Isle of Wight sailor Ben Ainslie leads Brits to America’s Cup record

The British team hit 55.6 knots in the Louis Vuitton Cup final against fancied Italian team, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

Both teams ended the race day with four points each.

The British team won the first race after the Italian boat nosedived, sustaining damage and forcing them to retire.

Sir Ben Ainslie. (Image: Ricardo Pinto) However, Luna Rossa managed to repair the damage and roared back to win the second race — this was Britannia received a boundary penalty in the pre-start.

Ainslie, of Seaview, is Britannia’s team principal and skipper, and crewman Leigh McMillan, who was born and grew up on the Island, is the flight controller on board Britannia.

“This was a big day for both teams. We were right at the top of the wind limit in those races,” said Ainslie, an Olympic gold medal winner.

READ MORE:

“Luna Rossa had an issue which put them out of the first race, but they did a good job to regroup and come back to win the second.

“We had an issue in the pre-start of the second race which put us massively out of position and on the back foot.

“We pushed really hard and kept close to the Italians, but we couldn’t get past them.

“With both teams on four points each, we’ve just got to keep going and keep pushing hard.”

The Louis Vuitton Cup final resumes today (Wednesday, October 2) at 1pm and can be seen live on TNT Sports. 

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}