Ainslie will sail a new, improved version of Britannia off the coast of Auckland in 2021 SWNSOut of the water, it looks more like a radically new type of aircraft or perhaps a spaceship; in the sea, Sir Ben Ainslie hopes that the Britannia 1 boat he launched in Portsmouth yesterday will prove the most technologically advanced and, at 60mph, fastest wind-powered yacht in the world. The Formula 1-style boat took 90,000 hours to design and 50,000 more to build over the past 18 months at a cost of at least £8 million. And what is even more extraordinary than the speed and expense is that this is just the prototype. Ainslie will be on Britannia 2 by the time he takes to the waters off Auckland, New Zealand, in March 2021, aiming to win the America’s Cup for Britain for…

Source: The Times October 04, 2019 23:13 UTC