The British have been trying to win the America's Cup longer than any other nation. After all, it was a race around the Isle of Wight in 1851 that started it all, when the only foreign yacht, America, defeated 14 local boats in their own backyard.
It's embarrassing to compare Britain's track record with more recent entrants to the event. New Zealand first entered in 1987 and came closer than anyone to threatening Dennis Conner's enormous speed advantage aboard Stars & Stripes that year. Indeed if young skipper Chris Dickson had succeeded in beating Conner in the Challenger Series, it's highly likely he would have gone on to beat the Aussie Defender Kookaburra in the America's Cup itself. As it was, the Kiwis only had to wait another eight years before Peter Blake and Russell Coutts took the Cup away from San Diego. Then there is Switzerland. After an abortive first attempt on the Cup in 2000 by the unfortunately named Be Happy campaign, Ernesto Bertarelli launched Alinghi on the 2003 event and won it comfortably.
Great Britain has a 150-year history of underachievement in the Cup, but there is a new man on the scene who believes he can break the spell. And there is good reason to believe him. Sir Keith Mills is one of the most feted businessmen in the UK. He launched the Air Miles concept in 1987 and has since launched other successful loyalty card schemes, and his personal fortune is estimated at somewhere below half a billion dollars. So he's not in the Ellison/ Bertarelli league, but he's doing very nicely thank you. Sir Keith really came to prominence two years ago, however, in leading London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics. He has massive credibility as both a canny businessman and as a manager.
Having bagged the Olympic Games for London, Sir Keith now wants to bring the America's Cup back to its country of origin, hence the name of his newly announced team, Origin. The plan is for Origin to mount a challenge for the next two editions of the Cup. Of course no one know when and where they will take place, although the most likely dates are thought to be 2009 and 2011. Sir Keith has said that he will personally bankroll the team all the way through the next two cycles, to the tune of 30 million Euros a year - a total of 150 million Euros. However his plan is to find sponsorship to defray 50 per cent of the running costs, although that's still a hefty chunk of his personal fortune he's ploughing into this project.
But Sir Keith is passionate about sailing and he believes the timing is perfect. "Thanks to Peter Harrison [owner of the former Cup team GBR Challenge], we've now got 28 British sailors being trained up in Valencia by other syndicates," he quipped at the press launch at the London Boat Show. He has already been actively in talks with the likes of Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy, the potential ‘dream team' of helmsman and tactician, as well as other prominent Brits such as former GBR Challenge skipper Ian Walker. However, while Sir Keith expects British sailors to form a core of the team, he is not going to make the mistake made by so many syndicates which have hampered themselves by placing patriotism before pragmatism. "In our branding there are no Union Jacks, this isn't called British Origin or Team GB," he points out. This is to make the team attractive both to foreign sailing talent and foreign investment.
That said, Britain does boast a phenomenal amount of world-class sailing talent right now - top-scoring nation at the last two Olympics with five medals apiece from Sydney and Athens. Where Britain has lacked in the past is in good management, but if Sir Keith Mills is as good as his reputation suggests, then the chances of the Auld Mug returning to British shores have never looked stronger.
