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New Forest boat-builders behind Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup bid

08:08, 15 October 2024

updated: 14:46, 16 October 2024

SIR Ben Ainslie and the Ineos Britannia team are battling hard on Barcelona water to end 173 years of America’s Cup hurt – and local boat builders played a significant role.

The British team completed a historic victory in the Louis Vuitton Cup, beating Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in a thrilling 7-4 match to qualify for the final.

They are now taking on one of the most successful America’s Cup teams of all time, Emirates Team New Zealand, who are attempting to win the world’s oldest international sporting trophy for a fifth time. Ineos Britannia are 4-2 behind in the best-of-13 series after two wins in Wednesday’s races.

The 37th America's Cup is being held in Barcelona (picture: Jason Ludlow)
The 37th America's Cup is being held in Barcelona (picture: Jason Ludlow)

The challenge was made possible thanks to world-renowned boat builder and professional yachtsman Jason Carrington and his Hythe-based boatyard, and multiple Lymington-based specialists, Dan Histead (shore team), Antonio Martinez (sail design), Mark McCafferty (foil and structure design), and Ian Williams (sailing coach).

The Carrington Boats Ltd (CBL) team in Hythe builds some of the finest composite yachts for the world’s most challenging races.

Carrington, who went to Lymington Junior School and Priestlands, said: “Myself and all the team here at CBL are excited and grateful to be involved in such an exciting project.

“We understand that building an America’s Cup boat is the absolute pinnacle of composite race boat building, and we also understand and feel the responsibility; we are hugely appreciative to [Sir] Ben and [Sir] Jim for making these projects a reality and for our involvement.

“I am proud to be part of the Ineos Britannia project and immensely proud of the core team at CBL who make it happen.

“We have worked with [Sir] Ben and the team for 10 years with RB3, the 10th boat we have played a part in, so you can imagine we all feel heavily invested.”

Carrington grew up in Lymington before becoming the first apprentice at the famous Green Marine, one of the world’s first carbon race boat builders. The family business, established in Lymington in 1982, was relocated to Hythe in 2010 before it went into liquidation in 2017.

After Green Marine closed, Carrington opened Carrington Boats Ltd (CBL) with Lawrie Smith and Phil Hutchinson, who also have close local links.

Jason Carrington and his family
Jason Carrington and his family

Accomplished sailor Carrington, who competed in four editions of the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race between 1993 and 2006, added: “When the all-important seventh win came, I was at the shed, and we downed tools, nipped to Waitrose to buy Champagne, and had a very fun impromptu party, it meant a lot to all of us here at CBL – an emotional moment, as so much work is involved.”

CBL has a core team of 20, but that can grow to as many as 60 during its busiest times. Most of the workforce comes from Lymington, New Milton and the surrounding area.

“We start with early – perhaps a year before building – discussions with the team centred around the likely shape and geometry of the boat and the challenges this will bring up”, said Carrington.

“We then move into a testing period where we build test panels and various samples to validate the process and the achieved mechanical properties. The results from these tests are then used to help engineer and design the boat.

“For Carrington Boats, we start in earnest when the carbon fibre female hull mould arrives from Spain. At the same time as building the hull, we are also building the deck and the complex structure. Some of these parts are extremely challenging to build, particularly the highly loaded foil bulkheads that take up to eight weeks to manufacture.

“The build took around 45,000 hours, achieved with a team of around 45 people running day and night shifts to meet the delivery date. These boats are so light, making them very challenging to build. They are also very delicate; we have to be very careful not to damage the boat whilst we build her, as just kneeling in the wrong place will dent the boat.”

Mark McCafferty lives in Lymington, where he runs an independent design and engineering consultancy. He has been on the design team for five America’s Cup teams, including the last three British entries.

His America’s Cup journey began in 2007 with the Italian Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team before winning the cup with the BMW Oracle Team from the USA in 2010. Since 2014, he has worked with [Sir] Ben and the team on all three British entries: Land Rover BAR, Ineos Team UK, and Ineos Britannia.

Foil and structure designer Mark McCafferty (Photo Shelley McCafferty)
Foil and structure designer Mark McCafferty (Photo Shelley McCafferty)

McCafferty, who moved to Beaulieu at age seven and attended school in Lymington, said: “For the past four events, the boats have been hydro-foiling, and for the past three of these, I’ve focused mainly on the design and engineering of the foils (rudders and daggerboards).

“This involves working closely with the rest of the team, especially performance, fluid dynamics and sailing teams, on concept designs, feasibility studies and the design tools themselves to help define the overall architecture of the race foils, followed by detailed design and engineering for the final parts.

“Previously, the team had been based in Portsmouth; however, with the F1 ties this time around, the design offices moved up to Brackley, and so I have split my time between my studio in Lymington, the F1 design office in Brackley, Carrington Boats in Hythe and the sailing bases in Palma and Barcelona.”

McCafferty decided to pursue a career in yacht design and studied Ship Science at the University of Southampton.

Ineos Britannia were 4-0 down after racing on Monday (picture: Jason Ludlow)
Ineos Britannia were 4-0 down after racing on Monday (picture: Jason Ludlow)

After university, he worked for SP Technologies, a composite engineering consultancy in Southampton. There he first worked with Carrington on the Volvo Ocean 60, which was being built at Green Marine in Lymington for the Volvo Round the World race before his time working on America’s Cup boats began.

“It’s great to be involved in such a challenge that encompasses technology, sports and teamwork, and it has fascinated me personally ever since watching the 1987 Americas Cup on TV as a kid with my parents”, added McCafferty, who sailed at Salterns Sailing Club on the Lymington River as a child and moved back to the area with his wife and two children in 2011. “Arguably, watching the Cup made me want to get into boat design in the first place.”

Britannia is helmed by Sir Ben, a four-time Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winner who was made the first-ever freeman of Lymington and Pennington after his London 2012 Olympics heroics.

Ineos Britannia is backed by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a former New Forest resident who now lives in Monaco.

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