Britain’s America’s Cup challenger has a very new look after this week’s reveal of the syndicate’s new name, GB1, and its striking new red, white and blue livery. But the changes in the British camp extend well beyond the visuals. Behind the scenes British Olympic medallist and Volvo Ocean Race-winner Ian Walker has taken over as CEO, and there is new investment in the form of Oakley Capital which is now the organisation's major investor.
The Brits’ revamp was announced on Wednesday only a couple of hours prior to a sumptuous event in Naples that signalled the beginning of a brave new world for the America’s Cup under the control of a governance panel made up of the five competing teams, known as the America’s Cup Partnership (ACP).
A key part of the British team’s announcement was the naming of Olympic gold medallist Dylan Fletcher as helmsman for the AC38 campaign. Fletcher is a past International Moth world champion and won gold in the 49er class at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
At the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024 he was port helmsman opposite Ainslie aboard the British AC75 as the team won the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and faced off against Emirates Team New Zealand in the final Match.
Last year Fletcher guided Ainslie’s SailGP team Emirates Team GBR to victory in Season 5 and recently began Season 6 in the strongest possible manner with a spectacular win at the first event in Perth, Australia.
Now, according to GB1 CEO Walker, the latest iteration of the British America’s Cup squad will be built from the ground up around Fletcher, as the team looks to capitalise on 12 years of campaigning to win sailing’s oldest and most prestigious competition.
He and Fletcher are far from strangers to each other with the pair having worked closely together in the lead-up to Tokyo 2020 during Walker’s stint as performance director for the British Sailing Team.
“I think Dylan has proven with his performance in Barcelona, let alone his Olympic results and his performance in SailGP, that he can deliver under pressure,” Walker told me.
But what has impressed Walker even more is Fletcher’s constant desire to be the very best version of himself in every aspect of what he does.
“When he’s in the office he’s sitting with the designers, because he wants to help them with their role. [That’s the sort of thing] I see day-to-day and that impresses me more than if he wins the last race of a SailGP regatta. So it’s really exciting to see that development and I think he really deserves to have a team built around him.”
Despite becoming the first British team for 60 years to qualify for an America’s Cup Match the fallout between Ainslie and former backer Sir Jim Ratcliffe looked like destroying any hopes of building on that success.
Fletcher says the new GB1 campaign feels significantly different to the team’s tilt at AC37.
