Ben Ainslie looks back at Team Oracle’s incredible turnaround in the 2013 America’s Cup, from episode 68 of the Performance People podcast
Drama, momentum, brilliance, astonishment. A remarkable sporting turnaround distils the full range of qualities only sport can provide, in one perfect storyline.
In the truly great comebacks, there’s even a sense that something bordering on destiny might be at play.
Plenty would pick out Liverpool’s 3-2 win against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final. Others might nominate golf’s Miracle in Medinah when Europe came back from a 10-4 deficit to beat USA on their own turf. Not forgetting the Ben Stokes fightback at Headingley in 2019.
One extraordinary story that deserves serious consideration in any such discussion played out in San Francisco Bay during the 2013 America’s Cup.
Holders Oracle Team USA were 8-1 down and going nowhere against Emirates Team New Zealand, who needed only one more win to lift the Auld Mug.
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Ben Ainslie
INEOS Britannia CEO + Skipper
At this point, the task facing Oracle was herculean. Win eight in a row. No mistakes. Against a team that was confident and cruising.
“No one believed we were going to do it, if we’re being honest not many in our team believed and I certainly had my doubts,” Ben Ainslie tells wife Georgie on the Performance People podcast. Ben’s switch onto the boat as tactician would play a pivotal role in what followed.
A shocking start
By definition, every great comeback story begins with a bashing. In the run up to the Cup, Oracle’s campaign was hit by setback after setback.
Most notably, the team were found guilty of putting bags of lead pellets onto the boat to gain a performance advantage during an America’s Cup warm-up event in 2012.
“No one believed we were going to do it, if we’re being honest not many in our team believed and I certainly had my doubts”
It resulted in three crew members being thrown out and two points deducted, meaning the Americans would start on -2 and would need 11 points to win.
As holders they were already in the final, but were facing down a confident Kiwi team that had beaten Italy’s Luna Rossa 7-1 to earn the right to race for the trophy.
Despite much work behind the scenes, Oracle’s performance was clearly behind the Kiwis, who sprinted into a 4-0 lead.
Oracle CEO Russell Coutts, team owner Larry Ellison and skipper Jimmy Spithill knocked their heads together in an effort to stem the bleeding.
“That realisation that we were on the backfoot and (asking) how are we going to tackle this was one of the most impressive aspects of turning that campaign around,” explains Ben.
Last chance saloon
With morale low and nothing to lose, Oracle decided to throw a Hail Mary pass in an effort to change the narrative. In came Ben, skipper of the reserve boat, as tactician. Perhaps he could limit the damage and win a couple for pride’s sake.
“That’s how I ended up on the boat, just to bring some positivity,” he says. “People’s heads were dropping because the performance wasn’t there. It was a mixture of emotions. Of course you want to contribute but at the same time you don’t want to make a mess of it and make things worse.”
One additional challenge was that Ben had never performed the role he was brought on board to execute. Anywhere.
“People’s heads were dropping because the performance wasn’t there. It was a mixture of emotions.”
“I’d never been a tactician on any boat, let alone an America’s Cup foiling 75 foot multi-hull,” he says. And he had about 16 hours to get ready.
He was replacing the hugely experienced John Kostecki, whose sailing homeland was right here in San Francisco.
“John’s response was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my sporting career,” remembers Ben. “It must have been a really tough moment for him but the way he responded was, ‘what can I do to help?’”
Ben also needed a crash course in how to use Oracle’s hi-tech data systems, which featured a tablet in his life jacket displaying a multitude of information.
Alongside the shore team, the onboard leaders Jimmy Spithill, Ben Ainslie and strategist Tom Slingsby undertook a complete reappraisal of who was going to do what to get more performance from the boat.
“We just naturally seemed to gel,” says Ben. “It was astonishing that it worked. When you looked at it on paper, it shouldn’t have worked.”
It didn’t work straight away. In fact, the Kiwis extended their lead to 7-1. Then 8-1.
Facing another grilling in the daily press conference, Jimmy Spithill delivered a quote which would become part of America’s Cup folklore:
"I think the question is: imagine if these guys lost from here? What an upset that would be. They have almost got it in the bag. That's my motivation. That would be one hell of a story, that would be one hell of a comeback and that's the sort of thing that I'd like to be part of.”
It was a counter-punch landed on Kiwi captain Dean Barker, sitting alongside him.
The momentum swing
In combination with some technical changes in the hangar, the new Oracle leadership team began to streamline their on-boat performance. 8-1 became 8-2, then 8-3.
Sure enough, that irresistible sporting concept - momentum - swang in to action.
Ben recalls how the entire Kiwi team used to wait for Team Oracle on the dock as a show of quiet intimidation, but as Oracle chopped away at the lead, that number began to dwindle.
“It gets talked about a lot but momentum in sport, and really any walk of life, is huge,” he says. “Get things going, get more confidence, get more speed out of the boat, better decision-making and the whole thing just snowballs.”
Incredibly, the impossible was edging towards reality. On September 24th 2013, with their seventh consecutive win, Oracle drew level at 8-8.
It was now winner-takes-all.
“You’re still in that siege mentality,” recalls Ben of the mood that morning. “You’ve done all that work, don’t blow it now.”
There were final dramas to overcome, naturally.
“In the warm-up we bust one of the control arms in the wing sail. Jeff Causey was winched up the mast to superglue it back on,” says Ben.
This with just two minutes to go. Having had no warm-up, they stuffed the start producing a big hit on the water. The team braced themselves expecting damage but somehow the mast held up.
Having recovered quickly, Oracle’s strategy was to closely track their opponents and let their superior speed upwind do the rest.
“That’s how it played out. Then it was about delivering the boat to the finish line,” Ben remembers.
The greatest comeback in 162 years of America’s Cup racing was complete.
“In those moments it’s relief. We were racing for each other and for pride,” he says. “It’s one of the most rewarding moments in sport because of where we were.”
Ben, who’d been trying to build a British America’s Cup team without concrete support, suddenly found the eyes of the sporting world were on him. “The interest was insane,” he remembers. “Suddenly the phone was off the hook.”
In fact, the origins of the INEOS Britannia 2024 America’s Cup team can be traced back to these incredible 19 days in San Francisco.
“I think everybody that was involved with the team looks back with amazement as to how the hell we managed to pull that off,” says Ben. “It was some amazing time.”
ainslie + ainslie NIGHT POWDER is the official supplement supplier to the 2024 INEOS Britannia America’s Cup team
