Lymington sailing icon Sir Ben Ainslie has taken the next steps in his quest to bring the America’s Cup trophy to Britain for the first time in its 164 year history.

Ainslie, the most successful Olympic sailor in history, opened up Ben Ainslie Racing’s (BAR) new headquarters in Hampshire ahead of the America’s Cup World Series campaign that starts in Portsmouth next month.

It is all part of a national £80m project to get a British team to win the oldest trophy in world sport for the very first time.

BAR, as well as marking the first day of operation at their new base, also announced that they have partnered up with Jaguar Land Rover and will now be known as Land Rover BAR.

It will mean that engineers from Land Rover will give a helping hand to BAR as they work towards their America's Cup campaign.

“It’s a fantastic day for us, these are very exciting times,” said Ainslie as he opened up the impressive new facility.

“To finally be here with the whole thing in this building and, of course, looking forward to the event coming up at the end of July and the partnership with Land Rover.

“There’s been a huge effort over the last 18 months.”

The World Series event is the preliminary competition for the 35th edition of the America’s Cup, which was first held in 1851 around the Isle of Wight, in Bermuda in 2017.

The series, which includes eight to ten regattas around the world, starts in Hampshire's waters on Thursday, July 23 and ends on Sunday, July 26.

Ainslie launched his BAR team last year, after he became the first Briton in 110 years to be part of an America’s Cup winning team with Oracle Team USA in 2013.

Now he wants to bring the trophy home and has brought on board founding director of Hamble Aerostructures and ex-McLaren Forumula One boss, Martin Whitmarsh, to head up BAR’s campaign.

“The thing I learnt while working with different cup teams is not to just throw people together but those who are highly talented and will get on as a team,” he said.

“So we really took our time to identify the right talent, the right people and grow that up over the last 18 months.

“This is finally where it’s all come together in this amazing building and with the right team.

“Bringing Martin (Whitmarsh) in was probably the biggest decision I’ll make in this campaign.

“We needed to find the right person to come in and run the team from a business standpoint.

“Observing Formula One and working with Martin for about a month now, it’s clear there’s a jump there that the America’s Cup can make.

“It’s now the work over the next 18 months that will define how successful we will be in Bermuda.”

Event chairman Sir Keith Mills, who was deputy chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Games, also spoke to the media at the opening.