difficult financial questions to solve if his dream of bringing the Auld Mug back to Britain is to be realised. There has been no hint of how he will fund Athena Racing to design and build a new AC75 boat for the 38th America’s Cup.
The rumour mill has hinted at middle eastern involvement, both for a possible Cup venue and even direct team backing.
Ainslie’s top ranked SailGP Team has the Dubai-based Emirates airline as its main team sponsor.
In a recent Sailing Illustrated internet show, Tom Ehman added long time North Sails investors, Oakley Capital to the list of possible Ainslie backers.
The Oakley Capital website says . . . ‘We invest in profitable, high-growth businesses across Europe. We focus on mid-market companies with an enterprise value between €100 million and 1 billion-plus and we seek to acquire controlling equity positions’ . . . Does that sound like an America’s Cup team?
