America's Cup: Ratcliffe downplays threats and claims in Brit's AC75 standoff.
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 16 Jul 09:51 BST
INEOS Britannia - Race Day 1 - America's Cup Match 2024 - Barcelona © Ian Roman / America's Cup
The latest and last Reply in the ongoing legal spat between Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Ben Ainslie has just been released by the UK Admiralty Court.
The Reply filed by INEOS Racing appears to just reinforce earlier claims made between the two parties, and their respective legal positions remain unchanged.
Athena Racing was the team of the Challenger of Record, the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, for the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona, and continues in that role for the 2027 America's Cup in Naples. However, if INEOS Racing is successful in its claim, the British team could be without its preferred AC75 and would need to reach an agreement with Ratcliffe to lease INEOS Britannia or obtain another AC75 on the so-called "secondary market". Athena is unlikely to resurrect their 2021 America's Cup Challenger, as some suggest, which is now a museum piece in Cowes.
Interestingly, under the first draft of the Protocol (May 23, 2025), the 2024 raceboat ownership would not have been an issue as the teams were permitted to design and build one new AC75. It was only when the second Protocol came into play on August 12, 2025 (after RYS had been given a hurry-up by RNZYS) that the teams were only allowed to use 2024 boats, and the INEOS Britannia race boat then became a central issue.
Should he regain possession of the former INEOS Britannia, Ratcliffe would be unable to enter the 2027 America's Cup, as entries have long since closed.
INEOS Racing maintains that, at the end of the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona, Athena Racing was required to hand back all INEOS-funded assets, including the AC75 raced by the British team in the 37th match for the America's Cup. However, INEOS claim that without a schedule of those assets, they claim they cannot identify which belong to INEOS and which belong to Athena.
Ratcliffe's reply makes the point that INEOS had excluded itself from funding the Youth and Womens program, which was financed by Athena Racing, and the team also has possession of the two AC40s, which it has used for training in the current America's Cup cycle.
Ratcliffe's INEOS Racing downplays many of the "explosive" assertions made by Ainslie's Athena Racing, relating to "scorched earth", alleged imprisonment and events on the morning of the first race of the 38th America's Cup.
Typical is INEOS's Reply to the "scorched earth" claim made by Athena, which admits it occurred during a meeting between Athena Racing and INEOS.
In their Reply INEOS say: "it is admitted that Mr Nevin indicated that Sir Jim would not back down (and had only ever done so in a dispute concerning the People's Republic of China) and in that context referred to"scorched earth", but it is denied that these comments would reasonably have been understood by Sir Ben as a "threat" of anything other than the Claimant enforcing its legal rights to the fullest extent possible (including, for example, by not renewing the Agreement and by instructing the Defendant to make a transfer of assets pursuant to clause 4.2.7). Mr Nevin's words were intended to be, and would reasonably have been understood to be, used in a figurative rather than a literal sense.
Similarly with the claim of imprisonment of Athena Racing staff at their Turweston base in UK, INEOS say: "Mr Fellows [INEOS} caused the glass doors to the reception area of the building to be padlocked to stop anyone entering the building and, when he did so, he did not know or believe that he was locking anyone inside the building and did not intend to detain anyone. On the Claimant's own case, he did not in fact imprison anyone, since there were alternative exit routes. Further and in any event, Mr Fellows was not authorised by the Claimant to detain anyone"
INEOS admits the lockout from the Mercedes F1 IT facilities and counters that it was a standard and legitimate action as the IT agreement between the two parties had expired.
At this juncture, it does not appear that the parties have progressed further on their claims, and the situation is at a stalemate.
The Agreement between the two parties, under which INEOS was responsible for funding the Challenge and Athena for the sailing and operation of the team, is not contained in any documents publicly available through the High Court. In the absence of that document, it is not possible to see the claims in their proper context, and, as before, each side relies on extracts from the Agreement without providing the full context.
It is not known when the Hearing will be held, whether there is an arrangement available to fast-track the proceedings, or indeed whether an arrangement can be mediated between the parties.
Meanwhile, Athena Racing retains possession of the AC75 sailed in Barcelona, which is believed to be undergoing modifications at an undisclosed location for the 2027 Cup in Naples.
Currently, Athena Racing is the team of the Challenger of Record, Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, a role which Ainslie claims is "symbolic" now that the event is under the control of the America's Cup Partnership, and its Board.
With just 10 months remaining until the start of the Challenger Selection Series, the matter will not be resolved by the Court process until mid-January at the earliest, if the Court schedule advising times available to conduct Hearings of more than half a day duration is to be believed.
Currently, there are 1,380 cases on the Admiralty Court list ahead of the INEOS Racing and Athena Racing matter. The Admiralty Court list extends out for over a decade.