INEOS TEAM GB has been formed to challenge for the 36th America’s Cup. The world class Team skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie has the best chance ever to bring the world’s oldest international sporting trophy back to Britain for the first time. Representing Royal Yacht Squadron Racing, under whose flag INEOS Team GB will sail, Britain will have a real and fighting chance of success.
Ben Ainslie : "Today was a huge day for Britain's challenge to win the America's Cup!
We have teamed up with the newly formed INEOS Team GB to represent Royal Yacht Squadron Racing who will issue the challenge to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the current America's Cup holder, represented by Emirates Team New Zealand. Founded by Jim Ratcliffe, a British chemical engineer turned financier and industrialist, INEOS is one of the world's largest manufacturing groups and Britain's largest engineering firm.
Through this company he has committed to supporting the British America's Cup bid to be a competitive Challenger in Auckland, New Zealand in three years' time. The team today relaunched as INEOS Team GB."
"To win the America's Cup you need to have all the key elements in place; the funding, the sailing team, the best designers and the right strategy. For the first time we have brought all those key attributes together including key personnel, such as new CEO Grant Simmer and Nick Holroyd our Chief Designer.
The support from Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS is huge, to have the budget in place and to know that we can achieve our strategy and focus on executing it, puts us in an incredibly strong place.
This new development means we have had to part ways with our current partners and private investors. I'm incredibly grateful to the supporters of the previous team, be that investors or commercial partners, we had an amazing journey for our first attempt at the America's Cup.
For myself – and the rest of the team – we are so determined to do this. The America's Cup is the last sporting trophy that Britain has never won, it means a huge amount to all of us and if we can bring that Cup home to where it belongs it will be the proudest day of our lives.
I would like to thank all our fans for their continued support and look forward to you joining the journey to the 36th America's Cup."
From INEOS Team GB
