What an amazing weekend it turned out to be for the thousands of people who came out in their droves to support Land Rover BAR in their attempt to qualify for the Louis Vuitton America's Cup finals in Bermuda in 2017. By the end of day one's racing, the UK team were in 2nd place. On day 2 everything was going well for Ben's team and they got first overall scraping past US Team Oracle the Defending Cup holders by just 1 point!

You can catch all the footage and News on the America's Cup Official Website https://www.americascup.com/en/news/2241_Sir-Ben-jumps-into-the-lead-in-Portsmouth.html#

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came along in full BAR regalia to support the spectacular event on Sunday and followed the racing out on the water. Hundreds of local boat owners anchored around the outskirts of the course and the Brittany Ferry passage through the course proved interesting on occasion!

Quotes from Ben

"I think that for a new team to be leading the World Series now is a good indication of how far we've come, but there's still a long way to go," Ainslie said.

"The guys did an incredible job with the boat handling and that's what really got us out of some of the tough situations."

The overall consensus was that the teething troubles experienced in last year's event in Portsmouth were learnt from and that the organisers put on a fantastic, well organised weekend for visitors. The Red Arrows kicked off Friday's practice day and other air displays followed throughout, the weekend.

Weather conditions were near perfect with light winds on Friday and Saturday and the wind filling in on Sunday for the final races.

Results after this weekend's Racing:

1st Land Rover BAR UK 82 points, 2nd Oracle Team USA 81 points, 3rd Softbank Team Japan 69 points, 4th Emirates Team New Zealand 62 points, 5th Groupama Team France 58 points and 6th Artemis Racing Sweden 53 points.

Boatshed would like to congratulate skipper Ben Ainslie and Team Land Rover BAR and wish them all the best for their future events. It's all to play for at:

Toulon FRA 10-11th September 2016

Fukouka JPN 18-20th November 2016

and

Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers & Challenger Playoffs [Provisional]Bermuda BER 26th May – 12th June 2017

Written and Published by Chrissie Capel - Boatshed