LAND Rover BAR have launched their America’s Cup race boat in Bermuda.

It is hoped the boat will help Land Rover BAR win the 35th America’s Cup this year and bring the trophy back home to Britain after 166 years.

The menacing, matt black boat represents the combined efforts across three years of the now 120-strong team and their partners. After the launch of four test boats, 85,000 hours of design and build, on the water testing and painstaking construction, the team has seen its efforts crystallised into the boat code-named R1.

Sir Ben’s wife Georgie and baby daughter Bellatrix smashed a bottle of English sparkling Nyetimber wine to christen Land Rover BAR’s America’s Cup Class race boat Rita – the name carried by all 19 of Ben’s previous Olympic and World Championship winning boats.

Land Rover BAR team principal and skipper Sir Ben Ainslie said: “It’s a great moment to see our AC50 Race boat hit the water in Bermuda. The launch represents the sum of all the team’s efforts to bring the America’s Cup home, and we’re delighted to get her in the water here in Bermuda.

“We’re a start-up team, and we had to build not just the boat but the design and engineering team, the facilities and the processes to get to this point today.

“There are just a few short months before the racing starts at the end of May, and we will be working very hard now on the final development and testing of this boat to make sure we are ready for the racing.”