INeos Britannia had only just crossed the finish line in the ninth and final race of this America’s Cup, 37 seconds and some 300 meters behind Emirates Team New Zealand, when her 47-year-old skipper Sir Ben Ainslie was asked about his plans for the America’s Cup next.

Within hours, the British Royal Yacht Squadron had submitted a challenge, and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron had accepted. This means Ainslie and Britannia will be back for the next qualifying series, although they don’t yet know where or when they will race or who will be on the crew. Ahab will continue to chase his whale for a while.

Ainslie has dedicated most of his professional life to trying to win the America’s Cup for Great Britain. It is, as he says, pretty much the only international sporting trophy that he and everyone else in British sailing wants but hasn’t won yet. And they’ve been trying since the Aurora finished 18 minutes behind America in the very first race 173 years ago. Ainslie, who was first hired as a British Challenge skipper in 2007, pursued this through regattas in Valencia, Bermuda, Auckland and now Barcelona, ​​where the final score in the best-of-13 series was 7-2 to New Zealand . It was as close as ever.

If he wants to get any closer, the first thing Ainslie needs is more money and he seems confident he can persuade another partner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, to sponsor the team next cycle. The second point is time on the water, which can be harder to come by as a challenger.

“It’s no surprise the Kiwis have been around for 30 years,” Ainslie said. “The people in her crew have changed during this time, but her organization is getting stronger. We are chasing them and when I think back to our first campaign in Bermuda in 2017, we have come so far. Every time we do this we get one step closer.

“From start to finish in one of these campaigns you learn so much about strategy, efficiency, developing the design tools and putting together the sailing team. The list goes on and on.”

Ainslie and his team spent three and a half years on the final campaign and ultimately only wanted to spend about a week on the water. The New Zealanders’ boat, Taihoro, was faster in the calm seas that prevailed during the regatta because they had an extra month to configure their yacht while the British competed in the qualifying series. They used the time to test different foils and ultimately settled on a smaller, lighter design that was better suited to the small waves off Barcelona than what the British used.

“It’s the same as Formula 1,” said Ainslie’s co-boss Dylan Fletcher. “If you have a few months of preparation time before the race, it shows in your performance.”

Fletcher was confident Britannia would catch Taihoro as they tinkered with their own setup between match races. “It feels like we’ve taken a steeper path in this America’s Cup,” he said.

“It wouldn’t have taken that long to catch them. You could see that today from the first to the ninth race when they wanted to engage us in a one-on-one duel and we started to catch up.”

Fletcher argued that Ainslie’s skills as a match racer meant that Britannia had an advantage over Taihoro in the pre-starts as the boats battled for the best position before the race. But the truth doesn’t count as much as it should in this form of the sport, where every twist and gybe comes at the push of a button. The New Zealanders were not only a little quicker in the water, but were also able to recognize the first change in wind much better. Which, Fletcher said, would be attributed to luck if it didn’t keep happening.

Ainslie was pretty clear about what the team needed to do next. “They were just a click faster, a click better at maneuvering, a little better at detecting the first shift in the wind from the start line, and they sailed flawlessly,” he said. “So that’s the level we have to aim for.”

Ainslie admitted that at first they “might need a few nights to get over it”. If Fletcher had his way, they would have started right away. “I would like to go sailing now so we can continue to implement these changes and prepare for the next Cup,” said Fletcher. Like so many other people in Ineos’ 150-strong team, he has become addicted to competition. Ainslie’s obsession is contagious. One day it might even be enough.