Jim Ratcliffe flies to Sardinia as America's Cup legal battle revs up

Jim Ratcliffe flew from Farnborough to Olbia on May 21 in his Gulfstream G650, M-OVIE. The 1h49m hop landed at Costa Smeralda Airport just as Sardinia's sailing season begins with the Range Rover Sardinia Cup, which runs from May 31 to June 7. The island has long been a staging ground for the billionaire's maritime interests — and a legal one.

Ratcliffe arrived the same week the dispute over the £180m America's Cup boat built for the 2024 campaign escalated. Ineos, the company he chairs, issued a statement on March 21 demanding the return of the vessel from Sir Ben Ainslie's Athena Racing, which has rebranded as GB1 and is training in Cagliari for the 38th America's Cup [telegraph.co.uk](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2026/03/21/ratcliffe-legal-action-ben-ainslie-180m-americas-cup-boat/). Ineos has taken legal steps for the boat's return; Ainslie insists the vessel has always belonged to Athena. The preliminary regatta in Cagliari runs May 21–24 — overlapping directly with Ratcliffe's Sardinia visit.

The trip follows a pattern of concentrated travel around Ratcliffe's sporting portfolio. His only other recent flight, on May 11, was a short hop near the Isle of Man. Sardinia connects multiple threads: the America's Cup litigation, the INEOS Britannia sailing program, and the Range Rover Sardinia Cup — a venue where INEOS-branded yachts are a fixture. For Ratcliffe, Olbia is less a holiday than a billet alongside the courtroom dock.