The snide way of looking at the British challenger for the 2017 America’s Cup would be to examine the identity of those contributing towards the £100m cost of the team’s appearance in this summer’s competition under the quietly charismatic captaincy of the multiple Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie, who launched his boat in Bermuda this week.
Those sponsors include Annabel’s, the Berkeley Square nightclub frequented by generations of louche toffs and posh totty, and Coutts, long known as the Queen’s bankers, where you need a cool million in investable assets (not including property) to open an account and her majesty’s statements are probably still written out by a man in morning dress with a quill pen. The list of those contributing to the campaign also includes an establishment billed as “the last remaining family-owned hotel in Belgravia”, and a “quintessential lifestyle brand” purveying “year-round luxury resort apparel”.
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