Land Rover Brings New Tech To America’s Cup

Sir Ben Ainslie has claimed that Land Rover BAR’s exclusive innovation partnership with Land Rover will help the team to bring the America’s Cup home to Britain, where the competition began back in 1851.

This will be the team’s first attempt to challenge for the America’s Cup, the world’s oldest international sporting trophy, with Land Rover’s facilities and expertise being utilised by team principal and skipper, Sir Ben Ainslie.

Ainslie commented: “We are determined to achieve our goal to bring the Cup home. We want to work with the best, and as technology leaders Land Rover can offer so much to the development of a winning boat. They are a great British brand, but also a fantastic engineering and technology company who will work hand in hand with our design and engineering team.”

Land Rover has invested over £11 billion into product creation over the past five years and is now creating a series of test boats with the sailing team, with knowledge gained from these to be applied to building the final America’s Cup Class catamaran that the British Challenger will compete in, during the 35th America’s Cup event in Bermuda in 2017.

The story started here 165 yrs ago. It’s time to make history with @LandRover to help us #BringTheCupHome to Britain pic.twitter.com/z57dNgf1WP

— Land Rover BAR (@LandRoverBAR) January 25, 2016

Beginning in 1851 off the coast of the Isle of Wight, the America’s Cup has never been won by a British Challenger. The race demands ever evolving technology, exemplified by the introduction of flying catamarans in 2013 – a technique known as foiling – and has led to the sporting challenge being labelled the ultimate design race.

Martin Whitmarsh, Land Rover BAR chief executive officer, said: “A business like Land Rover has a whole breadth of engineering expertise that an organisation like Land Rover BAR doesn’t have access too. Their knowledge and expertise of system technology, analysis and simulation has a strong synergy with the work we are doing at Land Rover BAR, and is really adding to our goal to ‘Bring the Cup Home’. The best team needs to have the best sailors, but we also need to have the fastest boat – this is the real challenge for all of us.”

Mark Cameron, Land Rover brand experience director, added: “Technology and data alone will not provide all the answers, but it will take an immense appetite for discovery and the power of human aspiration to reach our goals. Our shared values and joint expertise have enabled us to make an impactful start on developing these areas of engineering and ultimately making a through road for success in the 2017 America’s Cup Finals in Bermuda. We’ll take the same self-assurance into this extraordinary challenge – to help Land Rover BAR achieve their goal and go Above & Beyond in this pursuit of excellence.”