Am Cup: Ainslie to hit out against Kiwi team
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 19 Jun 2018 08:23 AEST
19 June 2018
Frank Racing 2018 GC32 World Championship, 2018, Lake Garda © Pedro Martinez / GC32 World Championship
The Ben Ainslie skippered INEOS Team UK will hit out against a New Zealand Team Frank Racing, when the Brits join the GC32 Racing Tour at the end of June for the second event of the 2018 tour in Lagos, Portugal.
Yesterday, the British America's Cup Challenger announced they would be shifting from the TP52 keelboat series, where they had been set to race Tony Langley's Gladiator in the 52 Super Series sailed at several Mediterranean venues.
Last October, just four months after being eliminated from the 2017 America's Cup Qualifiers, Ainslie announced that the British team would be sailing in the 52fter event, using an existing British boat, owned by Langley, but with a crew from the then Land Rover BAR team.
That plan seems to have been overturned after Ainslie announced a restructuring of the British America's Cup team now backed by British industrialist, Jim Ratcliffe's INEOS Group.
The privately owned company has interests in the petrochemical and other industries including the development of the replacement for the now-defunct Land Rover Defender 4WD which ceased manufacture in Britain, in 2016 after US and EU safety regulatory considerations forced a complete re-design.
The sponsor shift from the raft of private and corporate backers under the Land Rover BAR banner is the largest single sponsorship in sailing valued at NZD$220million and has provided a budget more than double that of America's Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand.
INEOS turned over an eye watering USD$60billion in 2017 with a record profit of USD$7billion, prompting founder Jim Racliffe to quip: "Even we will struggle to spend USD$7billion!"
The sponsor swap took around four weeks to put together and was made at the end of April 2018.
Soon after the announcement of the sponsor change INEOS Team UK, had to change its name from the initial INEOS Team GB after a spat with the British Olympic Team who claimed ownership of the label "Team GB".
The new GC32 team will carry the branding of Projekt Grenadier - a Land Rover Defender competitor being developed by INEOS. Land Rover was not pleased with the announcement that the Ainslie led America's Cup team were shifting to the aegis of a competitor.
INEOS Team UK will continue to run a second GC32 team the INEOS Rebels - a youth team helmed by Leigh McMillan (38) a double Olympic representative in the Tornado catamaran, and who was backup helmsman for Ainslie in the Land Rover BAR America's Cup challenge. The INEOS Rebels is comprised of sailors in their mid-twenties or less. They lie in 4th place overall after three events in the Extreme Sailing Series which is also sailed in the GC32 one-design foiling catamaran. The Extreme Sailing Series is currently led by former America's Cup champions Alinghi (SUI).
INEOS Team UK also announced the hiring of two 2017 America's Cup crew - Iain Jensen (AUS) who was with Artemis Racing (SWE), and Joey Newton (AUS) who sailed for Oracle Team USA in the 2013 and 2017 America's Cups.
It is not clear if Jensen, an Olympic Gold and Silver medalist in the 49er class, and Newton have signed on for the full America's Cup campaign - which is subject to a strict 100% Nationality Rule - or if they are on board for just the GC32 Racing Tour. If they are in for the long haul, then they must commence a 380 day residency period in the UK between September 1, 2018, and August 31, 2020.
Jensen is the regular crew for Nathan Outteridge in the 49er, who are also direct competitive rivals and sometime training partners of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. There is no word of Outteridge's Olympic or America's Cup intentions, or indeed that of Artemis Racing CEO, Iain Percy (GBR) - a long time friend of Ben Ainslie and also a twice Olympic Gold Medalist and highly experienced America's Cup campaigner.
The hiring of Australians to crew the 11-strong AC75 foiling monohull is a new move for Ainslie who has always been very supportive of drawing on talent from the British Olympic team and other programs. In the last America's Cup, the then Land Rover BAR team set up several programs which would provide an ongoing flow of talent development for the America's Cup program.
The clear implication is that the INEOS Team UK has a far harder and more aggressive edge than its predecessor. Between the two GC32 teams INEOS Team UK have a core of 10 sailors to draw on for the AC75 - all experienced in racing foiling catamarans on the international race circuits.
The Zhik NZ sponsored Frank Racing is separate from Emirates Team New Zealand and competes on the GC32 Racing Tour. The boat is helmed by accomplished ORMA60 skipper Simon Hull with a crew drawn from Youth America's Cup and GC32 ranks. As well as being pitched against Ben Ainslie and INEOS Team UK, Frank Racing will compete against a second America's Cup team skipper, Franck Cammas.
Frank Racing lies fourth overall in the GC32 Racing Tour standings after one event. Cammas is the current series leader.
In Bermuda, Cammas skippered the AC50 Groupama Team France. However the French insurance and financial conglomerate decided not to continue its long-standing sponsorship of Cammas's sailing projects - which had included a 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race win in Groupama. Since the withdrawal of Groupama as a sponsor, Cammas has tried to keep French America's Cup hopes alive, with new naming rights sponsor, multinational car products brand, Norauto.
His success in that regard will become known when entries for the 36th America's Cup first close in less than two weeks on June 30, 2018.