Sir Jim Ratcliffe's INEOS Racing is suing Sir Ben Ainslie's team for the America's Cup boat it financed. INEOS Racing Ltd filed against Athena Racing Ltd — the company behind the British team that now races as GB1 — in London's Admiralty Court in March 2026. The claim covers the AC75 raced as Britannia, hull RB3, plus the intellectual property and everything else left over from the 37th America's Cup campaign.
An amended defence lodged on 18 August 2026 added something new. Ainslie had written to Jonny Ginns, INEOS's general counsel, asking the company to "consider in good faith a proposal that the Defendant would retain these assets for the purposes of competing in AC38". INEOS refused, and refused outright. That account comes from the defence itself, reported by Sailweb on 24 August and by BOAT International on 2 September. INEOS has until 15 September to reply.
Ratcliffe, Ainslie and the Barcelona defeat
The America's Cup is a match between the defender and one challenger, sailed since 2021 in AC75s — 75-foot monohulls that fly on foils and cost tens of millions to build. Ratcliffe's chemicals group began funding Ainslie's British challenge in 2018; we covered the $217 million deal at the time. Two campaigns later, in October 2024, the team reached the Match in Barcelona, the first British crew to get there in 60 years, and lost 2–7 to Emirates Team New Zealand. Three months later the partnership came to nothing.
What each side says about the assets
INEOS says its funding agreement required everything to revert to INEOS once the partnership ended. Athena says the assets were always its own, and that the reversion clause never triggered because the team kept operating. The defence adds a tax argument: UK reliefs on the campaigns' capital and R&D spending required the assets to sit inside Athena's structure, and INEOS knew that throughout.
| Campaign | UK tax relief cited in Athena's defence |
|---|---|
| 35th America's Cup | £11.2m |
| 36th America's Cup (2021, Auckland) | £8.1m |
| 37th America's Cup (2024, Barcelona) | £14.1m |
Three money figures get quoted. INEOS puts its own investment at about £174 million. The £180 million that runs in headlines is also INEOS's: the company's stated figure for what the boat cost it. The claim form says "£10 million and above", a jurisdictional threshold.
The pleadings are blunt. Athena's defence calls INEOS's conduct "by any objective standard, reprehensible and improper" and says the claimant "does not come to equity with clean hands". It also alleges that hours before the first Match race in Barcelona an INEOS representative, named in reporting as Mr Nevin, warned Ainslie that Ratcliffe would "burn your house down". One side's allegation, untested in court.
The AC38 rules leave GB1 no spare boat
The protocol signed in August 2025 obliges existing teams to race the AC75 hull they used at AC37, where that hull is available. Only incoming teams may build, and only to the AC37 design. GB1 is Challenger of Record through the Royal Yacht Squadron, so it helped write those rules alongside the defender and now lives under them. Lose RB3 in court and there is nothing to build in its place.
The hull is with the team and is being upgraded. "We have a boat. We've always had a boat, contrary to popular opinion," Ainslie said in Cagliari in May.
Where the case stands
INEOS announced its own AC38 challenge in January 2025 and pulled it in April, blaming a six-month delay by Athena in agreeing terms. Ratcliffe said "the opportunity has slipped away". Oakley Capital bought majority control of Athena in December 2025 and made Ian Walker chief executive. The team relaunched as GB1 in Naples on 21 January 2026.
There is no hearing date. Sailweb and Scuttlebutt both think it unlikely a judge sees the case before the Match, which starts in Naples on 10 July 2027. All eyes are now on INEOS's formal response, due no later than 15 September.
Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britannia. Source: BOAT International, Sailweb, Yachting World, Marine Industry News, thefoil.com, americascup.com.
