Great Britain secured a place in the America’s Cup for the first time in 60 years as four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie skippered Ineos Britannia to victory over Italy.
Heading into Friday with a 6-4 lead in the first-to-seven Louis Vuitton Cup series, Ineos Britannia needed to win just one of the two scheduled races off the Barcelona coast to be anointed official challengers to Emirates Team New Zealand.
Ineos Britannia built on a fast start to open up a 150-metre lead over Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli boat after the first leg of eight.
The Italians fought back over the fifth leg, closing to within 30 metres, but Ineos Britannia swiftly re-established their advantage to speed clear and finish as comfortable winners by 300m.
It was success at the third attempt for Ainslie’s crew and ends a wait stretching back to 1964, as Ineos Britannia go on to face New Zealand in the final over another best-of-seven series from October 12 to 21.
In 1964, a team led by Peter Scott overcame a second British yacht, Kurrewa, to attain challenger status, but were then routed 4-0 by America’s dominant New York Yacht Club.
Britain celebrated its first and only America’s Cup win in the inaugural regatta in 1851, when the Royal Yacht Squadron won a fleet race around the Isle of Wight.
While Britain duly provided the challenger for 16 of the 18 subsequent races between 1870 and 1964, the crews were unsuccessful on each occasion.
The New York Yacht Club reeled off a series of 25 straight wins until the Americans were finally deposed by Australia in Fremantle in 1987.
“It is a massive day for our team and I can’t say how proud I am of everyone, not just here on the water but also back on the shore in Barcelona and a lot of people back in Brackley in the UK helping us on the technical side,” Ainslie said in his post-race interview on the America’s Cup YouTube channel.
“So this is for the team, it was massive effort to get us here and is a massive moment for all of them.
“We started this team 10 years ago, Britain wasn’t in the America’s Cup, it took a lot of people to come in and support the team financially, of course Jim (Ratcliffe) and his team at Ineos.
“So it is another huge thank you to all the supporters of British Sailing and Britain’s America’s Cup (team) over the years, this moment is for you.”
Britannia had beaten Swiss team Alinghi 5-2 in the semi-finals to earn another crack at reaching the America’s Cup.
Ineos chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe was in Barcelona for the races, and joined the celebrations with the crew.
Ainslie added: “There is a lot of pressure, these huge organisations have made a lot of investment of time and money, and you want to make it right, to make it count, I am just so delighted for the whole team.
“But also I want to give a shout out to Luna Rossa, they are an amazing team with an amazing history in the cup.
“They are incredible opponents and we expect this wont be the last time we have a big fight against those boys.”
Ratcliffe hopes Britannia’s efforts in Barcelona will help capture the imagination back home.
“It’s 60 years since we’ve been in this place. They sailed a faultless race today,” Ratcliffe told BBC Sport.
“This is right up there really. It’s not followed by the mass public, but I think in the UK now it’ll pick up momentum, and it should do because it’s the oldest international trophy in the world and the only one we haven’t won.”
