America's Cup: Sir Ben Ainslie hires former Team New Zealand designer Nick Holroyd

By Cheree Kinnear

NZ Herald·

10 Jan, 2018 06:58 PM2 mins to read

Former Team New Zealand designer Nick Holroyd has been confirmed as chief designer for Land Rover BAR. Photo / Greg Bowker

Britain's America's Cup syndicate have hired former Team New Zealand designer Nick Holroyd.

Ben Ainsile Racing confirmed today the appointment of Holroyd, who was the mastermind behind bringing foiling to the Cup game.

Holroyd spent 18 years at Team New Zealand and was a key man in their 2013 San Francisco campaign after finding a way to lift the 72-foot catamarans out of the water on foils.

The British syndicate 'Land Rover BAR.' Photo / Getty

Holroyd then followed Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker to join Softbank Team Japan for last year's America's Cup before being appointed chief designer for the UK's well-funded campaign.

Land Rover BAR team skipper, Sir Ben Ainsile, said the arrival of Holroyd would "further strengthen their challenge" particularly with the Cup returning to monohulls.

Big signing for the New Year to strengthen our design team. Very pleased to be working with Nick again #Bringthecuphome https://t.co/TnE1WSUxuT
— Ben Ainslie (@AinslieBen) January 10, 2018

"I'm really excited to be working with Nick again. It's fantastic he's agreed to join the team. Adding his skillset and experience to our technical line up has greatly strengthened our challenge to win the 36th America's Cup," Ainslie said on the team's website.

With belief that the 75-foot monohulls would foil faster than the catamarans seen in Bermuda, Holroyd said he looked forward to putting his design expertise to work.

"We look forward to receiving more detail on the AC75 class, which promises plenty of challenges ahead," Holroyd said.

Sir Ben Ainslie said Nick Holroyd's arrival would "further strengthen their challenge" given his expertise. Photo / Getty

The British syndicate also recently appointed Australian Cup veteran Grant Simmer from Oracle Team USA as their gerneral manager and Holroyd said he looked forward to working with him.

"Having previously worked with both Ben and Grant I'm delighted to be joining Land Rover BAR for the 36th America's Cup challenge. I look forward to meeting the rest of the team in Portsmouth and building on their technical strengths," said Holroyd.