THIS is the critical week for the future of the GBR Challenge America’s Cup team, when a multimillion-pound deal with new backers enabling it to take part in the next Cup in Valencia in Spain in 2007 will either be confirmed or collapse.
Sources close to the syndicate were sounding more optimistic yesterday than earlier in the summer that months of complex negotiations will bear fruit after key meetings starting today. But they were also underlining that a final decision is going to be made, one way or another.
Should the deal come off, the GBR Challenge will undertake an immediate programme of modifications to its yachts at its base in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, and begin preparations to take part in forthcoming America’s Cup promotional regattas in Spain. More important, it will be able to hire sailors, designers and coaches, many of whom have been awaiting full-time contracts for months.
According to one source, there is a possibility that Iain Percy, the Finn class gold medal-winner at the Sydney Olympics, may yet join the GBR Challenge after deciding two months ago to work with a new Italian America’s Cup team instead. It appears Percy is less than satisfied in Italy and despite their public dust-up with him when he decided to sign with the Italian +39 syndicate, the British team are keen to speak to him again.
Even more intriguing is their hope to speak again to Ben Ainslie, the triple Olympic medal-winner who won his second gold medal in the Finn class at Athens and who has joined Team New Zealand (TNZ) for the next Cup as a helmsman. Although Ainslie is thought to be under contract to TNZ, the GBR Challenge has not given up hope of luring him back to Britain.
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In its original format, the GBR Challenge was entirely funded by Peter Harrison, the computer networking multimillionaire who took it to the last Cup in Auckland with a budget of about £25 million, where it finished seventh out of nine challengers. Early this year, Harrison said he was prepared to put another £20 million into a second attempt, but only if a matching amount was found from commercial sponsors and he set this week as the deadline to do that.
It is understood that two potential backers have been involved in the negotiations. One is a large multinational bank and the other is rumoured to be a British mobile phone entrepreneur.