For a time in the pre-Christmas lead-up to the Americas Cup regatta off Auckland it seemed INEOS Team UK would go the same way as so many ill-fated British challenges.
The British yacht Britannia didnt win any of its six races in the Americas Cup World Series, failing on one occasion even to finish the course. In light-wind racing Britannia would wallow sluggishly in one place while its challenger series rivals Italys Luna Rossa and the United States American Magic swept around the course, balletically poised on their foils.
Experts predicted Team UK would make an early exit from the Prada Cup, perpetuating Britains long history of Cup failures.
From the very first match in 1851 when the British schooner Aurora surrendered the 1000 Guineas Cup to the United States challenger America in a race around the Isle of Whyte, the British experience in the Americas Cup has been one of defeat if not calamity.
For more than a century as the only challenger British teams tried and failed to win…