It took a couple of failed attempts for Georgie Ainslie "to break the champagne bottle over the boat that can make sailing history for Great Britain but, after a 166-year wait to win the America’s Cup, what was another brief delay?" according to Matt Dickinson of the LONDON TIMES.
The glass did eventually shatter, Rita "was duly christened" and, after a £100M ($125M) investment and counting, the "space-age boat was almost ready to be launched, carrying huge expectations that it can, finally, end the British wait to claim this holy grail of sailing."
British sport "has conquered much new territory in recent years but one of the great historical quirks" is the failure to win the America’s Cup since it was first held in 1851.
The hope is that a combination of Ben Ainslie’s "proven genius as a racer, the best technologies harnessed from the British automotive industry and cutting-edge design can make 2017 a landmark year."
Britons "have challenged unsuccessfully for the America’s Cup many times since that first defeat in 1851, but never has so much been poured into a challenge as the one that gathered fresh optimism amid showers off Great Sound, Bermuda."
Ainslie sees bringing this trophy back home "as one of the last great frontiers for British sport, hoping that a huge domestic audience will be gripped to sailing’s version of Formula One." He said, "The America’s Cup is the one we have never won. It’s a bit of a sore point. We want to get the job done and bring the cup home" (LONDON TIMES, 2/7).
