Jesus Christ CNN, could this have been any weaker? Love how they fail to mention that Ratcliffe is a huge financial backer of fracking that isn’t exactly popular in the UK and that his “sponsorship”, other than make a few members on the AC team wealthy, is a big fat Fuck You to their once aspirational eco-friendly campaign. Here at SA, we hope you fail miserably.
It started with a beer and ended with a $153 million investment aimed at finally breaking Britain’s America’s Cup duck. After experiencing “the worst feeling of my career” a year ago last week, when his Land Rover BAR was knocked out of the 2017 Cup in Bermuda, Ben Ainslie had promised himself he would never experience that same sensation again.
Motivated by that failure, and after being introduced by a mutual friend, four-time Olympic champion Ainslie went for a beer with Jim Ratcliffe — who is the head of petrochemical company Ineos and was last month revealed as Britain’s richest man with an estimated wealth of $28 billion.
A $153m deal happened at lightning speed. Ainslie, who will lead a newly-branded Ineos Team UK team, told CNN: “I realized he’d been successful in business but, at the time of meeting, I wasn’t quite aware he was Britain’s richest man at that point!
“But I’d read about his exploits as an adventurer going to both Poles and taking part in crazy full-on marathons across deserts. I knew he had an interest in sailing so we got together for a chat and that got to talking about the America’s Cup. “Jim got back to me the next day, was really excited about the challenge and wanted to get involved.”
And discussions quickly translated to actions. As Ainslie put it, “Ineos has ventures all over the world so, when an opportunity like that comes up, you have to grab it quickly.”
Read more if your brain can take it… Title inspiration thanks to Nelly.
