Athena Racing is a British sailing team that is the challenger of record for the 38th America's Cup.
The team was established in 2012 with the ambition of winning the America's Cup for Great Britain and to 'bring the cup home' to the United Kingdom. The team first challenged for the 2017 America's Cup in Bermuda. In 2021 the team challenged again for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron. In 2024 the team again challenged for the America's Cup, beating four challengers to win the 2024 Louis Vuitton Cup to qualify for the America's Cup match.
The 37th America's Cup match was a best of 13 race series held October 2024 between Taihoro, owned and sailed by the defender Emirates Team New Zealand syndicate representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and Ineos Britannia. The defender went on to win the event 7-2.
Emirates Team New Zealand secured their fifth America's Cup triumph on 19th October 2024, defeating The British team with a 7-2 victory in the 37th America's Cup match. The historic moment also saw the official confirmation of the next cycle: Bertie Bicket, chairman of Royal Yacht Squadron Racing, presented the challenge letter, which was accepted by Gillian Williams, commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. This signing established Athena Racing as the representative of the Challenger of Record for 38th America’s Cup, Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Ltd.
The team is led by Sir Ben Ainslie. Ian Walker was announced as CEO in November 2025.
In December 2025, Athena Racing announced a majority ownership investment from Oakley Capital.
Formation and facilities In January 2012, Ben Ainslie announced the formation of a British team to compete in the America's Cup, called Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR). His team competed in the AC45 class for the remaining races of the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series to develop experience and generate interest from sponsors.Ainslie defends Oracle cup role, Independent, 11 January 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2016. The team was also known as J.P. Morgan BAR in this early period and competed for the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club in the America's Cup World Series and Extreme Sailing Series catamaran classes.
In January 2014, Ainslie began the process of raising £100M to fund the team, as well as development of racing yachts which was projected to take 30% of the budget. The project was initially backed by 12 core supporters including Sir Charles Dunstone and Sir Keith Mills. In December 2014 Ben Ainslie Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) announced that they would work together on the America's Cup project, with Formula One designer Adrian Newey leading RBAT's efforts regarding design and engineering. J.P. Morgan indicated that it was not planning to continue sponsorship and the team began the search for a new title sponsor.New title sponsor for British America's Cup push, sportbusiness.com, 20 August 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
In April 2014, as part of the launch of Rear Admiral Rob Stevens's 'Transforming Solent' report, which makes 36 recommendations with 15 prioritised at an investment cost of £91M, Ainslie announced plans to build a team headquarters in the Solent area. Having reviewed a number of sites, the project put forward plans to develop an operational building at Camber Dock, as part of the wider redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour. On 18 June, Portsmouth Council approved plans for the £12M main operations building, which Ainslie confirmed would be built subject to £8M of requested UK Government-backed development funding. On 1 July 2014, in a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, central government funding of £7.5M towards the operational building's construction was confirmed, with construction reliant on final planning permission from the council and the project raising the additional required funds. The operational building is also where the boats are designed and manufactured, and contains administration and full crew development facilities. The design was developed by HGP Architects, which also designed the nearby Spinnaker Tower. The building was opened in June 2015 and featured approximately 400 solar panels generating 130MWh/y, ventilation features and insulation to improve its sustainability.Sailing team HQ scoops BREEAM 'Excellent' rating , Engineering and Technology Magazine, IET, 22 July 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
In September 2018 it was announced that sailing clothing brand Henri Lloyd would continue its long partnership with Sir Ben by supplying the kit for Ineos Team UK in the pursuit of the 36th challenge of the America's Cup in 2021.
On 4 October 2021, the team announced a high-performance partnership with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, bringing together the best of the worlds of high-performance marine and automotive engineering, with the goal to win the America's Cup for Britain.
The team was based in Brackley, home of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. James Allison will be the technical lead of the team's 37th America's Cup challenge in his capacity as Chief Technical Officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and Ineos Britannia.
34th America's Cup 2012-2013 Americas Cup World Series JP Morgan BAR initially competed in the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series competing in their AC45 catamaran. The team had excellent performance in two events in San Francisco but slipped to a surprise defeat in Naples in April 2013.Kate Laven, Ben Ainslie in surprise defeat at America's Cup World Series in Naples, The Telegraph, 21 April 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2016. In August 2013, the competition jury received a report from Oracle Team USA that their boat and others they had loaned had unauthorised modifications.Gavin Clarke, Oracle Team USA sailors admit breaking America's Cup rules, The Register, 12 August 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2016. Since they were using one of the out of measurement boats provided by Team Oracle USA, Ainslie withdrew his team from the competition on 7 August 2013. They denied that they had any prior knowledge that the boat was out of measurement, and were scored DSQ (disqualified) from the series.America's Cup Jury, Jury Notice JN096, 8 August 2013 + America's Cup World Series 2012-2013 Team Skipper Total pts Notes 1 Oracle Racing Jimmy Spithill Tom Slingsby 274 DSQ 2 Luna Rossa Challenge Chris Draper 204 3 Ben Ainslie Racing Ben Ainslie 196 DSQ 4 Team New Zealand Dean Barker 193 5 Artemis Racing Terry Hutchinson Charlie Ekberg 181 6 Energy Team Loick Peyron Yann Guichard 175 7 Luna Rossa Challenge Francesco Bruni Paul Cambell-James Iker Martínez 165 8 Oracle Racing Russell Coutts Darren Bundock 114 9 Team Korea Chris Draper Pete Burling 110 10 Artemis Racing Nathan Outteridge Santiago Lange 98 11 China Team Phil Robertson Mitch Booth 78 12 HS Racing Roman Hagara 39 DSQ
In 2013, the team set a new multihull record of 2 hours 52 minutes 15 seconds for the Round the Island Race in their AC45.
34th America's Cup The team did not enter to compete in the 34th America's Cup, with Ben Ainslie instead sailing as helm onboard Oracle Team USA's second AC72 in the team's training programme ahead of the event. During the 34th America's Cup match, Oracle Team USA were losing to Emirates Team New Zealand 8–1. The American syndicate decided to replace tactician John Kostecki with Ainslie, and went on to win 10 consecutive race wins to win the America's Cup. Ben Ainslie was credited as one of the key reasons behind their famous comeback to win the America's Cup in 2013. Several of the team's other key sailors also competed for Luna Rossa Challenge in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series.
35th America's Cup
Yachts
ClubNameLaunch dateClassT1October 2014AC45FT2October 2015AC45 TurboT3April 2016AC45 TurboR1February 2017AC50
Crew Sailor Position Ben Ainslie Skipper Giles Scott Tactician Paul Cambell-James Mainsail Trimmer Bleddyn Mon Trimmer Jonathan Macbeth Grinder Nick Hutton Grinder David Carr Grinder Neil Hunter Grinder Ed Powys Grinder
2015-2016 Americas Cup World Series
Following Ainslie's win representing the US, it was announced that Ben Ainslie Racing would challenge for the 35th America's Cup in 2017. The team competed in the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series, finishing 5th overall in the Extreme 40 class catamaran.
The team raced in 2015-16 America's Cup World Series in the AC45F catamaran class, winning events in Portsmouth, Toulon and Fukuoka to take the overall series win.
+ America's Cup World Series 2015-2016 Team Skipper Total pts 1 Land Rover BAR Sir Ben Ainslie 512 2 Oracle Team USA Jimmy Spithill 493 3 Emirates Team New Zealand Pete Burling 485 4 Softbank Team Japan Dean Barker 466 5 Artemis Racing Nathan Outteridge 460 6 Groupama Team France Franck Cammas 419
Louis Vuitton Cup
In March 2015, former McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh was announced as Ben Ainslie Racing's CEO. In June 2015, Ben Ainslie announced a partnership with Land Rover and changed the team's name to Land Rover BAR.
The team's win in the 2015–16 America's Cup World Series conferred points towards the 2017 Louis Vuitton Cup in Bermuda, which began May 2017. The team was knocked out of the competition by New Zealand in the Challenger semi-final. The defeat was attributed simply to the greater speed of the opponent's boat.
+ Round Robins Team W L ACWS pts Total pts 1 Oracle Team USA 8 2 0 9 2 Emirates Team New Zealand 8 2 0 8 3 Land Rover BAR 4 6 2 6 4 Artemis Racing 5 5 0 5 5 Softbank Team Japan 3 7 0 3 5 Groupama Team France 2 8 0 2
+ Semi-finals Team W L 1 Emirates Team New Zealand 5 2 2 Land Rover BAR 2 5
Red Bull Youth Americas Cup
Following the announcement that alongside the 35th Americas Cup would be held the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup, Land Rover BAR launched the Land Rover BAR Academy in January 2016, with over 150 young British sailors under the age of 24 applying to be part of the team. Of these sailors, a team of sailors were selected. The squad trained and competed on a GC32 Class catamaran in the Extreme Sailing Series in 2016 and 2017, under the expert guidance of the team's senior sailors and coaches.
The team raced in Bermuda in the 2017 Red Bull Youth America's Cup in the AC45F foiling catamaran class, finishing in 1st place with 50 points, 2 points ahead of their nearest rivals from New Zealand. The team was credited with being the only team to race with a female sailor on board.
+ Qualifying Group A Team Skipper Total Pts 1 Artemis Youth Racing Rasmus Rosengren 55 2 SVB Team Germany Paul Kohlhoff 47 3 Team Tilt Sebastien Schneiter 46 4 Team France Jeune Robin Follin 46 5 Youth Vikings Denmark Daniel Bjørnholt 43 6 Kaijin Team Japan Ibuki Koizumi 33
+ Qualifying Group B Team Skipper Total Pts 1 NZL Sailing Team Logan Dunning-Beck 51 2 Land Rover BAR Academy Rob Bunce 51 3 Spanish Impulse Jordi Xammar 51 4 Team BDA MacKenzie Cooper 45 5 Next Generation USA Carson Crain 36 6 Candidate Sailing Team Lukas Höllwerth 36
+ Final Team Skipper Total Pts 1 Land Rover BAR Academy Rob Bunce 50 2 NZL Sailing Team Logan Dunning-Beck 48 3 Team Tilt Sebastien Schneiter 42 4 Artemis Youth Racing Rasmus Rosengren 37 5 Team France Jeune Robin Follin 35 6 Spanish Impulse Jordi Xammar 34 7 SVB Team Germany Paul Kohlhoff 33 8 Team BDA MacKenzie Cooper 33
Crew Sailor Position Neil Hunter Skipper Rob Bunce Skipper Chris Taylor Helm Owen Bowerman Helm Annabel Vose Tactician Elliot Hanson Mainsail Trimmer Will Alloway Mainsail Trimmer Adam Kay Trimmer Oli Greber Trimmer Sam Batten Trimmer
Extreme Sailing Series and GC32 Racing Tour