America’s Cup: Great Britain qualify for first time since 1964

Hannah Mills, the most successful female sailor in Olympic history, says her team are aiming to make history at the first female-only America’s Cup.

The two-time world champion is skipper and co-helm of the British challenger Athena Pathway team, with qualifying on 5 October.

Mills set up the Athena Pathway organisation alongside Ainslie and says she wants to help improve the diversity in sailing.

“Ben Ainslie and I started it together to create a mission for more youth and more women in our sport to have the opportunity to get to the America’s Cup – on and off the water,” Mills told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Mills says it is “crazy” that it has taken this long for a female-only event but “hopefully it’s a massive step forward and will become the norm.

Unlike the male event which is typically match racing, the women’s event is largely fleet racing and has four people on board.

Another key difference in the women’s event is that the teams are all using the same boats.

“There’s six teams racing at once in a boat called the AC40, which is 40ft long,” said Mills.

“We go in speeds of up to 50mph. It’s seriously fast.

“They’re very short, intense races – about 15 minutes each – and ultimately we’re trying to finish in the top two to qualify for the final, which is then a match race.”