America’s Cup: Ineos Britannia AC40 catches fire during testing in Barcelona

An on-board fire has set Ineos Britannia’s America’s Cup preparations back, with one of their AC40 yachts damaged overnight.

The team were out two-boat testing their AC40s, Athena and Sienna, as part of a critical block of preparation at the cup venue last night (NZ time) when an electrical fire broke out aboard Athena.

The Athena crew, consisting of Dylan Fletcher, Ben Cornish, Luke Parkinson and Alex Hughes, were alerted when smoke began billowing from the forward hatch. At the time, they were about 40km north of Barcelona and had to address it immediately on the water.

The team chase boat was quickly alongside, fire extinguishers were deployed, but water was required to be pumped into the forward hatch to submerge the lithium battery to contain the fire. No one was injured in the incident.

“It always seems to be the case with these kinds of incidents that happen a long way from home,” Ineos Britannia team principal and helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie said.

“It’s very, very difficult to manage electrical battery fires in any circumstances let alone on a 40ft yacht out to sea, so the team did a really great job to get on top of the situation.

“I’m really proud of how the team reacted, so a big thank you to the team and also the local fire department, both onshore and out on the water for stepping up and coming to our assistance.”

The boat was towed back to shore, with the team constantly monitoring the battery and the crew on board, and will now need to assess just how much damage had been sustained in the incident. The incident could have come at a worse time, however.

Ineos Britannia had a maintenance window planned for their AC40s over the coming week and the two one-design boats were not expected to be on the water during that span.

“We will now focus on assessing the damage to Athena alongside completing the final fit-out of our AC75 race boat, which we will see in Barcelona in April,” Ainslie said.

While Ainslie indicated their AC75 would be in Barcelona in April, he did not clarify if Ineos Britannia have submitted their two-month intent-to-launch notice to the Recon Management Panel and a recon administrator, or if they intend to do so in the coming weeks.

It was a feature of the technical regulations for the America’s Cup campaign that teams had to provide the Recon Management Panel and a recon administrator with a two-month notice period before launching the vessel they hoped to claim the Auld Mug on.

Team New Zealand, Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli all filed their notice last week and will be able to launch their new AC75s in early April.

With teams being allowed to build only one new race boat for this cycle, there will be plenty of interest in how things have developed behind closed doors at the team bases in a bid to produce the fastest vessel.

America’s Cup key dates

Barcelona Preliminary Regatta: August 22-25

Louis Vuitton Cup round robins: August 29-September 8

Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals: September 14-19

Youth America’s Cup: September 17-26

Louis Vuitton Cup finals: September 26-October 5

Puig Women’s America’s Cup: October 5-13

Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match: October 12-21

America’s Cup challengers

Ineos Britannia (UK — Challenger of Record)

Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland)

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy)

New York Yacht Club American Magic (US)

Orient Express Racing Team (France)

Youth and Women’s America’s Cup teams

New Zealand, UK, Switzerland, Italy, US, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain,

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.