BRITANNIA DIARIES
BRITANNIA DIARIES // The story of Britain’s 36th America’s Cup challenge
013 // THE FANS & TEAM // Auckland
Throughout the 36th America's Cup we received unbelievable support from home and in Auckland, we can't wait to represent you again for the 37th America's Cup.
"The support of our families in Auckland and our friends and supporters back home really drove us on" - Ben Ainslie
For the first AC37 ‘Britannia’ chapter sign up for The Inside Tack Show LIVE via www.ineosbritannia.com 04.10.2021 - 12:30
013 // BRITANNIA DIARIES // PRADA CUP FINAL EXIT // 13.02.2021 - 21.02.2021
The PRADA Cup Final, a first to seven-win series, began on 13th February against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
Light airs and faultless Italian performances were the theme throughout the series. After four years of dedication, hard work, grit and hundreds of thousands of work hours from the 100+ strong team, our 36th America’s Cup campaign came to an end on 21st February with the Italian challenger of record winning the PRADA Cup Final 7-1.
“Of course, we are disappointed, but I could not be prouder of the team and how they have dealt with the challenges we have faced over the past four years. We started this team in 2014 with the goal to bring the America’s Cup back to Britain and as far as we’re concerned, we still need to get the job done” - Ben Ainslie
For the first AC37 ‘Britannia’ chapter sign up for The Inside Tack Show LIVE via www.ineosbritannia.com 04.10.2021 - 12:30
012 // PRADA CUP ROUND ROBIN // 15.01.2021 - 23.01.2021
After an intense three-week period, which saw the whole team work around the clock in the shed and on the water to improve performance, it was time to test BRITANNIA's mettle as official Challenger Selection Series racing began.
The racing was spectacular and the British turnaround was equally as impressive winning 5 from 5 races and qualifying directly to the PRADA Cup final.
The hard work paid off but bigger races lay ahead.
For the first AC37 ‘Britannia’ chapter sign up for The Inside Tack Show LIVE via www.ineosbritannia.com 04.10.2021 - 12:30
011 // THE RELENTLESS PUSH // 23.12.2020 - 12.01.2021
The team had a lot of work to do after the World Series & with only 25 days until the PRADA Cup, the clock was ticking to improve Britannia's performance.
“The team has been working flat out and we think we have improved a lot from where we were. We have brought a lot of new parts online including a new rudder, new rudder elevator, new mast, new mainsail, and new headsails. Then alongside that we have made modifications to our foils, to the aero package on our hull and we have changed the systems inside the hull. We knew our development from the World Series would have to be significant and we have certainly been busy."
Office, shed and BRITANNIA the relentless push continued.
010 // AMERICA'S CUP WORLD SERIES // 17.12.20
Racing finally got underway on 17th December in the America’s Cup World Series & the Prada Christmas Cup, preliminary racing ahead of the Prada Cup & America’s Cup.
Britannia started racing with a number of technical and performance issues, specifically in the lighter end of the wind scale. This culminated in our final race against Emirates Team New Zealand being abandoned with neither team able to make the 45min race time limit.
“This has been the most important week in our campaign. It is obvious for everyone to see we are struggling in the light airs. We have three weeks to improve our performance to get us into contention in the PRADA Cup." - @benainslie
09 // RB2 FIRST SAIL // 16.10.20
BRITANNIA took flight for the first time in the Auckland Harbour, a significant evolution from the team’s first AC75 with noticeable changes to hull shape, deck layout and more.
“It was great to be out on Auckland waters, delivering perfect conditions for our first commissioning sail of Britannia. A huge thank you to the whole shore team and in particular the systems team for their efforts to get us out on the water.
“The early performance indications were good, but we need to maximise our time on the water. The hard work continues.” – Ben Ainslie
08 // RB2 DELIVERY/LAUNCH // 10.20
On 16th October 2020, we officially christened our race boat for the 36th America’s Cup ‘BRITANNIA’ from the team’s base in Auckland, New Zealand, three months before the start of racing for the 36th America’s Cup.
BRITANNIA, pays homage one of Britain’s most famous racing yachts as we sought to become the first British team ever to win the America’s Cup, the world’s oldest international sporting trophy.
07 // RB2 DESIGN/PRODUCTION/BUILD // 01.10.2019 - 16.10.20
Following the team’s first AC75, their second boat, codenamed ‘RB2’, was also built at Carrington Boats in Hythe. For the team’s second build in as many years, however, there was the added complication of a global pandemic to factor in which threatened to wreak havoc upon planned timelines.
During 2020, The design and building process of RB2 welcomed 30 members of the Mercedes F1 Applied Science team. Led by Director Graham Miller, they became embedded with the British challenge, and dedicated themselves to help delivering and accelerating performance on the water.
06 // RB1 WINTER TRAINING (CAGLIARI) // 09.01.20
The start of the new year brought the beginning of the team's winter training camp in Cagliari, Italy as preparations stepped up another level ahead of the America’s Cup World Series event in Sardinia (subsequently cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic).
05 // Britannia I takes flight // 12.10.19
After months of hard work, RB1 took flight for the first time on the Solent, UK.
04 // Britannia I Launch // 04.10.19
A significant day in our challenge for the 36th America’s Cup. It marked the launch of the team’s first AC75 race boat, the first in a brand-new concept of boat. Launched at the team’s base in Portsmouth the 75-foot, 6.5 tonne black foiling monohull was christened ‘Britannia’ by Julia Ratcliffe in homage to one of Britain’s most famous racing yachts.
RB1 was launched at the team’s base in Portsmouth the 75-foot, 6.5 tonne black foiling monohull was christened ‘Britannia’ by Julia Ratcliffe in homage to one of Britain’s most famous racing yachts.
03 // Britannia I development // 24.04.18 - 04.10.19
Britannia I required eighteen months of design, build and development of one of the most complex America’s Cup class boats in the 168-year history of the event. Indeed, from the moment the AC75 Class Rule was published on 29th March 2018 by the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, the team put in over 90,000 design hours and 50,000 construction hours to get Britannia in the water.
02 // T5 Winter Training // 01.02.2019
The team headed to Mar Menor, Spain for 3 months of T5 Winter Testing
01 // TEAM LAUNCH & T5 REVEALED
26.04.2018 – Sir Jim Ratcliffe announces partnership with Sir Ben Ainslie & his team to challenge for the America’s Cup.
31.08.2018 – The British Challenger reveals the first images of the team’s first test boat built in their 36th America’s Cup challenge, a 28-foot foiling test boat codenamed ‘T5’.
The boat began sailing in the Solent in late June 2018 and was sailed regularly throughout the summer. T5, built for a crew of two, was scaled to 40% of the AC75. It began life as a Quant 28 before being significantly modified by the INEOS TEAM UK shore team to match the fundamental parameters of the AC75, the class of boat for the 36th America’s Cup.
The modifications made involved installing two foil arms, T-foils and control systems, changing the rudder, deck layout, hardware and rig. Those modifications allowed the team to learn to sail a completely new concept of sailboat and verify computer modelling and simulations for the design of their first race boat.
“The AC75 is the class of boat, a foiling monohull with twin lifting T-foils, is a very new concept and we felt that it was critical to our campaign to get on the water quickly with a boat of this type, albeit a small-scale version of the one we’ll race.” - Sir Ben Ainslie
The Race was on.