Britain is back in America’s Cup final for the first time in 60 years

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A British yacht is back in the America’s Cup finals for the first time in sixty years, and the island nation steeped in nautical heritage is one step away from ending the longest wait in international sports.

INEOS Britannia finished off Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli on Friday with a regatta win to clinch the challengers' final series 7-4. That earned them a date against defending champion New Zealand.

“One more to go boys!” skipper Ben Ainslie told his sailors, who shouted with joy as they crossed the finish line within sight of the Barcelona beachfront.

Despite holding the most Olympic medals in sailing and having a rich maritime tradition, Britain has never won the biggest prize in the sport — a wait that runs back 173 years.

“It’s a big moment for British sailing, that’s for sure,” said Ainslie, a four-time Olympic gold medalist. “And we are under no illusion about how tough the battle is going to be against New Zealand for the America’s Cup, but it has been a long time (since) we’ve been this far.”

The last time a British boat raced in the America’s Cup final in 1964 the English soccer team was two years away from winning the World Cup and The Beatles were all the rage.

Britannia scored the winning point after a fast and flawless race that it finished 17 seconds ahead of Luna Rossa. Britannia claimed the Louis Vuitton Cup for being the best of five challengers.

The British team now has a week to prepare for Team Emirates New Zealand in their first-to-seven wins series for the America’s Cup starting on Oct. 12.

“It’s a massive day for our team. I can’t say how proud I am over everyone on the water, back on shore and back in the UK,” Ainslie said. "There is a lot of pressure on these organizations, a huge amount of investment and time and money, and so you want to make it count.”

Ainslie and his crew lifted the challengers’ trophy on board after it was delivered on a motorboat by two stewards wearing white gloves who removed it from a Louis Vuitton case. Billionaire backer Jim Ratcliffe, the part owner of Manchester United, then climbed on board to celebrate by spraying champagne.

Britain has been chasing the America's Cup ever since the schooner America won the race’s very first edition back in 1851 when it bested Royal Yacht Squadron in a loop around the Isle of Wight, with Queen Victoria herself in attendance. This is the 23rd time it has challenged for the Auld Mug, more than any other nation.

Now, it is the closest it has come to finally winning the cup in sixty decades.

It will face a New Zealand team that has won the past two editions in 2017 and 2021. As defending champion in this truly winner-takes-all competition, the Kiwis got to choose the rules and the location of the regattas, so in theory they should have an edge that the Brits must overcome.

“Bring on the Kiwis!” Ainslie's co-helmsman Dylan Fletcher said.

The British will have on their side the real racing experience over recent weeks. They have gone from outside threat to the fastest ship of the challenger’s fleet. Before racing started, New Zealand leader Grant Dalton said that he put both Luna Rossa and American Magic a notch above Britannia, but warned that the Brits could pull off a surprise.

That they did, delivering a nearly flawless Louis Vuitton finals series, while Luna Rossa’s chances were hurt by structural problems to their silver-hulled yacht. Britannia, which is aided by a partnership with the Mercedes Formula 1 team, ran off three straight wins after the series was level at 4-4.

“I think the British out-learned the rest of the challengers, from where they started until now, they made the biggest progress,” Luna Rossa helmsman Jimmy Spithill said. “We threw everything at them. … The British are peaking at the right time.”

The British win over the Italians avenged a 7-1 loss to Luna Rossa in the same stage of the 2021 event in Auckland.

The America’s Cup was born some four decades before the modern Olympic Games, and is considered the world's oldest international sports trophy.

Only four nations have ever won the cup. After the 30 titles by American boats, New Zealand has won it three times, Switzerland twice and Australia once.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

INEOS Britannia sailing team competes during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia crew celebrate their victory against the Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli's sailing team during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia, right, and Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli sailing teams compete during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia crew celebrate their victory against the Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli's sailing team during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia crew celebrate their victory against the Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli's sailing team during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia sailing team competes during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia Chairman Jim Ratcliffe, right, and team skipper Ben Ainslie crew celebrate their team victory against the Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli's sailing team during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia's team celebrate their victory against the Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli's sailing team during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli sailing team competes during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli sailing team competes during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

INEOS Britannia, left, and Luna Rosa Prada Pirelli sailing teams compete during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 7 at the Barcelona's coast, Spain, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis told Vatican bureaucrats on Saturday to stop speaking ill of one another, as he once again used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators.

A wheezing and congested sounding Francis, who just turned 88, urged the prelates instead to speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in the Christmas holiday season.

“A church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others,” Francis said. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero.”

“Beware of this,” he added.

By now Francis’ annual address to the priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican Curia has become a lesson in humility -– and humilitation -- as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins in the workplace at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.

In the most biting edition, in 2014, Francis listed the “15 ailments of the Curia,” in which he accused the prelates of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth. He accused them of living “hypocritical” double lives and forgetting — due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s” — that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.

In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil that lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.

This year, Francis revisited a theme he has often warned about: gossiping and speaking ill of people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments such as the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate.

Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even has welcomed criticism of his own work. But he has urged critics to tell it to his face, and not behind his back.

The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more strenuous because of the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis meets with Italian pilgrims participating in the Camino de Santiago, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis tries a skullcap received by faithful during the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)