Inside Team GB hero’s quest to win ‘hardest competition in sport’ – and lift historic cup Britain has NEVER won before
SIR BEN AINSLIE will target Mission Impossible as underdogs Britain try to win the America’s Cup for a first time.
But ahead of a gruelling 13-round clash with defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand, Britain’s greatest-ever yachtsman warned: “It’s like facing rugby’s All Blacks… when they get to decide the rules!”
Ineos Britannia qualified for the America’s Cup — sport’s oldest international competition — following their success over Italian outfit Luna Rossa in the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona.
The opening two races take place on the southern Spanish coast and the overall winner, before October 21, is the first to seven.
Britain have never won this historical sailing event before and their last appearance in the final was 60 years ago against the then invincible New York Yacht Club.
As the Defender Club, the well-rested New Zealanders have played a significant role in the rule-making and chose Catalonia rather than Auckland for financial reasons.
Four-time Olympic champion Ainslie, 47, is obsessed with bringing the ‘Auld Mug’ to the UK.
But he is also fully aware of the mammoth challenge ahead.
He told SunSport: “We are battle-hardened from racing against Luna Rossa but the Kiwis have had more time to prepare and make modifications.
“They’re more rested. They’re fresh. I’d always say they’re the big favourites here. This is their Cup.
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“It’s a bit like taking on the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup when they get to decide the size of the pitch and the air pressure of the balls.
“It’s a hell of a challenge but whilst they’re favourites, I definitely think they’re beatable.
“The America’s Cup is perhaps the hardest thing to win in sport.
“The Defenders win the event and pretty much write the rules and regulations for the next event. They decide when and where it is, the class of the boat.
“If you have a really good team as a Defender, then it’s almost impossible to beat them. It’s seriously hard.”
About 150 people have been involved in this British-led project over the past few years — competing boats have tens of thousands of parts and components and race at speeds up to 100km/h.
They are bankrolled by petrochemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is a minority owner of Manchester United.
And Mercedes F1 boffins were involved in the design of the six-tonne 23-metre (75-foot) foiling monohull — nicknamed Rita — that they hope will create sporting history.
Ainslie, who wakes at 5.30am most mornings for a pre-breakfast 30-minute run, beat the Kiwis in a famous comeback victory in 2013 when he lifted the Cup under San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge with Oracle Team USA.
He said: “Our team are in a great place.
“When you get some momentum going, the team starts clicking and gelling.
“Every time we have gone out in the water, we have managed to get more performance out of the boat, the manoeuvres are slicker and the results have come.
“The America’s Cup is a hell of a slog. Particularly as the challenging team. You have to go through all the rounds.
“The quality of the fleet this time round has been the highest quality in recent times, if not ever.
“We have a much more competitive package than we have ever had as a British team.
“The support we have had back home has been phenomenal.
“Flights and hotels around here are packed this weekend with Brits coming over. That means the world to us.
“We’re a patriotic team. Britain have never won the America’s Cup — that’s why we are here, to right that wrong in our sporting history.”