Hot on the hydrofoils of American Magic, INEOS Britannia has launched its race boat for the 37th America’s Cup.
The British challenger’s new AC75 hit the water in Barcelona on Wednesday, following a taxing two-year construction period. Nicknamed RB3, the sleek 75-foot foiling yacht completed its inaugural test with Olympic sailors Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott at the helm.
“It is difficult to describe the emotion of getting out on our America’s Cup boat for the first time on Wednesday,” Ainslie wrote in The Telegraph. “This isn’t a boat that was suddenly delivered to us, like driving a new car out of the showroom. RB3, as we have code-named her, is a 75-foot, six-ton rocket ship that we have spent the last two years designing, building, and tweaking.”
The INEOS Britannia team.
Cameron Gregory
INEOS and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team spent thousands of hours and put more than 120,000 parts together to create RB3. The highly engineered monohull will “fly” across the water at an estimated top speed of 50 knots. The boat didn’t reach that on Wednesday’s trial, but Ainslie said it eclipsed 40 knots and passed crucial tests.
“With so many new systems to test—new foils, new rig and sails, new control systems, and so on—it’s standard practice to test everything in a controlled manner before putting up the sails and letting rip,” he explained. “What we do not yet know is whether this is the boat that is going to end 173 years of hurt.”
INEOS is the fifth team to unveil its AC75. Alinghi was the first to launch, followed by Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa, and American Magic. (Team France has yet to reveal its racer.) Up until this point, the vessels were kept tightly under wraps. Ainslie says he has noticed subtle differences between the five, but nothing that has made him worry. He believes that INEOS has one of the most aggressive designs in terms of aerodynamic modeling—not exactly surprising given the Mercedes F1 partnership. Hopefully, that means the Brits can finally bring the “Auld Mug” home to the U.K. After losing the first Cup in 1851, Britain has never managed to win it back.
With less than 115 days until racing begins, the six teams will now focus on testing and refining their speed machines. The third and final preliminary regatta, which will take place in Barcelona from August 22 to 25, will see all six AC75s compete for the first time. The five challenging teams will then battle it out in the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series from August 29 to October 7. The winning team will advance to face off against defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup from October 12 to 27. It’s shaping up to be a nail-biter.
