Ben Ainslie has accused senior Ineos Sport figures of telling him that Jim Ratcliffe would “burn your house down” unless he handed over the team’s assets and intellectual property, deepening a bitter court fight over the £180m boat built for the most recent America’s Cup.
The allegation surfaced this week in court filings as Ratcliffe pursued his attempt to force Ainslie to give up control of the boat and related rights. The claim puts a raw edge on a dispute that has already spilled far beyond sailing, with ownership of the America’s Cup project now tied up in legal arguments over what belongs to whom and who gets to keep using it.
Ainslie said the conversation with Rob Nevin took place in November 2024, hours before he was due to compete in the first race of the America’s Cup in Barcelona. He said Nevin told him Ineos had a phrase for its approach, “scorched earth”, and added, “It means that if you don’t give Jim what he wants, he will burn your house down.” Ainslie also said Jean-Claude Blanc was part of the exchange. Nevin also reportedly told him that the only time Ratcliffe had backed down in a dispute was one involving the state of the People’s Republic of China.
The court filings add another layer to a breakdown that became public in early 2025. In January, Ainslie said he and colleagues found themselves locked inside their Northampton office by an Ineos employee and two security contractors who had fixed “No Entry” signs to the outside of the building. He said they got out through a fire exit. The episode matters because it suggests the fight was not limited to boardroom claims about the boat, but had already moved into the physical control of the team’s own premises.
Ratcliffe has also been squabbling with other sporting partners, including the Mercedes Formula One team and the New Zealand rugby side he was funding, underlining how much of his sporting empire has been caught in disputes at once. Within the Ineos orbit, there have also been business changes of a different kind: Dave Brailsford is back at Netcompany-Ineos as team principal, while John Allert, who secured the new co-title sponsor before leaving, is now former CEO. For Ainslie, the immediate question is not whether the feud is ugly; it is whether a court decides the £180m boat and the team’s intellectual property can be prised away from him.
