Bringing the America"s Cup home

The America’s Cup is the oldest international trophy in world sport, pre-dating the modern Olympics, the Ryder Cup and the World Cup – and Britain has never won it. It’s the world’s premier sailboat racing contest, and the 35th edition will be held in Bermuda in 2017, in foiling multi-hulls. Land Rover BAR is the British challenger, and Ben Ainslie, winner of four Olympic gold sailing medals, is the Team Principal and skipper. The Land Rover BAR TIG was formed to bring together the best of British talent and industry. The goal is to find advanced technologies and develop them to give the team a competitive edge. The TIG complements the existing Land Rover BAR design team and allows it to rapidly develop, test and prove these technologies. Renishaw’s contribution will be through its expert metal additive manufacturing knowledge, helping to optimise the design and construction of critical, 3D printed metal parts of the team’s race boat. It is also contributing by providing ongoing expert advice on position encoder technology. 

Ben Ainslie commented: “We don’t underestimate the challenge ahead of us. We are a first time challenger for the America’s Cup, and only one challenger has ever won it at the first attempt. We want to leave no stone unturned in our search for new technologies that will help us to bring the Cup home.”