Britain ready to fight back in America’s Cup amid Lego mania

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BARCELONA – Britain skipper Ben Ainslie might seem distracted with Lego models, but he very well believes the comeback is on as his side head into day four of their America’s Cup final, having cut the holders New Zealand’s lead to 4-2 in the first-to-seven series.

Britain have not been in the America’s Cup final for more than 60 years and have never won it, while New Zealand are looking to record a third straight victory in the battle for what is billed as the oldest trophy in international sport.

The Kiwis won the event in Bermuda in 2017, beating the United States, and retained the Cup at home in Auckland in 2021 with victory over Italy.

“We need to ride this momentum now and keep getting ourselves back in the game. We’ve seen how difficult these boats are to sail... the Kiwis are a great team and even they are capable of the odd mistake,” Ainslie said on Oct 16.

That blip was indeed disappointing for Kiwi Nathan Outteridge, who said: “We sort of let ourselves down... Ultimately, it’s a long way to go still. We’ve got to win three and they’ve got to win five now, so it’s closer, but there are still plenty of races to go.”

However, instead of focusing on charting their course to lifting the “Auld Mug”, America’s Cup crews in Barcelona have been busy building Lego models of New Zealand’s AC75, with even Ainslie finding time to piece one together with his young son.

Ainslie’s wife Georgie pictured the 47-year-old sailor and his son puzzling over the Lego Technic version of the Kiwi boat, with the actual AC75 having been shrouded in secrecy, in an Instagram post.

“That didn’t take long. These two already trying to figure out some Kiwi secrets by building their Lego boat. Why don’t we have a Lego boat @benainslie?” she said in her post.

Other British supporters responded online by calling on Lego to produce a model of “Britannia”.

One said they had spent eight hours assembling the Lego bricks to build the New Zealand boat, which includes many of the intricate features of the monohull and its high-tech foils and is on sale for €140 (S$200).

Simon Munro, who runs the six America’s Cup merchandise shops and its online store, said his company had sold “a few thousand” of the kits in addition to those sold by Lego itself.

“The day that we released it on online, Team New Zealand posted about it and they actually said it was one of the best fan engagement posts they’ve ever done,” said Munro. AFP, REUTERS

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