Fatboy Slim’s ‘Right Here, Right Now’ blares out from speakers on the Barcelona harbour front with the backing track of the freakishly loud horn from Jim Ratcliffe’s neighbouring super yacht.
It has become the send-off soundtrack to the team the British billionaire has bankrolled, Ineos Britannia, for every day of racing as Britain bids to win sport’s oldest trophy, the America’s Cup, for the first time in its 173-year history.
The team skippered by Ben Ainslie finds itself on the precipice of the Cup itself, first having to overcome Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final in the first-to-seven series starting on Thursday for a place in the America’s Cup itself against hosts Emirates Team New Zealand.
That Ainslie’s operation finds itself edging ever closer to the Cup is no mean feat having been on the back foot for much of the build-up from a massive electrical fire on board to capsizing and then nearly sinking their test boat.
“You could sense from the outside people saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s not happening as we had all these issues,” says Ainslie reflecting from the team’s Barcelona base. “But we’ve stuck to our guns and it’s beginning to see the dividends.
“The potential is there and the team’s gelling nicely. Belief is all a bit Ted Lasso but it’s a big deal in a sports team and I think everyone believes we can now win it.”
Ainslie has not been afraid to make the tough calls in that quest. On the eve of the preliminary regatta, he opted to cut his close friend and long-term right-hand man, Giles Scott, as co-helm for the race team, replacing him with another Olympic champion in Dylan Fletcher.
While controversial, it has proved a masterstroke to date while Scott has been remarkably positive as head of sailing off the boat despite the rejection.
“It’s one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make not just in sport but in life,” said Ainslie. “I have to say he’s been amazing how he’s responded to it – he could have gone one of two ways, and it says a lot about him as a person.”
In a team with a “no egos” philosophy, Scott has slotted into the team player role, while Fletcher’s ascent is remarkable having had to effectively harass his way into the set-up with monthly phone calls to Ainslie after his Tokyo Olympic gold in 2021.
The son of two professional ballet dancers, he assumed the Olympic title would be the gateway to sailing greatness. Instead, as he put it, “the phone didn’t ring”, so he put it upon himself to persuade Ainslie of the merits of getting him into the team.
Eventually, Ainslie gave in allowing Fletcher to race the test boat in training where he impressed sufficiently to get the full call-up and he has become a calm presence over the team radio.
“Other sailors in the past would not describe me as calm,” he said. “But I’m trying hard to create a level platform.”
Fletcher is not afraid to challenge Ainslie in the heat of racing nor to make the hard calls required. The pair’s rapport seems to get slicker with each race, the boat quicker too. As Fletcher puts it, “It has moments where it’s potentially the fastest boat.”
Key to that speed is the link-up with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes Formula 1 team. Hamilton came to visit the team’s operation back in May, which is headed up – from a Mercedes’ perspective – but Geoff Willis, formerly an integral of Hamilton’s previous F1 dominance.
Willis began his career in America’s Cup before a lengthy F1 stint and then a return to the water. He argues there is an 80 to 90% likeness between the two. He said: “It’s huge parallels. It’s true to say the Cup is closer to F1 than F2 is.” And while not getting carried away by Ineos Britannia’s improved pace, he at least concedes, “We’re in the game.”
The team prides itself on being the sum of its parts from Ratcliffe to Ainslie to chief operating officer David Endean, who describes himself as “camp dad” in his multi-faceted role.
There are the families too, who appear for each rendition of Fatboy Slim at the dock-off and watch the racing on big screens in the base’s Estrella bar with a nervous energy. The mother of Ryan Todhunter finds it too much, unable to watch and having to walk around when her son is in action.
Todhunter is among the power behind the boat, one of a number of athletes poached from the British Rowing set-up as a cyclor on a static bike on board come the racing.
Throughout the camp, there is a growing confidence in the potential for history-making, albeit with some major obstacles still to overcome in Luna Rossa and, if successful in that quest, then the Kiwis, who Ineos follow with a member of staff for each of their training sessions to gather any intelligence possible.
Ainslie’s trick is to avoid complacency creeping in amid the wins and to “keep the momentum going”.
“It’s no good making the jump, think we’re competitive and then we can relax,” he said. “That’s not going to win it. We have to keep finding those gains.”
There have been critics throughout, most notably his daughter, who has been dismissive on the bad days in the lead-up and early in the preliminary regatta.
Even she is turning. He said: “She’s being reasonably positive so had to eat her words. What we can say about Bellatrix is that she’s pleasantly surprised.”
Ainslie has made no secret he is in it for the long haul having twice already tried to win the Cup and come up short In Bermuda and then New Zealand. This, he argues, is comfortably the strongest position he has been in.
“This is the best place we’ve ever been in, in terms of the three British campaigns I’ve been involved in,” he said. “Everyone here believes we can do it. We all have the right ingredients.”
