Jon Excell

Engineering an America's Cup contender

In-Depth

A deep relationship with top-flight motorsport is driving Britain’s latest assault on sailing’s oldest competition, the America’s cup. Jon Excell reports.

From the finer points of cricket’s LBW law to the intricacies of the Rugby scrum, professional sport is awash with obscure rules that probably wouldn’t make it past the ideas stage if you were to reinvent the game today.

But perhaps one of the strangest laws of them all is reserved for sailing’s most prestigious trophy, the America’s Cup, where the winner of one competition gets to set the rules for next.

It’s an inherently unfair set up, which hands the incumbent a huge advantage and makes it difficult for a challenger to wrestle the trophy from their grasp. But it also helps to drive engineering innovation in an event that has become one of sporting’s greatest spectacles.

And as the competing teams gear up for the 36th iteration of the event (which takes place in New Zealand next March) The Engineer caught up with Ineos Team UK, the Ben Ainslie led racing team that hopes to become the first British winner of the 170 year old trophy.

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