“We are obviously bitterly disappointed with the result. This was a no excuses team. The funding, hardware and crew were all in place for one of Great Britain’s best attempts at winning back the Admiral’s Cup.

Clearly the exception to all of this is Adrian Stead and the crew of Barlo Plastics. They have sailed brilliantly and without them our overall performance would have been even more disappointing.

Nautica Arbitrator went into the final race with a half point lead in her class but she unfortunately suffered a significant loss of form when it mattered. One or two reasons appear to have been identified. But Chris Law has commented that the crew worked tirelessly to get back in the race and that as skipper he must take full responsibility.

With respect to the IMS class one could say that, with hindsight, it would have been better to have the new boat earlier so as to allow us to optimise her performance throughout the regatta and this would have helped her inshore performance to match her excellent offshore results.

However, despite all of this we hail Adrian [Stead] and his youthful crew for their top boat result. This only serves to further underline that it is time for Britain to bring forward the next generation of sailors in order to regain our position as one of the top sailing nations in the world.”