Ben Ainslie’s Team Ineos UK endure torrid start as America’s Cup World Series begins

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Ben Ainslie had a torrid day on the water as his Ineos Team UK struggled with technical difficulties on the opening day of practice racing for the America’s Cup on Thursday.

Of the four teams in action in the America’s Cup World Series, Ineos were the only ones not to come away with a point.

The team reported problems with their boat, Britannia, just before the start of the first race against New York Yacht Club American Magic. 

But they recovered in time to take the start only to reach the first gate 50 seconds behind before pulling well clear for a five-minute victory. 

Again, it proved a race against time to overcome technical issues to make the start line in race two against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli but they did so only to pull out during the course of the race and return to their base. 

The issue lies with a foil cantilever system, something which is produced by defending champions Team New Zealand as the designers of the class rule for the new boats.

“It’s a bit of a wider issue,” said Ainslie. “It has been a problem since day one of this class. All of the teams have been working together to try to resolve it but it still isn’t resolved.

“It’s certainly not our fault, this is supplied equipment and you can’t go through the amount of time and energy you do with these campaigns and lose two races. It's not very nice.

“It would be a lot worse if it happens in the challenger series or the Cup … I think it would be a shame if that decided the series.”  

Ainslie and Ineos resume racing on Friday but their skipper, a four-time Olympic champion, warned they might struggle to make the start.

He added: “The team will work through the night to solve the issue. I’m confident they will sort it out. but I can’t guarantee we will be out there racing. We will move heaven and earth to be there. We all love to race, it’s such a big opportunity for all of the teams, so we want to be out there.” 

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