Jon Excell

Sir Ben Ainslie unveils America’s Cup yacht in Bermuda

News

British Sailing legend Sir Ben Ainslie has unveiled the high-tech racing catamaran with which he and his Land Rover BAR team hope to win the sport’s oldest and most prestigious trophy.

Named “Rita”, in common with all of Ainslie’s other boats, and unveiled in Bermuda – where the 2017 competition will take place – the boat has been under development at the team’s Portsmouth headquarters for the last couple of years.

Testing will now begin in Bermuda, before five teams vie for the chance to challenge the current America’s Cup holder Oracle Team, USA.

Initial racing begins on the 26th May, and the final America’s cup races start on June 17th.

Whilst a British team has never won the America's Cup (which has been running for 166 years) Ainslie’s team enters the 2017 competition in good shape, having already won the America’s Cup World Series pre-qualifying tournament.

For these earlier stages all the teams involved used identical boats, but for the final stages each team is allowed considerable more design freedom, and the R1 – Land Rover BAR’s boat - is thought to be one of the fastest, most technically advanced racing boats ever designed.

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