February 6 is a very special date that every member of the Land Rover BAR team have marked on their calendars.

That’s the day when the British challengers will launch the new wing-sailed, foiling America’s Cup Class catamaran they will bid to win the ‘Auld Mug’ in Bermuda’s Great Sound next June.

The team have partnered with British car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover to develop the AC50, which should have a top speed of around 55 miles per hour — speeds once thought unimaginable for a sailboat.

The British challengers, led by skipper and team principal Sir Ben Ainslie, have spent the past several weeks training in their AC45S, which serves as a test platform for the AC50, in the Great Sound.

They have even had the opportunity to line up against their America’s Cup rivals — Oracle Team USA, the defenders, Artemis Racing and SoftBank Team Japan — during the brief time they have been on island.

Ainslie is encouraged by the progress he and his colleagues have made but acknowledges there’s still room for growth as they try to “close the gap” between themselves and the more established America’s Cup teams such as Oracle Team USA.

“As a new team that is going to be our biggest challenge, going up against some of the teams out here we do have some catching up to do,” Ainslie said.

“That’s a motivator for us for the next five or six months. We know we’ve got to really knuckle down to catch up with the likes of Oracle and some of the others that are so well established.

“The existing teams just roll on from one year to the next; they’re already designing next year’s boat while they’re going through a season.

“Look at Artemis and Oracle and Team Japan by their association with Oracle; they’ve all taken all that learning from the last Cup.

“And not just on the technical side, but also how these really complex systems can be engineered to gain performance.

“Yes, we’ve had 2½ years now getting the group together and learning but there’s always an element of catch-up. But we’re confident we can close that gap.

“The intensity has gone up a notch for us as a team now that we’re out on the water and sailing against the other teams. That really does help in getting everyone’s minds focused on the competition ahead.”

Land Rover BAR will face Artemis Racing, the Swedish challengers, in their opening match of the America’s Cup Qualifiers in May.

Ainslie and his colleagues earned two bonus points after winning the America’s Cup World Series, which they will carry into the Qualifiers as competition shifts from fleet racing in the AC45F to the AC50s.

“We wanted to perform well as a new team to show that we could compete at this level, so it’s a big boost across the whole team to have won it,” Ainslie said.

“At the same time we’ve been open about the challenge of being a new team.

“We’ve done some sailing against the opposition and we might be a little bit behind right now, but the expectations?

“We’ve got a great team, we’ve come a long way, and we’re working incredibly hard to win this thing.”