America's Cup: Ainslie fights back over Ratcliffe's AC75 ownership claims
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 4 Jun 07:44 PDT
Sir Ben Ainslie will be wearing a different shirt in the next Cup - Barcelona. - 16 October 2024 © Ian Roman / America's Cup
Athena Racing has responded to the lawsuit initiated by Sir Jim Ratcliffe's INEOS Racing, over the ownership of the assets of the 2024 America's Cup Challenger, and a few related matters.
Much of the 42-page counterclaim comprises a paragraph-by-paragraph response to points made in the 13-page claim lodged in mid-April with the High Court of England and Wales, and subsequently transferred to the Admiralty Court for adjudication, as the amount in dispute is expected to exceed £10 million.
In the original Claim Form, INEOS Racing only said they were seeking damages of an unspecified amount.
The legal tennis carries on for the first 31 pages, then a few moggies escape from Athena's kitbag, making for fascinating reading.
Needless to say, Sir Ben Ainslie's Athena Racing maintains its assertion that it owns all the assets and asks, given that entries have closed for the 38th America's Cup and INEOS Racing hasn't entered, what use do they have for the boat and other assets?
The Defence by Athena Racing does reveal how and when the relationship between the two parties began to break down, well before the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona, and ended in a very acrimonious divorce in January 2025. Three months later, in April 2025, Ratcliffe backed away from his earlier announced intention to form a second British Challenge to contest the next America's Cup.
In a section entitled "The Claimant [INEOS] does not come to equity with clean hands" Athena Racing says "the Claimant’s conduct during the term of the Agreement and subsequently has been, by any objective standard, reprehensible and improper.."
It then goes on to outline how "On 12 October 2024, a matter of hours before the first race of the AC37 cup match in Barcelona, when Sir Ben was very shortly due to skipper the INEOS Britannia and lead the team’s challenge for AC37, Jean-Claude Blanc and Mr Nevin of the Claimant [INEOS Racing] attended a meeting at Sir Ben’s office at the Defendant’s [Athena Racing] base in Barcelona."
"During the course of the meeting, Mr Nevin and Mr Blanc demanded that, in order for the Claimant to provide funding for future America’s Cup campaigns for the Defendant, it required the Defendant to transfer to the Claimant all of its assets and intellectual property. Mr Nevin stated to Sir Ben: ‘This is what Jim wants. We have a phrase at INEOS: ‘scorched earth’. It means that if you don’t give Jim what he wants, he will burn your house down’ (or words to that effect). In response, Sir Ben attempted to defuse the situation by reminding Mr Nevin that the first AC37 race would be beginning shortly. Mr Nevin then reiterated and expanded upon his threat, explaining that the only instance in which Sir Jim had backed down from a dispute was one concerning the state of the People’s Republic of China."
Then follows what has been publicly known through various media statements issued by INEOS Racing, including its intention to set up a rival British team.
Athena then says that "on 23 January 2025, Sir Jim sent a letter to several representatives of other America’s Cup teams stating that ‘the Ineos Britannia team will participate in AC38, and I will continue to be closely involved with the campaign. So, I would be keen to be involved in any discussions about the structure of AC38 and the America’s Cup more generally. With the financial, technical and commercial firepower of the global INEOS group, I feel we would have much to contribute.’
"Mr Blanc and Mr Ginns of the Claimant attended a meeting of potential challengers for AC38 with the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, on 28 January 2025, during which various preliminary matters in agreeing the rules and Protocol for AC38 were discussed.
"Mr Nevin and Mr Ginns further attended, and indeed actively participated in, two days of meetings for challengers for AC38 in London on 31 January 2025 and 1 February 2025. These meetings were also attended by (among others) the RNZYS, the US ‘American Magic’ team, the Swiss AC38 team, the French AC38 team and the Defendant.
"It was only on 9 April 2025, via a press release, that the Claimant confirmed that it would not compete in AC38."
Down the Fire Escape
The Defence makes a claim labelled "False Imprisonment" and then outlines a rather bizarre visit made (January 23, 2025) by a representative of INEOS Racing, accompanied by someone Athena believes to be a security contractor who visited the Athena Racing site in Turweston, Northamptonshire.
The purpose of that visit was to inform Athena Racing executives of INEOS Racing's legal view on ownership of the assets and use of the site. Athena say that INEOS "required all individuals to leave the site, and to leave their laptops and any other assets inside."
Athena refused, and asked the INEOS representatives "to leave the premises, which they refused to do and demanded to search the
bags of the Defendant’s employees as they left the site at the end of the working day (which the Defendant’s employees refused to permit)."
"The following day, 24 January 2025, the INEOS representative returned with two associates (believed to be security contractors), and requested from the building’s landlord, the keys to the Defendant’s site." This request was refused.
Athena's response continues:" Shortly thereafter, and in circumstances where the site was routinely locked from the inside, [the INEOS representative] and his associates proceeded to chain and padlock the doors to the Defendant’s site from the outside, and affixed ‘No Entry’ signs.
"In so doing ... at all times acting on behalf of the Claimant, imprisoned the Defendant’s employees in the site without any lawful authority. In the premises, the Claimant committed the tort of false imprisonment."
"Mr Robinson and Sir Ben were subsequently able to exit the site via the fire escape and persuaded [INEOS} to remove the chains and padlocks, by informing him that his actions were intimidating the Defendant’s members of staff and causing health and safety risks." The three visitors subsequently left the property.
Other claims in this section relate to the locking out of Athena Racing from their IT systems and data, unauthorised transfer of the AC team's domain name. Access to the Athena Racing IT was not restored until July 2025 "following significant correspondence and the threat of injunctive relief by the Defendant [Athena]".
Athena Racing say in the Defence response that they have been "(and continues to be) prevented by MercedesF1 from accessing key physical assets and resources held at MercedesF1’s factory at Brackley, near the Turweston site; these include Beckhoff control units, which control the systems on America’s Cup yachts, and which contain valuable data."
"The Defendant also has been (and continues to be) prevented by MercedesF1 from accessing a physical simulator which is believed to be held at the Brackley factory."
Athena Racing claim that five months before the start of the 2024 America's Cup, they were told by INEOS Sport to "look for other funding sources" and that it was unlikely that INEOS would support Athena Racing for another Cup campaign.
Athena further claims that at the official launch of their America's Cup challenger, Sir Jim Ratcliffe told Sir Ben to seek alternative funding sources. Just before the start of the 2024 Cup Match, Athena says it managed to obtain £15 million for its AC38 campaign from alternative sources. That offer was not taken up by Athena Racing, but later, Oakley Capital provided investment, as publicly announced.
A little surprisingly, the two estranged parties don't differ too much on the total amount spent on the 2024 America's Cup campaign, which INEOS said in round figures was £174million (the AC38 budget cap is €75million, without a new AC75 and in a previous draft version of the 38th AC Protocol was €60million, which included the cost of a new AC75).
Athena Racing do dispute how that total spend was made up, saying that several other financial inputs were involved.
The next step is for INEOS Racing to respond to Athena's counterclaims, maybe within a month.
What happens next?
If the Claim is not resolved by mediation/negotiation, then it will go to a Hearing, which would likely not be heard (according to online Court schedules) until June 2027 - while the Challenger Selection Series is running. At that point, the case becomes moot.
To get an answer, we loaded both the Claim and Response into Gemini AI and asked for a Decision on the basis of UK Case law and precedent. The response (along with five pages of dissertation) is as follows:
Final Decision
1. The Claimant’s claims for a declaration of ownership, specific performance, and contractual rectification are dismissed in their entirety.
2. Absolute ownership of the disputed Ineos-funded assets, including the racing yacht Ineos Britannia, remains permanently vested in the Defendant.
3. The Defendant is entitled to its costs of the action, to be assessed on the indemnity basis, given the unreasonable and tortious nature of the Claimant's conduct.
Of course, INEOS Racing could come up with some compelling counterclaim in their next opportunity to Respond.